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The Glasgow Climate Pact: What was agreed at COP26?

Published: 30 November 2021

The UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, brought world leaders together to reach agreements on how to tackle climate change. The main topics on the agenda were mitigation, adaptation, finance, collaboration and how to keep the warming under 1.5 degrees in accordance with the Paris agreement. After two weeks of negotiations, new commitments and promises were made.

The UN Climate Change conference is behind us, but ahead lay the commitments and the work that has been agreed upon by the world leaders. Although not legally binding, the Glasgow Climate Pact sets the global agenda on how to tackle climate change in the future. But the question is, what was agreed and is it enough?

The Glasgow Climate Pact’s key agreements

Reducing emissions

If we are to keep temperatures from rising past 1.5 degrees, which was the main commitment in the Paris agreement, and to prevent climate catastrophe, significant reduction must be made.

One promise made was to cut methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030. Another promis was for countries to meet next year to pledge further cuts of carbon dioxid emissions. However, China has not fully committed to 30 percent methane reduction by 2030.

Phasing out fossil fuels and phasing down coal

There were also promises to end fossil fuel subsidies and phase out coal entirely. However, the clause on coal was changed to “phase-down” coal on the insistence of India and China.

Financing clean technology

Present at the negotiations were financial organisations, who agreed to finance the phasing down of fossil fuel-burning industries by backing clean technology and renewable energy. Banks, insurers, and pension funds have signed up to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees by turning away from investments in coal, oil, and gas. Politicians and financers hope that this will incentivise private companies to meet the net zero targets.

Ending deforestation

Representatives from more than hundred countries have pledged to stop deforestation by 2030. This is of huge importance since forests absorb a lot of CO2 and are therefore essential in tackling climate change.

Moving forward with the commitments

The commitments made at COP26 seem like promising actions to tackle climate change, but they are self-policed and not legally binding. However, there are countries making their commitments legally binding. So, it remains to see if these promising commitments will be met.

52 climate weeks a year at SLU

Although COP26 has ended, the work to combat climate change has not. SLU is dedicated to mitigation of -and adaptation to climate change through research and several projects.  Read more about SLU’s work with climate change here.