We are now seven months on from COP26 in Glasgow where the international community gathered to discuss solutions to limit global warming to 1.5°C. So, what has been achieved since then?
Not much, if the Bonn Climate Change Conference is any indication.
In early June, representatives from around 200 nations met in Bonn, Germany, to discuss the progress made since COP26. Unfortunately, the talks did not end well.
A division between developed and developing countries has deepened further. Developed countries want the developing countries to take on more responsibilities, but the developing countries point to a continued lack of support from richer nations.
The situation is now complicated by an increasingly volatile geopolitical environment.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the energy crisis affecting both developed and developing economies are causing major setbacks to green energy plans as governments prioritise what they consider to be more pressing issues.
COP26 president Alok Sharma recently said that failure by world leaders to deliver on their pledges would be a “monstrous act of self-harm”. One can understand why action to cut emissions has been pushed out of the spotlight by the Ukraine and cost-of-living crises, but Sharma reminded everyone that “climate change is a chronic danger” the world can’t ignore.
Indeed, we don’t have the luxury of choosing which crisis we will address. The world has no choice but to address all of them at the same time.
One of the promises of the Glasgow Climate Pact was that this year, 196 countries would revisit and strengthen their plans for curbing emissions, known as Nationally Determined Contributions. But to date, no large nation has enshrined bolder plans and none of the world’s top emitters have committed to doing so.
The news is worse on other pledges made in Glasgow. COP26 included a plan to reduce the use of coal, which is responsible for 40% of annual CO2 emissions. There are now 34 countries considering new coal plants, compared with 41 at the beginning of last year.
China, the biggest user of coal, has agreed to stop funding all overseas coal-fired power projects completely. However, India – the next largest consumer of coal – announced in April that it was increasing production of coal power and reopening 100 plants.
One crucial issue that will make or break COP27 is financing, starting with the mobilisation of $100bn per year pledged by developed countries to support developing nations in their move away from fossil fuels.
Poorer countries need not only the money but also the technology to prepare and adapt to the worst impacts of climate change. For many countries, financing has been the biggest issue to resolve at COP26.
Pledges in the coming months from rich countries to provide more funding to vulnerable countries would be an important step forward to rebuild the trust that has been lost. That trust is sorely needed to enable countries to assume new commitments and give the confidence to others to follow up on existing ones.
In the run up to COP27, leaders need to rebuild momentum to drive countries to come together in November in Egypt and show again the same spirit we saw in Paris in 2015 and in Glasgow last year – an atmosphere of unity in the fight against climate change.
For that to happen, it is also crucial that investors, the private sector, and civil society get involved and send a powerful message to governments about their responsibilities.
Just like we often hear that the private sector cannot address climate change alone, governments alone will not be able to do that either. Government actions do not happen in a vacuum. Everybody’s participation is needed to accelerate the earnest but insufficient actions we’re already seeing.
If we keep at this pace, we know we will not make it to the 1.5°C goal by the end of the century. We can only hope that everyone will find the will to do what is truly needed at COP27.
