The world looked to Glasgow with bated breath as the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) began this weekend. But the actual kick-off came on Monday when heads of state and government gathered for the World Leaders Summit in Scotland to discuss joint action against climate change.
In his opening speech, British Prime Minister and COP host Boris Johnson spared no pathos as he spoke of Earth’s impending doom, a ticking time bomb, and even drew a connection to the fictional British secret agent James Bond. After all, nothing less is at stake these days than saving the world. Lukas Scheid analyzed the extent to which the heads of state and government present want to participate in this rescue and what conclusions can be drawn from the preceding summit of the G20 states.
Not only global and national policymakers take significant action to combat climate change. Read the joint position of Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans and Mike Bloomberg, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Climate Action, to find out why the local level, and cities, in particular, should also be given greater attention.
Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson found clear words. In his opening speech at the 26th World Climate Change Conference in Glasgow on Monday, the host said the world was on the brink of doom and that a ticking bomb needed to be defused.
Other heads of state and government also called on Monday for a faster pace in the fight against global warming and promised corresponding measures. US President Joe Biden said the US would lead by example concerning its climate program. In her speech, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a global CO2 price. This, she said, would encourage the industry to find the best technical ways to achieve climate neutrality. It was a matter of being “more ambitious nationally, but to find instruments globally that not only use tax money, but are also economically reasonable,” Merkel said. “and for me, that is CO2 pricing.”
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also spoke out in favor of global emissions trading. Effective measures must be taken before the end of this decade, she said. Net-zero emissions by 2050 are good, but not enough.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, meanwhile, warned against a failure of the climate summit. There was “a deficit of credibility and a surplus of confusion over emissions reductions,” Guterres said, stressing the special responsibility of the G20 countries. After all, he said, they were responsible for around 80 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and therefore had to lead the way in efforts to prevent them.
On Sunday, the UN Secretary-General expressed his disappointment with the results of the G20 summit. He left Rome with unfulfilled hopes, he tweeted. At the same time, however, he did not want to bury his hopes. One reason for this could be that after a long struggle India and China – two key players in global climate protection – have committed themselves to greater ambitions in Rome.
China has given in on the 1.5°C goal. The G20 final declaration states that it recognizes that the effects of climate change are much lower at 1.5°C of global warming since the beginning of industrialization than at 2°C. It said keeping 1.5°C within reach will require meaningful and effective actions and commitment by all countries. Previously, Beijing had refused to submit to this target, preferring to orient its climate policy towards the 2°C goal.
India caved on its commitment to greenhouse gas neutrality “by or around mid-century”. The country with the world’s second-largest population has not yet issued a climate protection target (NDC), unlike most other industrialized nations, and is one of the largest coal burners on the planet. With the G20 final declaration, India has now committed to such a target for the first time.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also announced more ambitious climate targets in Glasgow. For example, the country wants to cover half of its electricity requirements with renewable energy by 2030. Modi wants to reduce CO2 emissions by one billion tonnes by then compared to the status quo.
Due to the importance of India and China for the Paris climate goals, this compromise is a signal for further events in Glasgow, says David Ryfisch, Team Leader International Climate Policy at the environment and development organization Germanwatch. Indeed, the wording is still vague without a clear date for greenhouse neutrality. Nevertheless, it is progress that they have committed to this goal at all.
He takes a similarly positive view of the recognition of the devastating climate impact of methane emissions and the G20’s announcement that reducing them is “one of the fastest, most feasible and cost-effective ways to limit climate change and its impacts”. To be sure, this too lacks a clearly articulated target path. But it is at least an acknowledgment of the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s sixth assessment report, says Ryfisch.
In the first part of the report, the importance of methane for global warming was included for the first time in August. Now, two major emitters of methane emissions, Russia and Saudi Arabia, have also committed to reducing them. It’s a compromise that can be built on in Glasgow. The EU and the US hope that at COP26 more countries will join their Global Methane Pledge, which aims to reduce methane emissions worldwide by at least 30 percent by 2030 compared to 2020.
