The final scheduled day of the COP26 climate talks has begun, with the summit’s president warning that “a monumental challenge lies ahead.”
The talks are scheduled to conclude on Friday at 6:00 p.m., but they may run longer if negotiators are under pressure to resolve issues about finance for poorer countries, calls for accelerating the phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies and coal, and efforts by countries to reduce emissions in the 2020s.
What is the COP26 conference? Where and when will it occur?
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meets annually at the Conference of the Parties (abbreviated as COP) to discuss the world’s climate change progress and how to combat the issue.
COP26 is the twenty-sixth United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, which will be held in Glasgow from October 31 to November 12.
The summit is open to the leaders of the 197 nations that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – a treaty that entered into force in 1994.
The following world leaders will be in attendance at COP26:
US Vice-President Joe Biden, climate envoy John Kerry, climate advisor and former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy, and ten other US cabinet officials participated in the meeting.
Scott Morrison is the prime minister of Australia. In the days preceding COP26, Mr. Morrison committed Australia to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by the year 2050.
Also present are Prince Charles, Prince William, the Duchess of Cornwall, and the Duchess of Cambridge. Doctors have advised the Queen to rest, so she will address the conference virtually instead of attending in person.
Presidents Xi Jinping of China, Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil are among those who have decided not to travel to Glasgow.
As the negotiations entered the home stretch, COP26 president Alok Sharma cautioned, “We still face a monumental challenge, but we have no choice but to rise to the occasion and strain every muscle to achieve a timely result that we can all be proud of.
Because this outcome, whatever it is, will ultimately belong to all of us.
A new version of the comprehensive agreement that could be reached at the Glasgow summit was expected to be published on the United Nations website at 7 a.m. on Friday, but it had not yet been posted.
The first draught of the “cover decision” urges countries to “revisit and strengthen” targets for reducing emissions by 2030 in their national plans, to align them by the end of 2022 with the Paris objective of keeping temperature rises “well below 2C” or to 1.5C, above which climate change will have the most severe effects.
Scientists have warned that to limit temperature increases to 1.5C, global emissions must be reduced by 45 percent by 2030 and to zero by mid-century.
The failure of developed nations to provide the long-promised $100 billion (£75 billion) in aid to poorer nations has been a major stumbling block in the negotiations thus far.
The document published on Wednesday includes a call for developed nations to at least double their collective provision of financing to assist developing nations in adapting to climate change, as part of an effort to increase funding for poorer nations to combat the crisis and address loss and damage.
Concerns have been raised by some of the most vulnerable nations regarding the lack of specificity.
It is believed that the commitment to phase out fossil fuels, which appears for the first time in such a document, will not make it into the final document, as an alliance of developing nations and emerging economies want commitments to phasing them out removed from the cover agreement, arguing that requiring them to decarbonize without financial support will trap them in poverty.
Thursday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres emphasized that, based on current plans, the world is still on track for temperature increases well over 2 degrees Celsius.
“Promises ring hollow when the fossil fuels industry continues to receive trillions of dollars in subsidies, as measured by the IMF when countries continue to build coal plants, and when carbon remains unpriced, distorting markets and investors’ decisions,” he said.
Mr. Guterres continued, “The announcements made in Glasgow are encouraging but insufficient.”
“The emissions gap remains a catastrophic threat, whereas the finance and adaptation gaps are a glaring injustice for the developing world.”
