THE ROLE OF THE COP26 SUMMIT IN CLIMATE CHANGE

THE ROLE OF THE COP26 SUMMIT IN CLIMATE CHANGE

Habiba Aliyeva

The Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Department of Political Sciences,

Azerbaijan, Baku

ABSTRACT

We have to understand that due to climate change forest and bush fires become more frequent and widespread, melting ice places like Siberia has also caused greenhouse gases, animals have trouble finding drinking water and sustaining their lives. Scientists say that at least 550 species would become extinct this century, if no action was taken. There is a fine line between life and climate change. People living in poorer countries will be worst affected by this change as they do not have the resources to rearrange their lives in response to climate change. However, even if every government does everything it promises, the world will still face a catastrophic temperature rise of around 2 degrees. Therefore, summits like COP26 are a once-in-a-generation chance to regulate our economies and ensure a greener and more prosperous future.

Keywords: Climate change, environment, mankind, Paris Agreement, COP26 summit.

Introduction

As we all know, the world has been going through extremely hot weather conditions since the 1800s. Human beings use many dangerous substances that harm the atmosphere and emit carbon dioxide into the air. All these actions are causing melting of ice, rising sea levels, floods and droughts around the world. We cannot completely change this situation, but in recent years, many countries and organizations have come together to reduce the impact of climate change on the world. One of the steps taken in this area was the organizing of the Conference of the Parties this year to discuss climate change. Governments wanted to assess the changes that have been made since the Paris Climate Agreement. Countries would look at the recent past and discuss what steps should be taken in order to reduce the impact of climate change.

Causes and consequences of climate change

Ecological effects of climate change have been known around the world. In order to target conservation strategies effectively, countries and organizations need comprehensive information related to climate change effects on environment, as well as, making an assessment and a future prediction. Climate change vulnerability assessments for individual species are common tools that offer a number of important advantages to assess whole system. Influence of climate change on ecosystem is likely to be driven by interactions of multiple processes to landscape. In addition to regional temperature increases and precipitation changes, urbanization contaminant release, local and regional hydrologic change may include this process [10, p.3]. In many situations, the current state of ecosystem tenderness and the adoptable volume of climate change cause high levels of vagueness.

According to the scientist, if no one takes an action, climate change will have substantial effects on the all humanity. As a result of increasing average global temperatures, sea level is rising, glaciers are melting, the amount of precipitation and humidity changes. All of them have a considerable impact on animals, wildfire and also human health.

Countries around the world are seeking a better understanding of how drought affects human communities that depend on the earth for their agricultural, industrial and recreational needs. Especially, west coast of the US, Australia, the poorest countries in Africa suffer from drought and concerned about protecting endangered species [14, p.12]. Drought monitoring and drought assessment are critical steps that should be taken mitigate drought effects and risks. Firstly, an attempt should be made to understand whether the water supply needs to be reused and, if so, to minimize exposure to environmental pollutants in reuse water. Also countries should determine that there are enough reservoirs and dam operations to fulfill future needs when faced with any droughts. Alongside droughts, the number of storms and floods is increasing, hurricanes and typhoons boost in power and become more common.

The US is one of the Arctic nations that responsible for devastated and dramatic environmental, social and economic changing in a polar region. Nevertheless, warming and cooling process have taken place over millennia in this region, the recent warming scales are far apart from the previous ones [12, p.1]. Rapid coastal erosion threatens villages and infrastructure, make significant effects on cultural resources, increased greenhouse-gas emissions in the air and many other results like them. Along the Antarctic Peninsula, penguin populations are dwindling as coastal glaciers no longer overwinter in many places. As for, they need sea ice to access their feeding ground. Long-term scientific research is required to determine the environmental health effects of a changing in a polar zone. The most recent study estimates there are currently about 23,000 polar bears worldwide. But without actions on climate change, we could see dramatic declines in polar bear numbers by mid-century [17, p.2].

We all aware of zoonotic diseases which are transmissible between animals and humans like a Coronavirus or a Lyme virus [5, p.1]. They also have detrimental effects of global warming on the health of people and animals. Some animals and plants have already affected by climate change. Various studies in Europe show that some migratory birds have arrived earlier than records in response to climate change, changing their migration routes, and significant declines have been reported recently. Defining the effects of climate change on societies and ecosystem are likely to be highly inflexed, especially for marine ecosystem. Since 1980s coral reefs in the Western Atlantic have suffered massive declines due to disease [5, p.2]. It was the result of higher sea-surface temperatures and rising carbon dioxide levels that increase acidification of the oceans.