So these are steps in the right direction. Albeit small ones – especially since they so far consist only of words, from which results have yet to follow. But given previous G20 summit declarations on climate protection, this one in Rome was a glimmer of hope.
However, it is disappointing for David Ryfisch that the public financing of fossil fuels has not been given a clearer phase-out date. The final declaration merely states that efforts are to be stepped up to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels “in the medium term”. Ryfisch: “This is an issue that has been on the agenda of the G20 for a very long time – the G7 even longer. But no progress is being made”.
Now he’s hoping for a COP effect. Thursday is the Day of Action for Energy in Glasgow, where the UK’s COP presidency will push countries to make announcements on a decarbonized energy economy. While this is not directly about fossil fuel subsidies, Ryfisch said. But hopes are high that some will announce an end to public financing for coal, gas, and oil. With til and rtr
At this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, much of the attention will be on what national governments can do to cut emissions more quickly and uphold a previous commitment to provide $100 billion annually in climate finance for low- and middle-income countries.
These are critical issues. But there is another group of leaders whose actions are also essential to tackling climate change, and who together are showing what is possible: the world’s mayors. In fact, pledging more support for, and partnerships with, the cities pursuing climate adaptation and mitigation is one of the most important steps that national governments can take at COP26.
As home to a growing majority of the world’s population, cities are responsible for around three-quarters of global energy use and 70% of carbon dioxide emissions. Fortunately, mayors have considerable authority to address the biggest sources of those emissions, not least transportation and building energy use.
Mayors also have powerful incentives to act. Toxic air pollution from burning fossil fuels is often concentrated in cities, causing illness and premature death; and local governments are often the first line of defense against natural disasters. Moreover, interventions like building public transport, creating more parks and green spaces, improving buildings’ energy efficiency, and replacing fossil fuels with clean power can make an immediate and measurable difference in the lives of city inhabitants.
Mayors and city leaders have proven that they are willing and able to lead. Milan, Italy, is converting its entire public transport fleet to electric power. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is enacting a plan to run on 100% renewable energy. Accra, Ghana, is on track to cut emissions by more than 25% this decade, even as its population continues to grow.
Lima, Peru, will plant two million trees by 2022. Seoul, South Korea, is providing low-interest loans for zero-energy buildings. Quezon City, Philippines, responded to the pandemic with an emergency employment program that puts people to work protecting and restoring the environment. And Putrajaya, Malaysia, is switching to solar energy as the default option for all official buildings.
But cities can’t save the planet alone. Now more than ever, they need support. The economic devastation of the pandemic has hit cities particularly hard, decimating municipal budgets. City leaders know that fighting climate change and driving a green economic recovery go hand in hand, because the same measures that reduce CO2 emissions also spur growth, generate jobs, and create conditions that attract new residents and businesses. The more we do to support cities, the faster our progress will be against both the climate crisis and COVID-19.
Since 2017, we have been working together through the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, an alliance that now includes more than 11,000 cities – collectively home to more than one billion people. Each of these cities has made a bold commitment to cut emissions and adapt to climate change, and, through the alliance, they are sharing strategies and solutions. While international climate negotiations are often hindered by conflicts about who should be doing more, cities are working together with a spirit of common purpose and shared destiny. They are collaborating because they understand the benefits of collective action.
For its part, the Global Covenant enables cities to access resources – including technical assistance to identify opportunities and design innovative projects, as well as funding from a wide range of partners – to do more, faster. The alliance also gives cities a way to speak together as one, advocating policies that can help them aim even higher and continue leading the way on climate change.
In recognition of the work, cities have been leading, the Global Covenant has won the second annual Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity. The prize money will go to provide direct support to help acutely vulnerable African cities respond to the climate crisis in ways that also support their economic recoveries from the pandemic. We will share lessons learned through the global network, encouraging cities across Africa and around the world to take similar steps.
National governments have strong reasons to help their cities in this respect. Cities, after all, generate three-quarters of global GDP. They are engines of economic mobility, industry, and technological innovation. Strong and thriving cities make for strong and thriving countries – and smart municipal climate action helps all city residents live better healthier lives.
In cooperation with Project Syndicate.
