In announcing the deal, US President Joe Biden said South Africa would close its coal-fired power plants faster than expected, while supporting “a just and inclusive transition” to renewable energy. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen added that the agreement was a “model for supporting a just transition around the world.” “The agreement is not very detailed in terms of targets and concrete measures, but it is a door that will be opened and an opportunity for both countries to constructively recommit with the climate.” Protesters have just staged an “outcome” of the blue zone #COP26 – they call for more climate justice in the Glasgow agreement being drafted, pic.twitter.com/CYAZSc9PKs countries were still trapped in the negotiations as night fell on the last official day of COP26, with all signs pointing to a long night of drafting a final agreement. Earlier in the day, the parties met for more than three hours to discuss the draft texts of the agreement. While parts of COP26 spent a day discussing the relationship between climate and gender, negotiations on a final agreement were in full swing. Ministers led the discussions to closer differences on key issues that will determine climate policy ambitions for the future. In the financial sector, developing countries have won one demand, but others have not. The agreement requires rich countries to “at least double” adaptation funding (i.e. address current climate change). This is what poor countries need most; currently, it represents only 25% of financial flows. /5 “Double counting of emission reductions goes against logic and would be a futile attempt to deceive the atmosphere. The agreement reached in Glasgow sends a signal that this cannot be tolerated, and voluntary carbon market players have been made aware that companies can no longer use emission reductions under existing climate targets as CO2 offsets. M.

Xie said at the press conference that China and the United States will “jointly strengthen climate action and cooperation on different national realities,” adding that there is “more agreement than divergence” between them. Kerry told reporters that the leaders of both countries hoped the U.S. and China — despite “areas of real difference” — “could work together on the climate crisis.” The statement said the two sides now plan to set up a “working group” on climate action, which “will meet regularly to address the climate crisis and advance the multilateral process.” Xie Zhenhua, China`s climate envoy, and John Kerry, his US counterpart, held back-to-back press conferences on the evening of November 10 to announce the deal. They said the document was the result of more than 30 virtual or face-to-face meetings held between them since February. (According to the New York Times — which quoted “U.S. and Chinese officials” — Kerry and Xie “also had summit discussions almost daily.”) The deal will not put the world on track to avoid catastrophic warming beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). But officials said it was an important step toward a safer future. 1 Art. 2 of the Paris Agreement set the goal of keeping global warming “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and trying to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. 13 One of the most important achievements of this summit is the acceleration of the climate action agenda. Countries are invited to return in a year with more ambitious plans to reduce emissions.

Under the Paris Agreement, countries would generally have to submit new or updated plans every five years. Although a flood of net-zero commitments was announced in the run-up to COP26, in many of these cases, countries did not expect significant emission reductions over the next decade. A week later, on the 12th. In November – the last official day of COP26 – civil society groups and activists staged a walkout of the “blue zone” (the UN-controlled area where negotiations are taking place) following a “popular plenum” organized by the COP26 coalition in which indigenous leaders and activists spoke. After leaving the scene, participants joined activists outside the venue calling for “climate justice” in the text of the final Glasgow agreement. This five-year “global stocktaking” is defined in Article 14 of the 2015 Agreement (see below) and includes an assessment of mitigation, adaptation and “means of implementation and support” such as financing. Under the agreement, which is not legally binding, the coalition of countries, cities, automakers and other organizations said it would “work to ensure that all sales of new cars and vans are emission-free. worldwide by 2040 and at the latest by 2035 in key markets.” This disagreement – which was ultimately a matter of presentation – led to some reports on the negotiations that parties such as China and Saudi Arabia wanted to “thwart” progress towards a climate deal by refusing to accept transparency rules. 20 At the 2018 COP24 conference in Katowice, Poland, countries sought to finalize the rules they would follow to achieve the goals set out in the Paris Agreement.

Cop26 completed the Paris Regulation, which means that by 2024, all countries will have to provide detailed data on their greenhouse gas emissions. Discussions at COP25 in Madrid failed to reach agreement on what the common timetable should be and could not narrow down a long list of 10 options including periods of five years, 10 years, a choice of one or the other or hybrids of both. The countries agreed on the remaining issues of the so-called Paris Regulation, the operational details for the practical implementation of the Paris Agreement. These include carbon market standards, which allow countries struggling to meet their emissions targets to buy emission reductions from other countries that have already exceeded their targets. Negotiations on an enhanced transparency framework were also concluded, providing a common timetable and agreed formats for regular reporting by countries on progress made in order to build confidence that all countries will play their part in global efforts. 18 In 2019, countries agreed to establish a technical assistance program known as the Santiago Network to help countries cope with “loss and damage” – inevitable and irreversible damage caused by climate change. The program was implemented in name only, without staff or funding. In a statement summarizing the Glasgow Conference, Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said the inclusion of language in the agreement that encourages countries to build the Santiago Network is one of the important achievements of the Compact. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the money would help his country meet its new climate target of reducing annual greenhouse gas emissions by nearly a third over the next decade. .