A more ambitious text, but still considered insufficient. This is the gist of the preliminary version of the final declaration of COP26 which was made public on Tuesday evening.
The stakes are high since the British presidency of COP26 made the objective of limiting global warming to 1.5 ° C one of the main markers of the conference’s success.
The text also emphasizes that “the impacts of climate change will be much less with a warming of 1.5 ° C, compared to 2 ° C”. But the commitments made to date at COP26 still put the world on a path of 2.7 degrees warming by the end of the century.
Countries are invited to “review and strengthen” from 2022 the national contributions (NDC) which set their short-term commitments in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees by 2100.
This draft has elicited mixed reactions. It will also be necessary to see what will be kept in a possible final declaration which must in principle be adopted by consensus. And the COP26 ends on Friday.
The document calls for “rapid, sharp and sustained reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions, including reductions in CO emissions.”2 45% in 2030 compared to the 2010 level and carbon neutrality around the middle of the century ”.
It should be noted that the text also encourages countries to “accelerate the phase-out of coal and financing for fossil fuels”, which are responsible for most of the emissions.
Such an explicit mention of fossil fuels is unprecedented, and in particular does not appear in the Paris Agreement. But it promises to be bitterly contested until the conclusion of the final text.
On another burning issue, the text “notes with regret” the failure of developed countries to keep their promise to mobilize from 2020 some 100 billion annual climate financial aid to poor countries, often the least polluting, but the most. exposed to the ravages of climate change.
However, he does not advance a clear solution to meet this objective, which the rich countries now ensure they can meet from 2023, according to a new “delivery plan”.
But he calls on donors to double funding for measures to “adapt” to the effects of climate change, which currently represent only about a quarter of that aid, compared to 75% for emission reductions. Poor countries claim at least parity between the two components.
Mixed reactions
The first reactions were mixed, like the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), which represents more than a billion people from 54 countries, and estimated that the text “does not meet the main demands of vulnerable countries”. And to call for an “emergency pact” comprising real measures to contain the warming and “guarantee the delivery of the promised funding”.
The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) called the text “the basis for progress [qui] must be reinforced […] in particular to meet the needs of the most vulnerable ”, including a specific“ loss and damage ”envelope.
For Jennifer Morgan, director of Greenpeace International, “this is not a plan to resolve the climate crisis, but an agreement to cross your fingers in the hope that it will be okay. A polite request to countries to if possible, perhaps, do more next year. It’s not enough “.
For Mohamed Addow, director of the Power Shift Africa study center, “there is a lot about accelerating emission reductions, but very little about the main demands of poor countries”.
The WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) welcomed the call to revise reduction plans and the mention made of fossil fuels, but stressed that this text should “be a floor, not a ceiling” with points to improve.
With Agence France-Presse