The world looked to Glasgow with bated breath as the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) began this weekend. But the actual kick-off came on Monday when heads of state and government gathered for the World Leaders Summit in Scotland to discuss joint action against climate change.
In his opening speech, British Prime Minister and COP host Boris Johnson spared no pathos as he spoke of Earth’s impending doom, a ticking time bomb, and even drew a connection to the fictional British secret agent James Bond. After all, nothing less is at stake these days than saving the world. Lukas Scheid analyzed the extent to which the heads of state and government present want to participate in this rescue and what conclusions can be drawn from the preceding summit of the G20 states.
Not only global and national policymakers take significant action to combat climate change. Read the joint position of Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans and Mike Bloomberg, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Climate Action, to find out why the local level, and cities, in particular, should also be given greater attention.
Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson found clear words. In his opening speech at the 26th World Climate Change Conference in Glasgow on Monday, the host said the world was on the brink of doom and that a ticking bomb needed to be defused.
Other heads of state and government also called on Monday for a faster pace in the fight against global warming and promised corresponding measures. US President Joe Biden said the US would lead by example concerning its climate program. In her speech, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a global CO2 price. This, she said, would encourage the industry to find the best technical ways to achieve climate neutrality. It was a matter of being “more ambitious nationally, but to find instruments globally that not only use tax money, but are also economically reasonable,” Merkel said. “and for me, that is CO2 pricing.”
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also spoke out in favor of global emissions trading. Effective measures must be taken before the end of this decade, she said. Net-zero emissions by 2050 are good, but not enough.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, meanwhile, warned against a failure of the climate summit. There was “a deficit of credibility and a surplus of confusion over emissions reductions,” Guterres said, stressing the special responsibility of the G20 countries. After all, he said, they were responsible for around 80 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and therefore had to lead the way in efforts to prevent them.
On Sunday, the UN Secretary-General expressed his disappointment with the results of the G20 summit. He left Rome with unfulfilled hopes, he tweeted. At the same time, however, he did not want to bury his hopes. One reason for this could be that after a long struggle India and China – two key players in global climate protection – have committed themselves to greater ambitions in Rome.
China has given in on the 1.5°C goal. The G20 final declaration states that it recognizes that the effects of climate change are much lower at 1.5°C of global warming since the beginning of industrialization than at 2°C. It said keeping 1.5°C within reach will require meaningful and effective actions and commitment by all countries. Previously, Beijing had refused to submit to this target, preferring to orient its climate policy towards the 2°C goal.
India caved on its commitment to greenhouse gas neutrality “by or around mid-century”. The country with the world’s second-largest population has not yet issued a climate protection target (NDC), unlike most other industrialized nations, and is one of the largest coal burners on the planet. With the G20 final declaration, India has now committed to such a target for the first time.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also announced more ambitious climate targets in Glasgow. For example, the country wants to cover half of its electricity requirements with renewable energy by 2030. Modi wants to reduce CO2 emissions by one billion tonnes by then compared to the status quo.
Due to the importance of India and China for the Paris climate goals, this compromise is a signal for further events in Glasgow, says David Ryfisch, Team Leader International Climate Policy at the environment and development organization Germanwatch. Indeed, the wording is still vague without a clear date for greenhouse neutrality. Nevertheless, it is progress that they have committed to this goal at all.
He takes a similarly positive view of the recognition of the devastating climate impact of methane emissions and the G20’s announcement that reducing them is “one of the fastest, most feasible and cost-effective ways to limit climate change and its impacts”. To be sure, this too lacks a clearly articulated target path. But it is at least an acknowledgment of the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s sixth assessment report, says Ryfisch.
In the first part of the report, the importance of methane for global warming was included for the first time in August. Now, two major emitters of methane emissions, Russia and Saudi Arabia, have also committed to reducing them. It’s a compromise that can be built on in Glasgow. The EU and the US hope that at COP26 more countries will join their Global Methane Pledge, which aims to reduce methane emissions worldwide by at least 30 percent by 2030 compared to 2020.
