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COP26: Deepening chasms between reality and expectations
Lamia Mohsin
As the world’s biggest conference on climate change drew to an end last month in Glasgow, we cannot but help look back at what was said and heard. For Bangladesh and all other climate vulnerable countries, COP26 carried a lot of significance, keeping in mind its national and regional interests.
Over the past decades, Bangladesh’s tryst with extreme climatic events have continued to increase in terms of intensity and frequency, proven by the regular experiences of floods, cyclones, storm-surges, and droughts. Moreover, the recently published sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has sent out a clarion call for the world, citing that “tipping points” in the form of consequences of climate change, such as melting ice sheets, rising seas, loss of species, and acidic oceans, will be irreversible. The findings of the report are far from hope-inducing, and are being considered as a stern warning for global leaders who need to take meaningful actions to keep global temperatures from rising well below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Priorities for Bangladesh
For Bangladesh, COP26 was of utmost importance this year. The four key climate agendas advocated by Bangladesh included the following: i) Countries that are playing the biggest role in carbon emissions need to formulate and implement a specific ambitious plan in the form of National Determined Contribution (NDC); ii) To reduce the damage caused by climate change, the developed countries must set up a pledged fund of USD 1 billion annually and allocate half of it for adaptation and mitigation; iii) Developed countries need to extend a helping hand to the most vulnerable countries by providing clean and green technology at affordable prices while considering the development needs of Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) countries; and iv) The issue of financial and materialistic climate induced loss and damage must be addressed, including sharing of global responsibilities for migrants displaced by rising sea levels, rising salinity, river erosion, floods, and droughts.
COP26 shaped a few successful outcomes, but to the dismay of many climate vulnerable nations, the expectations remained unfulfilled for a number of agendas.
Loss and damage
In climate vulnerable countries, intense droughts are wiping out crops, and rising seas are forcing entire villages to relocate. Developing countries, including Bangladesh, brought a strong message to the Glasgow summit: That we are suffering from a problem which we have done very little to cause. They proposed that wealthier countries compensate them for climate change-related “loss and damage”. At the summit, Scotland offered the first contribution for a loss and damage fund—two million pounds—a sign that many thought could pave the way for more nations to join in. Developing nations argued, at the very least, a COP26 agreement to establish a fund, or “facility” in UN jargon, with details to be worked out in the years to come. But during negotiations, the idea ran into a brick wall. Wealthier countries, including the US, didn’t support it. Instead, a final compromise was agreed that discussions, named the “Glasgow dialogue”, will begin between nations about how loss and damage funding might work.
Fossil fuels
World leaders have met 26 times since the 1990s to hash out complex climate agreements. While COP delegates have called for increased use of cleaner energy sources, they’ve shied away from explicitly calling on the world to stop using fossil fuels. Oil-and-coal-producing countries like Saudi Arabia and Australia have historically objected to any mention of phasing them out. This has been one of the biggest failures of this year’s COP26, as the legacy of coal-fired emission continues.
Yet, despite contributing to just 0.47 percent of global emissions, Bangladesh has taken a commendable decision to cancel 10 coal-fired power plant projects worth USD 12 billion of foreign investment. To the utter disappointment of climate vulnerable countries, in the final draft of the Glasgow Pact, the language was tweaked to reference phasing out “unabated” coal power and “inefficient” subsidies. That opened the door for some coal power to remain, if its emissions are captured before reaching the atmosphere.
Climate finance
Twelve years ago, wealthier countries like the US promised to provide USD 100 billion in “climate finance”—funding to help vulnerable nations reduce their emissions with renewable energy, cleaner transportation, and other projects. By 2020, richer nations pledged to provide that amount annually through both government and the private sector, but so far, have fallen short of that goal. In 2019, countries hit about USD 80 billion in climate finance. Much of that funding came in the form of loans, instead of grants, which developing countries say further strains their climate efforts as they struggle to repay them.
This year, the US, Japan, Norway, Sweden and others announced new climate finance pledges, but the USD 100 billion goal is still elusive and likely won’t be met until 2022 or 2023. A UN report estimates that funding for climate adaptation should be five to 10 times greater than what’s being spent now.
The young and bold
At COP26 this year, although most countries pledged to keep the hope of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius alive, aggregately, the pledges will not reduce emissions fast enough to keep the world within the crucial limit by 2100, as agreed during the Paris climate talks. Instead, the world would be on track for 1.8 degrees Celsius of warming, according to an analysis from the International Energy Agency.
Young climate leaders came together in Glasgow with negotiators, officials and ministers from across the world, demanding for them to take urgent action needed to limit global temperature rise. While politicians and leaders chose to deliver rhetorical pledges, they took to the podiums, stages and streets to voice their concerns on how governments must come together to prevent catastrophic impacts of climate change within our lifetimes. Events across COP26 thus focused on harnessing the expertise of young people and putting their views directly to the negotiators and officials working to agree on global action on climate change.
For Bangladesh, the need for capacity building, empowerment and inclusion of youth voices in climate action, knowledge creation and diplomacy are sine qua non. We must invest in the youth of today, so that they can continue the fight for climate justice. The onus is on them, but not to mention, equally on us.
Lamia Mohsin is a junior consultant, Research for Global Center on Adaptation at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Bangladesh.
This year, the US, Japan, Norway, Sweden and others announced new climate finance pledges, but the USD 100 billion goal is still elusive and likely won’t be met until 2022 or 2023.
PHOTO: ANURUP KANTI DAS