Throwback on the COP26

The COP26 was one of the most important conferences of our generation. Here is a little summary of the conference and the steps that have been taken because of it. Time to catch up!

Fossil fuels to be banned

The “coal,” “oil,” “gas,” or even “fossil fuels,” aren’t mentioned once in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, though they are primarily responsible for climate change. In the COP26 calls for a reduction in the use of coal and in the public aid granted by countries to extract and consume these resources. India, China and Saudi Arabia, among the most polluting countries on the planet, have done everything to avoid such measurements. Luckily in vain, although they did manage to attenuate it. “Thousands of billions in subsidies have been spent in the last five or six years. This is the very definition of insanity” said John Kerry, the White House’s special envoy for climate.

Sino-American agreement

The United States and China, the two biggest polluters on the planet, announced that they would work together to “strengthen climate action”. A political declaration rather than a series of concrete measures, but this new leadership displayed on climate by the two carbon giants shows that Washington and Beijing have chosen to agree on this crucial issue despite trade and geopolitical tensions.

Commitment on methane

On the sidelines of the negotiations between delegations, a host of alliances were officially forged at COP26, a formidable sounding board for making announcements. One of the most important, prepared for months by the United States and the European Union, concerns methane, a greenhouse gas that is less well known than CO² but which contributes massively to global warming.
More than a hundred countries have agreed to reduce methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030. Another strong signal, for the first time, there is also a reference to methane in the “Glasgow Pact”.

Climate cooperation

This is a first of its kind: several developed countries, including France and Germany, will mobilize up to 8.5 billion dollars to finance South Africa’s energy transition. The country, 80% of whose electricity production depends on coal, is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050.
This is an ambitious goal that this unprecedented partnership, which includes grants and loans, risk-sharing arrangements and the involvement of the private sector, should enable Cape Town to achieve. This should accelerate the closure of the country’s coal-fired power plants.

Since 2015, Article 6 of the Paris Agreement on the operation of carbon markets had been waiting for its “user manual.” After a failure at COP24 in 2018, then at COP25 in 2019, an agreement was finally reached in Glasgow on the rules of these markets designed to help economic actors reduce CO² emissions.