It is undeniable that, forests are the most significant solution to addressing the effects of climate change. They regulate ecosystem, protect environment, essential part in the carbon cycle and encourage livelihoods. But the latest miserable and sorrowful events have shown that governments remain ignorant to climate change. Approximately 2.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide, one-third of the CO2 released from burning fossil fuels, is absorbed by forests every year [8, p.1].

Those prompt changes are the motive of climate change. Like other environmental problems they also require collaboration of countries.

Governments associate to tackle climate change - COP26 summit

On the purpose of solving problem of climate change countries come together. One of these actions was taken place early November in Glasgow. It calls annual Conference of the Parties. This conference was kind of the world’s last best chance to get climate change under control. This year would be held 26th summit, therefor it was entitled COP26. UN invites nearly every country this summit for restrain consequences of climate change. Actually, it had to be organized last year but due to pandemic situation conference was postponed. COP president Alok Sharma said, “Pandemic has brought devastation to millions around the world. But now countries are starting to recover from the Coronavirus pandemic and we must use this opportunity to fight against climate change [16, p.3].” It is important sign, all huge political powers joined together getting carbon emissions down.

As we remember at COP21 every country no matter how big or small has signed Paris Agreement, for the sake of cutting carbon emissions down. In order to reach the target, at the 2015 summit countries agreed that, global emissions must be reduced by 45% by 2030 and to nearly zero by 2050. They aimed to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees, even aimed to reach 1.5 degrees [6, p.1]. It sounds a little bit ridiculous for those who do not know anything about climate change. Each fraction of degree plays a major and even appalling role in our current state. And they also decided that after five years they would come back with an updated plan. But they could not even come close to limiting global warming to 2 degrees. In spite of agreement’s insufficiency there still was a hope that progress could be made.

If the temperature increase cannot be limited to 1.5 degrees by the end of the century, some of the consequences will be:

• UK and Europe will face increased flooding due to heavy rains
• There will be extreme heat waves in Middle Eastern countries and agricultural areas will become desert
• Island countries in the Pacific region may be completely submerged by rising sea levels
• The risk of drought and food shortages will increase in many African countries
• While the possibility of drought will increase in the west of the USA, severe storms will rise in other parts of the USA
• Australia will likely experience more extreme heat and drought [2].

Since then we have seen that in most cases governments failed. This summit brought together Heads of states and ministers from over 200 countries, industry leaders and representatives. Consequently, after this difficult year countries take this summit as a huge chance to get the process on the right track. Even though this process demands various costs and time.

Another mission of this conference is phasing out coal power and cutting off opening and financing any new coal power stations around the world. It was the first agreement in history that aims to reduce the use of coal. Scientists say that to avoid the worst damage from global warming, countries must keep most fossil fuels in the ground, including 90% of coal reserves. But reducing those emissions are not productive enough. It is a big policy for most countries stopping use coal power. For example, some poor countries use coal as a main fuel. That is why, mostly those countries suffer from climate change and have already been seeing its impacts. Developed countries promised to raise at least $100 billion each year to support developing countries. But these “developed” countries financed only $78.9 billion in 2018 [16, p.7].

In 2012 40% electricity of UK came from coal but now this figure is less than 2%. That numbers show that change is possible. UK was the first country to target to reduce carbon emission by 78% by 2035 [16, p.7]. Besides that, we can see these results in the US, Italy, and France as well.

They also talked about pathway to zero emission. For now, they only want to hold 1.5 degrees’ temperature. But in the future they will enhance using vehicles which equipped only zero emission. UK will stop selling of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 [15, p.4]. Following this major plan companies and investors swiftly create clean and new technologies also new job opportunities will be established for the people.

COP26 needs to be decisive. Whether future generations look back at this time with admiration or despair, this all depend completely on our ability.

Countries response to climate change and summit decisions

Countries have different views about climate change. They reacted to these decisions in ways that were beneficial for them. For instance, India’s Climate Minister Bhupender Yadav said, “How can developing countries which dealing with poverty be expected to make promises to phase out coal and fossil fuel subsidies [9].” In India, the government is trying to lift millions of people out of poverty and hence the need for more energy for lighting, cooking and starting small businesses. Also, India is a highly urbanized society, so there is a lot of energy demand for buildings, transportation and industry. Coal’s 70% share of India’s electricity generation has already peaked and will decline significantly in the future as more solar, wind and hydro power plants become operational. But economists and energy experts say India and other low-income countries need the help of rich nations to accelerate this transition [13].

