Many world leaders and activists have expressed disappointment this weekend with the climate deal that emerged from two weeks of heated negotiations in Glasgow, Scotland.
They warned that countries will have to strengthen their commitments if they want to avert disastrous consequences and help at-risk nations cope with the damage that’s already occurring from climate change.
Key officials in the United States and Europe vowed to work harder to help developing nations shift to cleaner energy sources, after delegates from China and India proposed a last-minute edit that weakened a provision in the text to phase out fossil fuels.
The paragraph initially called for the “phase out” of unabated coal and inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, but the final agreement refers only to a “phase-down”.
European Union (EU) Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement that while some meaningful progress was made on the goals of COP26, more work remains and that the key to determining the impact of the conference will be how the commitments secured in Glasgow are actually implemented.
“1.5 degrees Celsius remains within reach; but the work is far from done,” she said, referring to a long-standing global goal of limiting warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.
As part of the pact agreed upon in Glasgow, countries face pressure to reassess their targets to cut emissions by the end of next year and to provide more aid to nations bearing the brunt of climate change. But these voluntary measures do not put the world on track to limit earth’s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a central goal of the 2015 Paris accord.
“We’re all well aware that, collectively, our climate ambition and action to date have fallen short on the promises made in Paris,” said Alok Sharma, the British minister of state and president of the Glasgow talks, who appeared emotional Saturday after the last-minute change to the fossil fuels provision.
Also, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, in a video after the agreement won approval from nearly 200 nations, said: “Secretary-General said: “The approved texts are a compromise. They reflect the interests, the conditions, the contradictions and the state of political will in the world today.
“They take important steps, but unfortunately the collective political will was not enough to overcome some deep contradictions.
“We must end fossil fuel subsidies, phase out coal, put a price on carbon, protect vulnerable communities from the impacts of climate change and make good on the $100 billion climate finance commitment to support developing countries.
“We did not achieve these goals at this conference, but we have some building blocks for progress.”
The United States, which took on a position of leadership at COP26 after four years of near-absence in the global climate conversation under President Donald Trump, celebrated the Glasgow climate pact but called for more action.
“The text sets out a path to increase the commitments and actions of countries starting next year, outlines new rules of the road for the Paris Agreement that will provide transparency for countries to turn words into actions, and doubles the amount of support that is going to vulnerable countries to enhance their resilience to the crisis,” a statement from the White House read. “But it is not enough.”
“More work remains as we leave Glasgow to get where science tells us we need to be and the United States will continue to push for more progress at home and abroad in this decisive decade for climate action,” the statement continued.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson struck a more upbeat tone in his statement after the conclusion of COP26.
“We asked nations to come together for our planet at COP26, and they have answered that call,” Johnson said. “There is still a huge amount more to do in the coming years. But today’s agreement is a big step forward.”
Many observers were, like many delegates, disappointed with the financial commitments by the developing world. The wealthiest nations had agreed to provide $100 billion a year in funding by 2020, but the actual package of grants, loans and investments fell short. At the conference, the donor nations again promised to provide $100 billion starting in 2023.
Wealthy countries provided $79.5 billion in 2019, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, but Sachs noted that part of that came through loans and private investments that are hard to measure.
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