World leaders have kickstarted critical climate talks with pledges on deforestation, methane and climate finance, but many caution there is still a “long way to go” before we can call COP26 a success.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he is “cautiously optimistic” at the end of the two-day leaders’ part of the climate talks, after the first big announcements rolled in.
Live updates from COP26
Highlights from the conference so far include:
• The summit’s first major announcement came in the form of more than 100 countries representing 85% of the world’s forests agreeing to end and reverse deforestation by 2030 – with £14bn ($19.2bn) in public and private funding behind it
• Scores of world leaders signed a pledge to slash potent climate heating gas methane by 30% by 2030, a “low hanging fruit” when it comes to slowing warming in the short-term. It could shave 0.1-0.2 degrees off global warming
• Japan committed extra $10bn climate finance over five years, meaning rich countries could hit $100bn a year target one year sooner than expected, US climate envoy John Kerry said, as it “has the ability to leverage” a further $8bn
• Over 40 world leaders back plan to fund clean technology around the world by 2030, the UK government announced
• India finally came forward with a net zero promise – the 2070 target is 20 years later than the key 2050 date but still a big step forward, especially with its commitment to significantly slash emissions by 2030
• Boris Johnson warned the 1.5 degrees target is the difference ‘between life and death’
• Five countries, including Britain and the United States, and a group of global charities promised $1.7bn to support indigenous people’s conservation of forests and strengthen their land rights
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The US president says at least an additional 200,000,000m hectares of forest will be restored under the new plan.
This morning Mr Johnson hailed the declaration on deforestation as the end of the “great chainsaw massacre” of the world’s forests.
Mr Johnson has been keen to see progress on “coal, cash, cars and trees,” as he calls it. Today he said we are beginning to tick three of those boxes.
But there are still difficult negotiations ahead, particularly on climate finance.
Developed nations have not yet hit their target of mobilising $100bn (£73.4bn) a year to developing nations to help them cut their own emissions and adapt to extreme weather and other effects of an already hotter world.
Andrew Norton is director of the International Institute for Environment and Development, which supports the Least Developed Countries group of 46 nations at the annual COP talks.
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‘We’ve had enough talking’
He said the agreements on methane, green energy and deforestation “are all welcome signs of progress but there’s still a long way to go before we can call this COP26 a success”.
“Crucial for the least developed countries is the issue of climate finance,” he said.
“The impacts of climate change aren’t theoretical, they’re real and they’re already affecting the lives and livelihoods of millions of the poorest people who simply can’t afford to adapt to global warming without richer countries reaching much deeper into their pockets and paying for it.”
The UK as host has wanted the aim of COP26 to be “keeping 1.5 degrees alive”.
While these increases in co-operation “have the potential to reduce the emissions gap” we are “still a long way off meeting the 1.5 degree target of the Paris Agreement”, said Antony Froggatt, deputy director of Chatham House’s environment and society programme.
These “important and necessary announcements” must be followed by “adequate funding and careful and transparent monitoring,” he warned.
Professor Piers Forster, who has been presenting the latest UN IPCC climate reports to delegates, said “going after methane is definitely low hanging fruit and one of the best ways to prevent unprecedented rates of warming over the next 20 years”.
He said the pledges were “a great start to COP” that would “make a substantial difference to keeping 1.5 alive” if the rest of the COP negotiations agrees on a framework to deliver it.
“If we get further successes on finance, coal and cars, COP26 could be a real game changer,” Professor Forster said.
Last week a UNEP report warned current climate emission commitments put the planet on track for a 2.2 – 2.7 degree rise this century.
Climate crisis in focus
• Madagascar on the brink of famine caused by climate change, with children most at risk
• Sewage and pollution are choking Brazil’s Amazonian waterways
• Welcome to ‘trash island’ – the Maldives’ festering home of rubbish now crucial to its climate fight
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