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THE ALLEYNIAN 710
Alexander Pisa (Year 9) reflects on the impact of the global summits held in 2021
Last year two global summits were held by the United Nations: the UN General Assembly in New York in September and, just over a month later, the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow. These summits were viewed by many as forums that would help determine the future of the planet. It was hoped that they would mark a turning point for climate change. Disappointingly though, the 76th UN General Assembly saw an underwhelming response to climate change. Most global leaders touched little on the subject. Boris Johnson used his time on the podium to make his now infamous ‘Kermit the frog’ speech, which he used as an advertisement for COP26 in the UK, and Joe Biden focused mainly on Covid, Afghanistan, and cyberwarfare – all very pressing issues in the US at the time. China contributed by far the most to the climate change discussions, vowing to stop investment in foreign coal power plants and pressuring South Korea and Japan to make similar pledges. However, it should be noted that China has used coal power plant projects as leverage in diplomatic talks in the past, often cancelling their construction plans as part of the deal, even if they had no intention to build the projects in the first place. Regardless, the announcement by the Chinese is still welcomed by many and the pressure on other countries to do the same could result in significant development towards more green investments. The main summit last year, however, in terms of climate change was COP26. The conference, which had been postponed a year, promised to identify and solve climate change’s most impactful effects and causes. Nearly 200 countries attended, and everything from methane emissions to deforestation was discussed. As global leaders arrived in Glasgow from around the world, the pressure to strike an effective climate treaty built, and within the first few days the first major deal was put forward: a pledge to stop deforestation by 2030. This deal has since been signed by over 100 countries, which together control over 85 per cent of the world’s forest land. Similar initiatives attempting the same thing have been unsuccessful so far, and exactly how deforestation will be policed is unclear.
It remains to be seen how better funding could change things. A methane emissions agreement, promising to curb emissions by 30 per cent by 2030, was also signed in the first few days. However, some of the world’s biggest methane emitters, including China, India and Russia, did not sign the deal, instead opting to introduce national plans that they claim will be more specific and effective. After all the success at the beginning of the summit, talks at Glasgow stagnated, and many were beginning to fear that no major climate deal would be signed. Public mood quickly shifted on 10 November though, when the US and China announced they would be working together to tackle climate change independently. This announcement seemed to be the catalyst for a major climate deal, and within a day, a complete climate treaty was ready. On 12 November, as nations were about to sign the climate deal, last-minute negotiations with India changed the wording from ‘phase out coal’ to ‘phase down coal’, significantly affecting the reach and impact of the agreement. The public opposition to this was fierce, though the superpowers at the conference – the US and China – made no significant opposition, and Boris Johnson, desperate for any deal at that point, accepted it. The original target of the Paris Agreement – to limit global temperature increase to 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial times – remains but, with the significantly decreased effect of the COP26 agreement, countries will have to make individual commitments if this target is ever to be met. Experts believe this is unlikely, instead making ‘optimistic predictions’ of a global increase of 1.8°C. The watering down of the climate agreement at the last minute, and the absence of China, India and Russia from any methane agreement, has led many to believe that the summit was a failure. This belief was repeated by Alok Sharma, a member of Parliament and the president of the COP26 summit, who was ‘deeply sorry’ over the result of the summit, holding back tears in his closing speech. This kind of failure was expected: Joe Biden’s declining political authority and China’s significant power shortages made any deal that could threaten energy security unlikely. Instead, commitments from individual countries will be required to avoid a temperature increase of 1.5°C, and as per usual, nothing has significantly changed.
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