Explainer | COP26 Glasgow: handy guide to key climate facts and terms
- UN climate summit, known as COP26 this year, is being held in Glasgow
- It kicks off two weeks of intense negotiations on how to tackle global warming
Will COP26, in other words, more closely resemble the Danish diplomatic debacle of 2009, or the triumph that six years later led to the first climate treaty in which all nations vowed to shrink their carbon footprint and collectively cap Earth’s rising temperature?
Here are some of the terms and key issues that will be discussed at the event, which started Sunday and is scheduled to run to November 13:
COP
The 26th conference was delayed by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic. More than 25,000 delegates are registered for the Glasgow event, which is being chaired by British official Alok Sharma.
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High-level segment
Germany’s Angela Merkel, who presided over the first COP, will make one of her last international trips as chancellor, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also expected to attend in person.
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NDCs
The Paris accord set a target for limiting global warming but left it up to each country to submit its own emissions reduction targets, known as Nationally Determined Contributions.
Part of the plan was for countries to regularly review and, if necessary, update their targets to ensure the Paris goal is met.
Governments were required to submit their new NDCs five years after Paris, but that deadline was quietly pushed back a year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Paris rule book
Countries had hoped to finalise the so-called Paris rule book a few years after the accord was signed, but some elements of the agreement remain unfinished.
They include how countries collect and report their greenhouse gas emissions in a transparent way and how to regulate global carbon markets.
Climate finance
Among the top issues at COP26 is the question of how poor countries will afford the expense of ditching cheap fossil fuels in favour of renewable energy while adapting to the inevitable effects of global warming already “baked into” the atmosphere.
There is a consensus that rich nations, whose greenhouse gas emissions are largely responsible for climate change, have to pay up. The question is how much.
Just transition
Many governments have stressed that finding ‘green’ jobs for millions of people working in the fossil fuel industry is a challenge.
This is true for developing countries as well as for rich nations such as the United States, where coal mines and oilfields are major employers in otherwise economically depressed regions.
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Carbon sinks
Trees, wetlands and oceans are constantly removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Calculating how much CO2 is absorbed and stored by these carbon sinks is a key part of the climate change equation.
Some countries believe they can balance out much of their emissions using their own natural resources; scientists and environmental campaigners are sceptical about the idea.
The Greta factor
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has said she doesn’t want to be the centre of attention and other campaigners from developing countries should be heard too.
But Thunberg, who inspired the Fridays for Future youth rallies, was mobbed like a rock star by fans and journalists Saturday as she arrived in Glasgow by train.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres acknowledged that mass climate protests have put pressure on world leaders to take the issue more seriously,
“Keep pushing for action,” he told a youth conference Saturday.
Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Reuters
