Making COP26 a success “will certainly not be easy,” says Mexican Patricia Espinosa, the UN climate officer, but it is an “absolute necessity” to be able to leave that summit with a “message of hope.”
Just over a month after the start of this crucial climate conference in Glasgow, Espinosa insists that COP26 “must be a success.”
But in the face of the magnitude of the task, he does not hide the difficulties along the way.
“As we have not been able to meet in person so far, we have basically not yet begun to negotiate the documents” to be adopted at the end of the two weeks of talks in Scotland, he explained in an interview with AFP.
There were meetings, exchanges and also an interim discussion session in June, which was entirely virtual and informal, “but negotiations on what needs to be agreed specifically in Glasgow have not formally started”.
Hence the importance of the preparatory meeting of some 50 ministers, for three days this week in Milan, which will give “guidelines” and allow “to accelerate the process” before the November conference, which promises to be “extremely intense” with “only two weeks for a huge schedule, “according to Espinosa.
The list of topics is well known, from increasing greenhouse gas reduction ambitions to increasing financial aid to the most vulnerable countries and improving adaptation to shocks, to finalizing the implementation of the Paris Agreement, in particular the functioning of carbon markets.
– “More optimistic” –
“The complexity of the results of COP26 is that it is not about one, two or three decisions, it is a package,” Espinosa underlines.
“The difficulty is that many of them are interconnected,” he adds, noting that if one is solved, it could help the others.
In particular, if developed countries can “put a good perspective” on their commitment to reach $ 100 billion a year in climate aid to developing countries by 2020, “that could be very helpful, build confidence and allow us to advance on other issues, “said the UN climate officer.
According to the OECD balance published in September, this aid amounted to 79.6 billion dollars in 2019.
US President Joe Biden announced last week that he would “double” US aid to about $ 11 billion a year.
Thanks to this promise and others, especially China’s not to build more coal-fired power plants abroad, “I’m more optimistic,” says Espinosa, hoping for a new “boost” for COP26.
“Of course, it will not be easy. It is never easy with the COP processes,” he admits.
“But I think that at this specific moment it is absolutely necessary to leave the conference with a message of hope, a message of clarity about where we are going and how we are going to move forward,” he says.
“We have many tools to make the transformations” necessary to reduce emissions, but “we don’t have much time, it is a race against time,” insists the Mexican.
According to the UN, to limit warming to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels – the ideal goal of the Paris Agreement – emissions would have to be reduced by an average of 7.6% per year between 2020 and 2030.
“You have to make decisions now, that’s why the Glasgow conference is so important. This decade is decisive,” he warns.
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