So these are steps in the right direction. Albeit small ones – especially since they so far consist only of words, from which results have yet to follow. But given previous G20 summit declarations on climate protection, this one in Rome was a glimmer of hope.
However, it is disappointing for David Ryfisch that the public financing of fossil fuels has not been given a clearer phase-out date. The final declaration merely states that efforts are to be stepped up to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels “in the medium term”. Ryfisch: “This is an issue that has been on the agenda of the G20 for a very long time – the G7 even longer. But no progress is being made”.
Now he’s hoping for a COP effect. Thursday is the Day of Action for Energy in Glasgow, where the UK’s COP presidency will push countries to make announcements on a decarbonized energy economy. While this is not directly about fossil fuel subsidies, Ryfisch said. But hopes are high that some will announce an end to public financing for coal, gas, and oil. With til and rtr
At this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, much of the attention will be on what national governments can do to cut emissions more quickly and uphold a previous commitment to provide $100 billion annually in climate finance for low- and middle-income countries.
These are critical issues. But there is another group of leaders whose actions are also essential to tackling climate change, and who together are showing what is possible: the world’s mayors. In fact, pledging more support for, and partnerships with, the cities pursuing climate adaptation and mitigation is one of the most important steps that national governments can take at COP26.
As home to a growing majority of the world’s population, cities are responsible for around three-quarters of global energy use and 70% of carbon dioxide emissions. Fortunately, mayors have considerable authority to address the biggest sources of those emissions, not least transportation and building energy use.
Mayors also have powerful incentives to act. Toxic air pollution from burning fossil fuels is often concentrated in cities, causing illness and premature death; and local governments are often the first line of defense against natural disasters. Moreover, interventions like building public transport, creating more parks and green spaces, improving buildings’ energy efficiency, and replacing fossil fuels with clean power can make an immediate and measurable difference in the lives of city inhabitants.
Mayors and city leaders have proven that they are willing and able to lead. Milan, Italy, is converting its entire public transport fleet to electric power. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is enacting a plan to run on 100% renewable energy. Accra, Ghana, is on track to cut emissions by more than 25% this decade, even as its population continues to grow.
Lima, Peru, will plant two million trees by 2022. Seoul, South Korea, is providing low-interest loans for zero-energy buildings. Quezon City, Philippines, responded to the pandemic with an emergency employment program that puts people to work protecting and restoring the environment. And Putrajaya, Malaysia, is switching to solar energy as the default option for all official buildings.
But cities can’t save the planet alone. Now more than ever, they need support. The economic devastation of the pandemic has hit cities particularly hard, decimating municipal budgets. City leaders know that fighting climate change and driving a green economic recovery go hand in hand, because the same measures that reduce CO2 emissions also spur growth, generate jobs, and create conditions that attract new residents and businesses. The more we do to support cities, the faster our progress will be against both the climate crisis and COVID-19.
Since 2017, we have been working together through the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, an alliance that now includes more than 11,000 cities – collectively home to more than one billion people. Each of these cities has made a bold commitment to cut emissions and adapt to climate change, and, through the alliance, they are sharing strategies and solutions. While international climate negotiations are often hindered by conflicts about who should be doing more, cities are working together with a spirit of common purpose and shared destiny. They are collaborating because they understand the benefits of collective action.
For its part, the Global Covenant enables cities to access resources – including technical assistance to identify opportunities and design innovative projects, as well as funding from a wide range of partners – to do more, faster. The alliance also gives cities a way to speak together as one, advocating policies that can help them aim even higher and continue leading the way on climate change.
In recognition of the work, cities have been leading, the Global Covenant has won the second annual Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity. The prize money will go to provide direct support to help acutely vulnerable African cities respond to the climate crisis in ways that also support their economic recoveries from the pandemic. We will share lessons learned through the global network, encouraging cities across Africa and around the world to take similar steps.
National governments have strong reasons to help their cities in this respect. Cities, after all, generate three-quarters of global GDP. They are engines of economic mobility, industry, and technological innovation. Strong and thriving cities make for strong and thriving countries – and smart municipal climate action helps all city residents live better healthier lives.
In cooperation with Project Syndicate.
