Saturday, November 13th, 2021
President fought back tears
These are the resolutions of the World Climate Conference
After all-night meetings, mass protests in the streets and heated discussions right up to the last minute, the Glasgow Climate Pact is finally in place. The decision-making process has some bright spots in store, but it also brings bitter disappointments. Climate activist Thunberg draws a devastating balance.
In the end there was anger and tears of disappointment, but there was also cheering: After two weeks of tough negotiations, the UN Climate Change Conference in Scotland asked the countries of the world for the first time to phase out coal-burning, which is harmful to the climate. The “Glasgow Climate Pact”, approved by around 200 countries on Saturday evening, also calls for the removal of “inefficient” subsidies for oil, gas and coal. However, the wording was weakened at the last minute under pressure from China and India. Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze praised the deal as “historic”.
The world’s most famous climate activist Greta Thunberg, however, drew a devastating balance. “The COP26 is over. Here’s a quick summary: Blah, blah, blah,” tweeted the Swede. The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, also expressed his disillusionment with the outcome. “It’s an important step, but it’s not enough. It’s time to go into emergency mode,” Guterres wrote on Twitter.
The mammoth conference with around 40,000 participants was supposed to end on Friday, but was extended into the late hours of Saturday due to hours of debate. The most important resolutions at a glance:
Call to bid farewell to coal
EU Commissioner Frans Timmermans expressed his great disappointment that the demand for an exit from coal was weakened over the last few meters. Instead of a phase-out, pressure from the heavily coal-dependent countries China and India is now only a step-by-step phase-down. When several states bitterly complained about the watering down shortly before the final vote, British COP26 President Alok Sharma fought back tears. “I beg your pardon for the way that went,” said the host. He added: “It is also of fundamental importance that we protect this package.”
After the last hammer blow, Federal Environment Minister Schulze said that “something really world-changing” had succeeded in Glasgow. She added: “It is now clear worldwide that there will be an exit from coal and that there will be an end to fossil subsidies.” Greenpeace boss Martin Kaiser limited, however, under pressure from the oil, gas and coal industries, the resolutions lacked “clarity and speed”.
Commitment to the 1.5 degree target
In the final declaration, the countries jointly committed themselves to the goal of stopping global warming at 1.5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial era. To this end, they should refine their previously inadequate climate protection plans by the end of 2022. But this remains voluntary, there is no obligation. The declaration states that global emissions of climate-damaging greenhouse gases must fall by 45 percent this decade if the 1.5-degree limit is to remain within reach.
Help for poor countries
More financial aid was also promised for poor countries so that they can adapt to the fatal consequences of the climate crisis in many places. Tens of millions of people are already confronted with more frequent and prolonged droughts and heat waves or with more violent storms and floods. Specifically, this financial aid is to be doubled by 2025, from currently around 20 billion to 40 billion US dollars (around 35 billion euros.)
Help after climate damage
For the first time, the long-standing demand of poor countries to set up a money pot for aid in the event of damage and loss is taken up. This means, for example, destruction or forced resettlement after droughts, storm surges or hurricanes. The states are asked to pay in money for it. However, no concrete sums are given for this. Only “technical support” should be available after damaging events, but not the complete damage should be paid.
Oxfam climate expert Jan Kowalzig called it “bitter that once again the poorer countries of the Global South, which were particularly hard hit by the climate crisis, were marginalized”. Their call for support in coping with the damage and destruction caused by climate change – once the limits of adaptation have been reached – has remained almost unheard again.
Complete rule book for the Paris Agreement
State Secretary for the Environment Jochen Flasbarth praised the resolutions on the so-called rule book of the Paris Climate Agreement, where points had been open for years. The aim from the beginning was to get rid of the “rubble of the legal negotiations”. “It all worked out,” said Flasbarth.
On Saturday hours of heated debates had massively delayed the deliberations. Politicians stood close together, gesticulating wildly and discussing. Timmermans finally ensnared the delegates: “I beg you, accept this text.” The host, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, welcomed the decisions as a big step forward, but pointed out that there was still much work to be done. “I hope we will look back on COP26 in Glasgow as the beginning of the end of climate change.” Greenpeace boss Kaiser sees the planned traffic light coalition in the federal government as obliged to take immediate measures. “So the coal phase-out is imperative by 2030. From today, our tax money may no longer be used for coal, oil and gas.” The next summit, the COP27, will take place in Egypt in November 2022.