Lars Koch, policy director for the ActionAid charity said, “It was disappointed that only coal was mentioned in the deal. These resolutions provide an opportunity for rich countries that have polluted the environment for centuries to produce gasoline and gas.” On the other hand, Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister of the UK said, “The agreement is a big step forward. For the first time, we have an international agreement to reduce coal use and a roadmap to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. In the future, I hope to look back at COP26 as the beginning of the end.”

The G20 which is made up of the richest countries of the world, makes 75 percent of global carbon emissions. But last year, there were significant decreases in these emissions as a result of the contraction of many economies and the closure of workplaces due to Covid-19 [1]. But this year, as the economies started to revive, the use of fossil fuels, especially coal, increased again. Politically, it is considered a very important advance that the majority in the G20 group agrees that the zero carbon emission target should be reduced by half of the century. All members of the group had agreed to prepare and bring to the table their carbon emission targets for 2030 before the Glasgow Conference began. But so far China, India, Australia, and Saudi Arabia have not submitted their plans yet. These cases illustrate the contradiction between what these countries have said and done.

Despite such a dire situation, we see that some countries still do not take the climate issue seriously. In an interview with West Australia Newspaper, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, “He had not made a final decision about attending the summit.” And also added, “I have to focus on the developments here and the Covid pandemic. There will be many issues to manage and I have to handle these conflicting demands”. Morrison said he wished Australia could achieve zero emissions “as soon as possible”, but did not lay out any plans to achieve that goal. Despite saying this, he also added, “He will continue to import coal mining and dirty fuels as long as there is demand from Asia [4].” The country faced massive fires in the summer of 2019-2020 with dire effects and consequences. At that time, Morrison’s ignorance of the fires received a great reaction because he was in Hawaii for vacation while fires were peaking.

Over the past few decades China has experienced unprecedented economic growth and now has the second largest economy in the world. Although this “economic miracle” has lifted millions of people out of poverty, the health impact of environmental degradation and pollution has increased. It is a major concern for the Chinese people and government today [7].

And also it is the fact that climate in Russia is warming 2.5 times faster than the world average. Government had sent a big delegation to Glasgow but President Vladimir Putin attended online and only appeared on the video screen.

Also Brazil’s contribution to climate change is more international due to its immense rainforests. Despite this, the fact that President Jair Bolsonaro did not attend COP26 and it caused mixed reactions.

Iran is among the top 10 countries is emitting greenhouse gases and suffering greatly from the effects of global warming. The country has seen one of the worst droughts in decades this year, causing severe water shortages and power outages. A member of Iran’s COP26 delegation said, “If the sanctions were lifted, there will be no obstacle for us to reduce our emissions.”

For a long time, the world’s largest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, had resisted calls from Western countries to set a definite target to reduce carbon emissions. Then last month, the prince Mohammed bin Salman announced that the country had set a goal of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2060. But even the Saudis try to achieve this goal, they are increasing their oil production capacity to meet global demand [3].

As a result of the COP26 summit, countries unanimously adopted the Glasgow Climate Pact, which targets coal-fired energy and fossil fuel subsidies and calls on countries to produce better climate plans next year [11]. These new agreements represent giant steps forward in the international climate debate.

Countries have almost universally signaled that fossil fuels are not the future. On the other hand, they do not know exactly how transition to renewable energy will take place. They struggle to explain in terms of both the technical aspects of emissions reduction and how this transition will affect people and communities. Is this agreement enough to keep global warming at 1.5 degrees? To be honest, most countries do not think so, as we have seen.

CONCLUSION

The reason for rapid climate change we are witnessing now is the fossil fuels that people use in their homes, factories and transportation, namely fuel oil, natural gas and coal. When these fossil fuels burn, they release gases, mainly carbon dioxide into the air which we call greenhouse gases. These gases, on the other hand, absorb the heat from the sun’s rays, causing the temperature of our planet to rise. On top of that, if nothing is done, this warming will reach as high as 4 degrees. Scientists say this could lead devastating heat waves, millions of people would lose their homes due to rising water levels, and the irreversible extinction of some plant and animal species. The world will either succeed together or lose together on the climate issue.

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