In Shanghai, China, a man fumes at the river near a coal-fired power plant in Huangpu on October 14, 2021. LONDON, Oct. 18 Reuters - Representatives from almost 200 countries will meet in Glasgow on 31 Oct - Nov. 12 for climate talks to strengthen action to tackle global warming under the Paris Climate Agreement 2015.
In large part due to extreme weather events around the world and the United Nations Climate Report warning that global warming was soon spiraling out of control, the actions of governments at this conference will determine whether it is a success or not. What are some important issues that need to be solved:
Six years later in Paris, countries agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to stop global warming to 2 degrees Celsius and ideally 1.5 C. To achieve this, emissions need to be cut in half by 2030 and net-zero by around mid-century
As the U.N. conference was postponed last year due to coronavirus pandemic, this year is the deadline for countries to make steeper emissions cut pledges called National determined contributions or NDCs A U.N. analysis of new or revised NDCs submitted by the end of July found that by 2030, those 113 countries would jointly lower their emissions by 12% from 2010 levels.
However, the corresponding NDCs of all 191 parties at the Paris Agreement combined increase corresponding to a 16% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 compared to 2010, it said.
Around 120 countries have so far submitted revised NDCs, but there is a lack of consistency with no shared timeframe for realising pledges. There are also a variety of approaches in the NDCs, making comparability difficult.
Negotiators also need to agree on common timeframes for future emissions cuts.
Major emitters China, India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey - together responsible for around a third of global greenhouse gas emissions - have not yet come forward with stronger NDCs and need to do so at this conference known as COP 26.
As far back as 2009, developed countries agreed to raise $100 billion by 2020 a year to help developing countries deal with impacts of climate change.
However, the most recent data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD show that in 2019 developed nations were raising $79.6 billion for vulnerable countries, 2% increase from $78.3 billion in 2018.
As rich nations are not meeting the goal of $100 billion a year, it can break down trust at the climate talks, experts say. And a new finance goal needs to be worked out from 2025 onwards.
Governments agreed to address the impact of climate change on poor countries, but there is no detail about liability or compensation, a bone of contention for many developing countries.
A platform to enable technical assistance for developing countries was created in 2019 but vulnerable nations want a more robust mechanism to include financing.
The UK COP 26 president, Alok Sharma, has said he wants this conference to be the one where coal power is consigned to history. The U.N. has called on phasing out coal by 2030 in OECD countries but environment ministers from the Group of 20 big economies have failed to agree a timeline.
Progress on it broke down in the last talks in 2019.
The article calls for robust accounting to avoid double counting of emissions reductions. It also aims to develop a U.N. international trading platform to account for carbon credits from emissions reductions generated by Low Carbon projects in 2021.