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What it takes to make COP26 a success
The eyes of the globe is on Glasgow, where world leaders have been sending out bold messages over the first two days of COP26. But it will take more than just talk to tackle the climate crisis.
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Finance Minister Sri Mulyani speaks on Nov. 3, 2021 at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland. (Reuters/Yves Herman)
D
ecisions are made by consensus, not by majority. This has been the rule of thumb in the annual United Nations Climate Conference of the Parties (COP) since COP1 in Berlin in 1995. Thus was established the COP adage: nothing is decided until everything is decided.
The COP21 Paris in 2015 was a success in that all parties (states) accepted the Paris Agreement that called for cutting carbon emissions by half by 2030, reaching net zero emissions by 2050 and ensuring that global warming, preferably, should not increase beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The present rise is 1.1 degrees.
COP26 is meeting now in Glasgow from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12. What must be done to make it a success?
One tough key to success is resolving the unfinished business of Article 6 in the Paris Agreement that regulates the implementing mechanisms for the agreement.
COP24 in 2018 in Katowice, Poland, was tasked with drafting this so-called Paris Rulebook. However, the climate negotiators could not agree on how to finalize it. It was still incomplete at COP25 in Madrid. It is now up to Glasgow to finish the rulebook. This year’s climate conference is “our last best hope”, as COP26 President Alok Sharma said in earnest.
The three burning issues concerning Article 6 are: avoiding double counting, carryover of pre-2020 carbon credits and financing climate adaptation, not just mitigation.
Double counting refers to when the emissions reductions used in carbon transfers are counted twice. Say that one country pays another country to build solar panels to discourage it from opening a coal mine. Each country may claim it has reduced emissions and count it toward its climate action, the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). Emissions reductions should not be counted twice.
