COP26 measures disappoint Samo climate advocates

Sydney Roker, Staff Writer

From United States President Joe Biden to youth climate activist Greta Thunberg and United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the world’s political leaders and activists flocked to the United Nations climate summit that took place in Nov. of 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland. This 26th Conference of Parties meeting, or COP26, set out to accomplish one main goal: furthering the promises made at COP21 in Paris six years ago. At COP21, an agreement was made that countries would make changes in order to limit the warming of the global climate to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius since preindustrial times. The progress made in the past six years has been less than encouraging, but COP26 is an attempt to reach agreements among countries that will collectively cause them to cut their greenhouse emissions to keep the earth from heating up more than 1.5 degrees celsius. 

With greenhouse gas emissions rising, scientists and UN officials warn of the detrimental effects that are to come, including sea level rise and extreme weather changes, if action is not taken soon to limit the increase of the global climate to no more than 1.5 degrees. In 2021, emissions have reached historic levels, and according to former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, the luxury of failure is no longer an option. 

On Nov. 13, the Glasgow Climate Pact, which is the final agreement of the climate summit, was released. Diplomats from almost 200 countries agreed that efforts to fight climate change need to be more aggressive, and governments were asked to return to the next climate summit with concrete plans on how they would cut back on their global emissions. In an attempt to protect the nations that are more susceptible to climate change, wealthy nations were also asked to double their amount of financial aid by 2025. Additionally, the agreement asked countries to “phase down” their coal use and limit their subsidies to fossil-fuel industries. 

This agreement displeased many climate activists and world leaders, who expressed their frustration with the less ambitious nature of the agreement than they hoped for. Many of the frustrations come from the fact that although many agreements include promises, no enforcement mechanisms will ensure that countries will fulfill these promises. Moreover, many compromises were made at COP26, including a change in the wording of the final agreement from pledging to “phase down” instead of “phasing out” coal use, which was seen by critics as an insufficient target. Jeffery Sachs, an economist and climate expert at Columbia University, called COP26 a failure. David King, chair of the independent Climate Crisis Advisory, said that delegates of COP26 showed no real understanding of how extreme the climate crisis actually is. 

“To get us on a zero carbon emission status, we are going to have to do a lot more than what COP26 has come to. I would never dismiss the significance of a starting place, it’s just that I am worried personally about accountability and the pace at which we pursue what has been pledged,” AP Environmental Science Teacher Benjamin Kay said.

Santa Monica has been trying to do its part in following through with the agreements made at past climates summits, including COP26, by setting an interim goal of 80 percent reduction of emissions below 1990 levels by 2030. It has also created a Climate Action and Adoption Plan, which has the goal of reducing carbon emissions and helping Santa Monica become a climate resilient city. Santa Monica’s Climate Action and Adaptation plan outline the ways in which the city plans on cutting down fossil fuel use, specifically in the four main areas that Santa Monica emits the most fossil fuels (vehicle transportation, building energy use, landfill waste and aviation fuel).

Although COP26’s Glasgow Climate Pact disappointed many with its lack of specificity and enforcement mechanisms, others have chosen to view the pact as a way to provide citizens with hope for a more sustainable future.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivers a speech during the 2021 COP26.

UNFCC.int / Contributor

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