We saw impassioned speeches at the opening of the World Leaders Summit as COP26 began. Most memorable for me was UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres pulling no punches as he said we need to stop “treating nature as a toilet”.
There was also Sir David Attenborough’s statement of “desperate hope” to save our planet, telling us all “in my lifetime, I have witnessed a terrible decline, in yours, you could, and should witness a wonderful recovery” and a sobering reminder from Mia Mottley, prime minister of Barbados, that delegates must not “leave Scotland without the resolve and the ambition that is sorely needed to save lives and to save our planet” .
In short, our people and our planet are out of time, we must pull every brake we can on this climate emergency.
Week one highlights
We witnessed some big announcements during the conference’s first week. Here are a few that stood out for me:
Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land Use
More than 100 countries, representing 85% of the world’s forests, committing to end deforestation by 2030.
Sounds familiar – a similar pledge was made in New York in 2014 – but it renews political pressure and there’s some credible new mechanisms for mobilising public and private finance behind it.
That said, the day after it was announced, Indonesia quickly clarified that they’re only signed up to keep forest cover steady by 2030, meaning they might still allow deforestation if the trees are replaced.
Global Methane Pledge
A 30% reduction in methane emissions by 2030 commits more than 100 countries to action on an issue elevated for attention by the IPCC’s latest report in August.
Analysts think this pledge could mitigate 0.2 degrees of global warming – a big help if we want to stand any chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees.
Launch of the Glasgow Breakthroughs
These accelerate the rollout of clean and affordable technology by ploughing in investment to bring the costs of tech down, faster.
The Breakthroughs target key sectors for the global low-carbon transition: power, road transport, steel, hydrogen, agriculture.
They are an overarching umbrella bringing together more than 40 countries to provide both finance and technical support, plus commit to discussing global progress annually.
It’ll be made real through programmes like the Green Grids Initiative, which aims to connect windy coasts and sunny deserts to cities where power demand is highest, helping boost the proportion of electricity generation that comes from renewables.
Private finance joins the ‘party’
The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero confirmed that its members now represent $130 trillion assets committed to align with a net zero by 2050 pathway.
The figures are unfathomable, but the point is that private finance has arrived at the climate change party and they mean some serious business.
The end of coal?
More than 40 countries and organisations including banks have committed to phase out coal fired power generation and stop public financing of overseas coal generation plants.
Partnerships like the Just Energy Transition between UK, EU, US and South Africa aim to mobilize both $8.5bn of finance and the practical steps needed to shift economies away from coal in a way that keeps energy affordable for all and leaves no one behind.
We’ve learnt much from the phase out of coal that’s already underway in other countries so it’s great to see that knowledge – and finance – is being applied in one of the world’s most coal-intensive economies.
Getting our house in order
And at home in the UK? A new commitment to bring in regulations for UK firms to publish net-zero aligned climate plans. A welcome move that means the days of cheap talk and no action on planning on implementation are numbered.
See Ovo’s latest Plan Zero progress report for our climate action plan to reduce carbon emissions in line with science – as always, more work to do, but we’ve made a start.
COP26 has solidified a movement in public opinion that was already underway – people care about the future of our planet. The ‘green’ credentials of a business have never been so important, and regulations like this will support consumers to trust what they’re hearing from the companies they choose to buy from.
And finally, let’s not forget all the action out on the fringe. We’ve seen debates, art, marches – including impactful conversations at The Extreme Hangout powered by Ovo – people from all walks of life raising their voices to let world leaders know, loud and clear, that now is the time for urgent action.
Every tenth of a degree counts
During the second week, the focus has moved on to the ‘decision’ text – the official agreement that nations sign up to as a result of talks at COP26. The devil is very much deep in the detail here.
Former US President Barack Obama opened proceedings with a timely reminder to negotiators that progress will be hard won through partial victories, saying “if we work hard enough for long enough, those partial victories add up. If we push hard enough, stay focused enough and are smart about it, those victories accelerate and they build momentum.”
I can’t help but think some of the optimism from week one has started to fade, with Climate Action Tracker’s latest analysis of official country commitments to reduce emission adding up to only 2.4 degrees of warming – a long stretch away from the optimistic 1.8 degrees estimated by the IEA in week one that took into account various international voluntary pledges being announced.
Still, it’s an improvement on the 2.7 degrees we started out with at Glasgow, but not enough to avoid the most dangerous and severe impacts of climate change. With the Earth edging ever closer to tipping points, every tenth of a degree counts.
Ensuring momentum continues
So are we on track to see COP26 remembered as a success? My gut sense is broadly, yes.
We’ve seen big pledges that could help keep a scenario of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees alive, if delivered and if we continue to see “ratcheting up” of ambition as we move throughout the coming decade.
Finance for creating the transition to a low carbon future has been a sore point historically, but at COP26 finance players have demonstrated that they’re teed up for serious action, albeit still leaving a gap in the $100bn climate finance promised in 2009. Despite some pushback from commentators, I believe that’s a seriously good sign. And COP26 president Alok Sharma has reportedly kept up the pressure to keep negotiations on track to finish on time.
As we near the end of the summit, we must all take responsibility to ensure that momentum continues.
In the energy retail industry, there’s plenty of work to be done to translate policy ambition into tangible action on the ground through innovation, and developing more attractive and affordable carbon-cutting products and services that can capture consumers’ desire to make a genuine difference to fighting the climate crisis.
So, all in all, there’s still reason to cling on to Sir David Attenborough’s “desperate hope”.