Glasgow Climate Pact

Glasgow Climate Pact

Subject: Environment

Context: The annual climate change summit came to an end on Saturday night with the adoption of a weaker-than-expected agreement called the Glasgow Climate Pact.

Content:

• The Glasgow meeting was the 26th session of the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP26. These meetings are held every year to construct a global response to climate change.
• Earlier, these meetings have also delivered two treaty-like international agreements, the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, expired last year and the Paris Agreement in 2015, which form the global architecture for actions to be taken to tackle climate change.
• The main task for COP26 was to finalise the rules and procedures for implementation of the Paris Agreement. The effort was to push for an agreement that could put the world on a 5 degree Celsius pathway, instead of the 2 degree Celsius trajectory which is the main objective of the Paris Agreement.

Actions empazised by Glasgow

• The countries have to strengthen their 2030 climate action plans, or NDCs (nationally-determined contributions), by next year
• Established a work programme to urgently scale-up mitigation ambition and implementation
• Decided to convene an annual meeting of ministers to raise ambition of 2030 climate actions
• It Called for an annual synthesis report on what countries were doing
• Requested the UN Secretary General to convene a meeting of world leaders in 2023 to scale-up ambition of climate action
• To make efforts to reduce usage of coal as a source of fuel, and abolish “inefficient” subsidies on fossil fuels

Mitigation:

• Expressed “deep regrets” over the failure of the developed countries to deliver on their $100 billion promise. It has asked them to arrange this money urgently and in every year till 2025
• Initiated discussions on setting the new target for climate finance, beyond $100 billion for the post-2025 period
• Asked the developed countries to provide transparent information about the money they plan to provide.
• Asked countries to strengthen their 2030 climate action plans, or NDCs (nationally-determined contributions), by next year
• Established a work programme to urgently scale-up mitigation ambition and implementation
• Decided to convene an annual meeting of ministers to raise ambition of 2030 climate actions
• Called for an annual synthesis report on what countries were doing
• Requested the UN Secretary General to convene a meeting of world leaders in 2023 to scale-up ambition of climate action
• Asked countries to make efforts to reduce usage of coal as a source of fuel, and abolish “inefficient” subsidies on fossil fuels
• Has called for a phase-down of coal, and phase-out of fossil fuels. This is the first time that coal has been explicitly mentioned in any COP decision. It also led to big fracas at the end, with a group of countries led by India and China forcing an amendment to the word “phase-out” in relation to coal changed to “phase-down”.

Adaptation:

• The developed countries to at least double the money being provided for adaptation by 2025 from the 2019 levels. In 2019, about $15 billion was made available for adaptation that was less than 20 per cent of the total climate finance flows. Developing countries have been demanding that at least half of all climate finance should be directed towards adaptation efforts.
• Created a two-year work programme to define a global goal on adaptation. The Paris Agreement has a global goal on mitigation — reduce greenhouse gas emissions deep enough to keep the temperature rise within 2 degree Celsius of pre-industrial times.

Finance:

• Every climate action has financial implications. It is now estimated that trillions of dollars are required every year to fund all the actions necessary to achieve the climate targets
• Developed countries are under an obligation, due to their historical responsibility in emitting greenhouse gases, to provide finance and technology to the developing nations to help them deal with climate change. The 2020 deadline for the $100 billion promise of the developed nations have now said that they will arrange this amount by 2023.
• There is no institutional mechanism to compensate these nations for the losses, or provide them help in the form of relief and rehabilitation. The loss and damage provision in the Paris Agreement seeks to address that.
• In 2009, developed countries had promised to mobilise at least $100 billion every year from 2020. This promise was reaffirmed during the Paris Agreement, which also asked the developed countries to scale up this amount from 2025. The 2020 deadline has long passed but the $100 billion promise has not been fulfilled. The developed nations have now said that they will arrange this amount by 2023.

Loss and Damage:

• The frequency of climate disasters has been rising rapidly, and many of these cause largescale devastation. The worst affected are the poor and small countries, and the island states.
• There is no institutional mechanism to compensate these nations for the losses, or provide them help in the form of relief and rehabilitation.
• The loss and damage provision in the Paris Agreement seeks to address that.

Carbon Markets:

• Carbon markets facilitate the trading of emission reductions. Such a market allows countries, or industries, to earn carbon credits for the emission reductions they make in excess of their targets.
• These carbon credits can be traded to the highest bidder in exchange of money. The buyers of carbon credits can show the emission reductions as their own and use them to meet their reduction targets.
• Carbon markets are considered a very important and effective instrument to reduce overall emissions.