A large number of “green” businessmen flew to the forum in Glasgow with their private jets – over 400 in number
The world could end up like the Roman Empire if a climate agreement is not reached. Boris Johnson told the Republika newspaper before the Glasgow Climate Conference. As host, the British prime minister officially opened it on Monday in the presence of more than 120 heads of state and government, including US President Joe Biden. The big absentees at the forum are Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan justified his refusal by the inability of Britain to take proper care of his security. This showed the huge contradictions between the parties even before the start of the event. Bulgaria is represented by the caretaker Prime Minister Stefan Yanev.
At the opening, Johnson made another comparison – he likened the world leaders to James Bond, trying to neutralize the device that will lead to the end of the world and “human life as we know it.”
Leaders gather in Scotland with one main goal – to consolidate the commitment to limit global warming to 1.5 ° by the middle of the century, while scientists warn that it could reach as high as 2.7 ° in 2100. Decades later the insignificant progress of COP26 is seen as a last resort. Here are the 3 key issues that experts say should be tracked in the negotiations over the next 2 weeks.
The goals
At the Paris Conference in 2015, the countries agreed to keep global warming below 2 ° Celsius, and preferably below 1.5 °, compared to the pre-industrial era. The bad news is that countries have had to submit their national 5-year plans to reduce emissions this year, and countries like India, Brazil and Mexico have not. He does not give any details on the matter
one of the main
pollutants –
The world’s eyes are also on the United States, where Biden’s plans to move utilities faster to renewables have been sabotaged by two Democratic senators.
The market of
carbon
emissions
One of the main tasks of the Paris Agreement was to establish the rules for the carbon market and, in particular, how countries can trade with each other or with private companies. The regulated carbon market exists from the EU to China. And voluntary emissions trading is both optimistic and worrying. The rules must ensure that carbon markets do indeed shrink, while giving developing countries the opportunity to protect their resources. The other thing that needs to become clear in Glasgow is how countries measure and report their emissions reductions.
Funding
The question of funding usually fails even the best of intentions. Developing countries need help to adapt to climate change, and are dissatisfied with the delay in that help. Twice – in 2009 and again in 2015, rich countries promised to start giving 100 billion a year to developing countries by 2020, but this goal has not yet been achieved. It is these countries that have been hit hardest by the effects of global warming – heat waves, hurricanes, floods and fires. As with vaccination, the developing world is fatally lagging behind economic transformation, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. So big promises of private funding are expected at the meeting.
It is also said that during the forum a mechanism will be sought through which
companies with
profit over 40
million dollars to
be obliged
to set aside 10%
from her for
financing
of sustainability
development
The Daily Mail estimated that only the four planes of Joe Biden’s delegation would emit 1,000,000 kg of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. A large number of “green” businessmen flew to the forum with their private jets – over 400 in number. Billionaires such as Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates have been accused of hypocrisy after celebrating the birthday of the founder of Microsoft on his giant yacht off Turkey days before their arrival. The founder of “Amazon” left the celebration by helicopter.
From Kyoto to Paris, the world does nothing for the planet
The first climate conference was organized in Berlin in 1995 and was chaired by then-German Environment Minister Angela Merkel. The first agreement was reached between developed countries to work on climate change. Since then, conferences have been organized every year, with the exception of 2020, when the forum was canceled due to COVID-19.
Three conferences passed until the meeting in Japan in 1997, when the first agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, known as the Kyoto Protocol, was adopted. It did not enter into force until 2005 due to the complexity of the ratification process.
The next big step forward came only 20 years later – in 2015 with the achievement of the Paris Agreement. Meanwhile, the Copenhagen Accords were signed in 2009, with the highly developed countries pledging $ 30 billion to solve the problem, and the Cancun Accords, which pledged to help poor countries cope with the problem. climate change.
However, Kyoto and Paris are still perceived as historic achievements.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, industrialized countries, largely responsible for harmful emissions, were obliged to reduce them. Targets varied from country to country, but on average it was a matter of cutting emissions by 5% by 2012 compared to 1990 levels. However, it turned out that the United States did not want to be part of the protocol because of emerging economies. such as China and India were not required to join. The Kyoto Protocol expired last year with controversial results, as not all signatories achieved the goals they had committed to.
Eighteen years after Kyoto, 196 countries have signed the Paris Agreement, which pledged to keep global warming below 2 ° by 2050, but preferably below 1.5 °, compared to the pre-industrial era. The new agreement involved almost all the big players, including China, India and the United States in the beginning, so it was welcomed with great optimism. Four years after President Obama signed it, however, Donald Trump made the United States the first country to leave, a major blow to the international community’s efforts. The departure was part of his plans to revive the coal and oil industries. In February 2021, after the election of Joe Biden, the United States returned to the agreement. By signing it, each country undertakes to submit a detailed plan every 5 years with the measures it takes to reduce harmful emissions.
However, experts are concerned that despite all these treaties, global warming is not only not stopping, but there is even a risk that temperatures will jump by 2.7 °, which will be fatal for normal life on Earth.
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