LEADERS FACE TOUGH TALKS ON CARBON PRICING AND COAL
▶ Delegates from 196 countries to renew climate debate in Glasgow
World leaders were set to enter a political minefield when Cop26 opened yesterday, with the future of the planet hinging on whether 196 countries can agree to take decisive action on climate change.
Officials will hold discussions on issues such as shutting coalfired power stations, imposing taxes related to carbon emissions and raising funds for poor countries.
The UK, as host of the talks, has big ambitions, but Prime Minister Boris Johnson told a group of schoolchildren last week that it was “touch and go” whether an agreement would be reached.
Preparations have been clouded by the Covid-19 pandemic. Cop26 President Alok Sharma said in a letter to delegates that “these extraordinary times will require extraordinary levels of solidarity and co-operation”.
In August, a UN report predicted that the world would face catastrophe if global warming was not slowed down.
Mr Sharma said the warning created a “strong sense of urgency” at the talks in Glasgow.
But consensus has not yet been found on issues such as phasing out coal and financing the transition to green energy, said Emmanuel Bonne, diplomatic adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron.
“Each of these subjects is open and under discussion, in a context which – I won’t hide it – is difficult,” said Mr Bonne.
Steering the world away from coal is central to the UK’s Cop26 ambitions. While it is considered the dirtiest fossil fuel, it generates more than a third of the world’s electricity.
Mr Sharma has described Cop26 as the moment “coal power should be consigned to history”. But to his frustration, G20 countries have failed to agree on a timetable for phasing it out.
Talks in July ended with India, the second-largest consumer of coal, dissenting on the G20’s call to cut emissions.
India has said it does not plan to set a target for reaching net zero emissions.
Japan and Australia, meanwhile, say high-efficiency coalfired plants should be considered clean enough to qualify for green funding.
The ideal outcome to talks at Cop26 would be an agreement to end coal subsidies, a promise to stop building coal-fired plants and setting a 2040 deadline for ending its use, the Powering Past Coal Alliance campaign group said.
Mr Sharma has urged China, the largest coal consumer, to stop funding coal-fired power stations abroad, but it may continue to build plants at home.
The UK plans to phase out coal power by 2024, while Germany intends to do so by 2038. The US hopes to establish a clean electricity grid by 2035.
Another issue to be discussed in Glasgow is that developing countries need money to tackle climate change. Many are particularly vulnerable to disasters such as floods and droughts.
In 2009, rich nations promised to commit $100 billion a year to help developing countries tackle climate change.
But the funding is not expected to be delivered until 2023, two years before the agreement expires.
“We must call on world leaders to keep their $100bn annual pledge for climate action in solidarity with people most affected by the climate crisis,” said Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN envoy on youth.
A group of smaller European nations including Belgium and Sweden also urged the world’s biggest economies to be “aware of the responsibility they bear”.
In addition to leaving developing nations short of climate funding, a failure to reach the $100bn target could erode trust between countries.
Mr Johnson said it was up to countries that have “historically produced so much of the world’s carbon” to reach the $100bn goal.
Mr Sharma hopes to use Cop26 talks to start work on agreeing to a new target.
Under pressure from activists, the US has promised to double its climate finance contribution to $11.4bn by 2024. The EU regards its current contribution of $25bn as sufficient.
The summit is the deadline for countries to set out how they will cut emissions by 2030.
China submitted its climate plan days before the summit began, while Turkey has not yet submitted a proposal.
“We are nowhere near where science says we should be,” said UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa.
“Overshooting the temperature goals will lead to a destabilised world and endless suffering.”
Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries promised to strive to limit temperature increases to no more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
Mr Sharma said many diplomats called for climate plans to be bolstered at Cop26 to help achieve that aim.
Delegates also need to agree on timetables for emissions cuts and Mr Sharma said he was “confident a political resolution is possible”.
Establishing the rules for international carbon pricing is a piece of unfinished business left over from the Paris deal.
Carbon pricing works by creating financial incentives for companies and countries to lower their emissions.
One way of doing this is for polluters to buy and sell carbon credits – a permit that allows them to produce a certain amount of carbon emissions.
But for this to happen across borders, countries would need to agree on rules. No deal was reached at the Cop25 talks in 2019 and officials have been bogged down by details such as the validity of carbon credits acquired under old UN rules.
Developing countries want to protect their investment in past initiatives, but some officials fear the market will be flooded with credits that reflect past accomplishments.
“The world is expecting these issues to be resolved in Glasgow,” Mr Sharma said.
Another problem is determining how countries measure and report their emissions reductions and how transparent they are with each other.