Faster climate protection
Less coal, more money: an overview of the most important resolutions of the World Climate Conference
Originally, in the agreement of the World Climate Conference, the exit from coal combustion was planned. However, to the annoyance of many countries, the passage was weakened due to the intervention of China and India.
© Patrick Pleul / DPA
There were tears, outbursts of anger and cheers – and now the world climate conference is over after two weeks of tough negotiations. “Here’s a quick summary: Blah, blah, blah,” Greta Thunberg etched from a distance. But others also see progress.
The UN Climate Change Conference in Scotland heralded the world’s farewell to coal burning with a historic decision. For the first time in the history of the world climate summit, there was a consensus among the 200 or so countries. The “Glasgow Climate Pact”, approved on Saturday evening after passionate discussions, also includes the call for “inefficient” subsidies for oil, gas and coal to be abolished. However, the wording was weakened at the last minute under pressure from China and India.
The German Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) still praised the deal. “The fossil fuel age is coming to an end, the energy transition is becoming a model worldwide,” she said. The US climate commissioner John Kerry said that the supposedly perfect should never stand in the way of the good in negotiations. “And this is good.”
World Climate Conference: Politicians celebrate, Thunberg criticizes
The world’s best-known climate activist Greta Thunberg, on the other hand, drew a devastating balance of the summit, also known as COP26. “The COP26 is over. Here’s a quick summary: Blah, blah, blah,” tweeted the Swede. She took to the streets with tens of thousands of demonstrators at halfway through the summit and then left. (Read here why there is criticism of Greta Thunberg’s behavior.)
The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, also expressed his disillusionment. “It’s an important step, but it’s not enough. It’s time to go into emergency mode.”
The mammoth conference with 40,000 registered participants was supposed to end on Friday, but was extended until the late hours of Saturday due to hours of debate.
The most important resolutions of the World Climate Conference at a glance:
- Call to bid farewell to coal
In the plenum, EU Commissioner Frans Timmermans gave free rein to his frustration that the demand for an exit from coal was weakened under pressure from China and India. Instead of a phase-out, pressure from the heavily coal-dependent countries China and India is now only a step-by-step phase-down. This leaves an open question as to whether both states will ever want to forego coal-based electricity altogether.
When several states bitterly complained about the watering down shortly before the final vote, British COP26 President Alok Sharma fought back tears. “I beg your pardon for the way that went,” said the host. He added: “It is also of fundamental importance that we protect this package.” Federal Environment Minister Schulze agreed with him and declared that the decision on coal had “achieved something really world-changing”.
- Commitment to the 1.5 degree target
In the final declaration, the countries jointly committed themselves to the goal of stopping global warming at 1.5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial era. To this end, by the end of 2022 they should refine their hitherto inadequate climate protection plans for this decade. That is three years earlier than previously planned. The declaration also states that global emissions of climate-damaging greenhouse gases must fall by 45 percent this decade if the 1.5 degree limit is to remain attainable.
More financial aid was also promised for poor countries so that they can adapt to the fatal consequences of the climate crisis in many places. Tens of millions of people are already confronted with droughts, heat waves, storms and floods more frequently because global warming is accelerating. Specifically, this financial aid is to be doubled by 2025, from currently around 20 billion to 40 billion US dollars (around 35 billion euros.)
For the first time, the long-standing demand of poor countries to set up a money pot for aid in the event of damage and loss is taken up. This means, for example, destruction or forced resettlement after droughts, storm surges or hurricanes. The states are asked to pay in money for it. However, no concrete sums are given for this. Only “technical support” should be available after damaging events, but not the complete damage should be paid.
Oxfam climate expert Jan Kowalzig called it “bitter that once again the poorer countries of the Global South, which were particularly hard hit by the climate crisis, were marginalized”. Development Minister Gerd Müller (CSU) assesses it in exactly the same way: “From the perspective of the developing countries, the results are absolutely inadequate, too fragmented and too slow,” he told the Funke media group.
- Complete rule book for the Paris Agreement
State Secretary for the Environment Jochen Flasbarth praised the resolutions on the so-called rule book of the Paris Climate Agreement, where points had been open for years. The aim from the beginning was to get rid of the “rubble of the legal negotiations”. “It all worked out,” said Flasbarth. It was regulated, for example, that in future climate protection targets should be presented for five years and reported according to uniform standards. There was also agreement on the question of how emissions reductions can be traded between countries in the future. According to Flasbarth, it has succeeded in eliminating loopholes.
Hours of heated debates had delayed the deliberations on Saturday. Politicians stood close together, gesticulating wildly and discussing. Timmermans finally ensnared the delegates: “I beg you, accept this text.”
After Glasgow, Greenpeace boss Kaiser now sees the planned traffic light coalition in the federal government as obliged to take immediate measures. “So the coal phase-out is imperative by 2030. From today, our tax money may no longer be used for coal, oil and gas.”
The next summit, the COP27, will take place in Egypt in November 2022.