COP26 Climate Conference | 19 Oct 2021
Why in News
The COP 26 United Nations Climate Change Conference will be hosted by the UK from 31st october to 12th November.
- Earlier, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its assessment report on Earth’s climate, highlighting heat waves, droughts, extreme rainfall and sea-level rise in the coming decades.
Key Points
- COP 26 Goals: According to the United Nations Climate Change Framework Convention (UNFCCC), COP26 will work towards four goals:
- Net Zero by 2050:
- To secure Global Net-Zero by Mid-Century and keep 1.5 Degrees within reach.
- Countries are being asked to come forward with ambitious 2030 emissions reductions targets that align with reaching net zero by the middle of the century.
- To deliver on these stretching targets, countries will need to:
- Accelerate the phase-out of coal
- Curtail deforestation
- Speed up the switch to electric vehicles
- Encourage investment in renewables.
- Adapt to Protect Communities and Natural Habitats:
- Countries will work together to ‘protect and restore ecosystems and build defences, warning systems and resilient infrastructure and agriculture to avoid loss of homes, livelihoods and even lives.’
- Mobilise Finance:
- Developed countries must make good on their promise to mobilise at least USD100bn in climate finance per year.
- Work Together to Deliver:
- Another important task at the COP26 is to ‘finalise the Paris Rulebook’.
- Leaders will work together to frame a list of detailed rules that will help fulfil the Paris Agreement.
- Net Zero by 2050:
- Suggestions for India:
- Update its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
- (NDCs detail the various efforts taken by each country to reduce the national emissions)
- Sector by sector plans are needed to bring about development.
- Decarbonisation of the electricity, transport sector and starting to look at carbon per passenger mile is needed.
- Aggressively figure out how to transition the coal sector.
- Update its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
Conference of Parties (COP)
- About:
- The Conference of Parties comes under the UNFCCC which was formed in 1994. The UNFCCC was established to work towards “stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.
- COP is the apex decision-making authority of UNFCCC.
- It laid out a list of responsibilities for the member states which included:
- Formulating measures to mitigate climate change.
- Cooperating in preparing for adaptation to the impact of climate change.
- Promoting education, training and public awareness related to climate change.
- The Conference of Parties comes under the UNFCCC which was formed in 1994. The UNFCCC was established to work towards “stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.
- Meetings:
- COP members have been meeting every year since 1995. The UNFCCC has 198 parties including India, China and the USA.
- Generally it meets in Bonn, the seat of the secretariat, unless a Party offers to host the session.
- COP members have been meeting every year since 1995. The UNFCCC has 198 parties including India, China and the USA.
- Presidency:
- The office of the COP President normally rotates among the five United Nations regional groups which are - Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe and Others.
- The President is usually the environment minister of his or her home country. S/he is elected by acclamation immediately after the opening of a COP session.
COP’s with Significant Outcomes
- 1995: COP1 (Berlin, Germany)
- 1997: COP 3 (Kyoto Protocol)
- It legally binds developed countries to emission reduction targets.
- 2002: COP 8 (New Delhi, India) Delhi Declaration.
- Focuses on the development needs of the poorest countries and the need for technology transfer for mitigating climate change.
- 2007: COP13 (Bali, Indonesia)
- Parties agreed on the Bali Road Map and Bali action plan, which charted the way towards a post-2012 outcome. The Plan has five main categories: shared vision, mitigation, adaptation, technology and financing.
- 2010: COP 16 (Cancun)
- Resulted in the Cancun Agreements, a comprehensive package by governments to assist developing nations in dealing with climate change.
- The Green Climate Fund, the Technology Mechanism and the Cancun Adaptation Framework were established.
- 2011: COP 17 (Durban)
- Governments commit to a new universal climate change agreement by 2015 for the period beyond 2020 (Resulted in the Paris Agreement of 2015).
- 2015: COP21 (Paris)
- To keep global temperature well below 2.0C above pre-industrial times and endeavor them to limit them even more to 1.5C.
- It requires rich nations to maintain USD 100bn a year funding pledge beyond the year 2020.
- 2016: COP22 (Marrakech)
- To move forward on writing the rule book of the Paris Agreement.
- Launched the Marrakech Partnership for Climate Action.
- 2017: COP23, Bonn (Germany)
- Countries continued to negotiate the finer details of how the agreement will work from 2020 onwards.
- First set of negotiations since the US, under the presidency of Donald Trump, announced its intention earlier this year to withdraw from the Paris deal.
- It was the first COP to be hosted by a small-island developing state with Fiji taking up the presidency, even though it was being held in Bonn.
- 2018: COP 24, Katowice (Poland)
- It finalized a “rulebook” to operationalise the 2015 Paris Agreement.
- The rulebook covers climate financing facilities and the actions to be taken as per Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC).
- 2019: COP25, Madrid (Spain)
- It was held in Madrid (Spain).
- There were no concrete plans regarding the growing climatic urgency.