It was at a meeting of UK climate negotiators in Glasgow last week that UK leaders rejected requests for wind turbine tariffs and rejected efforts to protect local oil and gas production from foreign competition.
Because of the gas crisis and the recent surge in global energy costs, the UK COP team, led by Alok Sharma, is under even more pressure to achieve green accords and rally support for the conference as a whole. Sharm el-Skeikh will host the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
There is no connection between rising gas costs and the goal of being net zero, according to Sharma. “Continue to create renewable energy sources,” he added, as a way to assure energy security and cut greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, Greg Hands, the UK’s Energy Secretary, supported new North Sea oil and gas projects, while Prime Minister Boris Johnson opposed a tax on the profits of oil firms. When this country needs gas, it will “squeeze the oil industry right now with a tax that inhibits investment in gasoline,” Johnson warned.
Only until Egypt’s foreign minister and diplomat Sameh Shoukry takes over as President of COP27 will the UK officially give over the COP chair. A big task is ahead. In the words of climate researcher Alex Scott of E3G, the current energy crisis has “squeezed the political space for governments to concentrate on their climate change policy”.
Across the world, Sharma’s organization must encourage nations to increase their climate goals. Scott said that he had a difficult challenge in encouraging his colleagues in the UK Cabinet to “join the dialogue.” When it comes to government policy, “we don’t see anything now.”
What will happen in 2022?
As part of COP26, the “Glasgow Climate Compact” secured broad agreements from 196 nations on four major areas: coal, carbon markets, financing for poor countries and national climate targets. Cars, trees, and methane are all subject to different agreements.
Sharma cautioned that although these agreements “guarantee” that the Paris agreement’s aim of reducing pre-industrial warming to 1.5C still “alive,” “the pulse of 1,5C is feeble.
In the months running up to November, Sharma will be working with partners in Egypt, a trip he took in January. He met with German, Swedish, and Rwandan COP26 ministers last week and promised to “press greater ambition” during diplomatic hotspots like the next G7 and G20 summits. This is his “personal priority” when it comes to the G20, Trump stated in an interview.
In the run-up to Glasgow, the UK’s 460 climate attachés lobbied governments throughout the globe. Egypt is also expected to use its own diplomatic momentum.
Maintaining the limits of national climate targets
The UK’s Climate Change Commission’s chief executive, Chris Stark, stressed that good implementation of this year’s national climate objectives “must be accomplished with increasing global fossil fuel costs.” spike, as well as increased pressures on the expense of living.” Government consultant
The ability of nations to improve their 2030 emissions goals will be a critical test. Even when conference rooms in Glasgow are being demolished, nations such as the United States and Australia suggest they may not be.
The end of coal
For the first time, a vow to phase out the world’s most polluting fossil fuels was made in Glasgow. However, there is no set deadline by which governments must respond, and coal consumption is expanding quickly in certain countries.
South Africa may serve as an example: affluent countries have committed to a $8.5 billion partnership to assist the country in transitioning away from coal power, which would force the government to close enterprises. coal quicker than anticipated Sharma said that the COP team would investigate if “other nations may get similar help.”
a new market for carbon
After years of negotiations, an agreement on the rules controlling global carbon markets was reached in Glasgow, hailed as a clear win.
The scheme will enable nations to trade carbon credits that may be utilized to satisfy their targets on a bilateral basis. It comes as the price of EU carbon allowances has climbed to more than €90/ton. It will be partially up to the UN to put it into action, with critical features such as how market activity is recorded standing out. A new UN monitor will also be formed to oversee the system.
Keep the tree alive
More than 100 nations have pledged to stop legal and illicit deforestation by 2030, making the COP26 accord a watershed moment. Analysts, on the other hand, are eager to point out that there is little enforcement.
The UK COP team’s work this year will include the establishment of a credible system of accountability. Among the options include requiring forest objectives to be included in current national reports to the UN, or creating a formal ministerial monitoring procedure.
Finance for the environment
Rich nations will continue to face pressure to fulfil their previous pledge of mobilizing $100 billion per year to assist underdeveloped countries.
“The next stage in finance is to begin to comprehend what we mean,” Adair Turner, senior fellow at the Institute for New Economic Thinking, said. Details concerning the kind of money to be utilized, such as grants, loans, or equity investments, must be agreed upon.
“We shall all be evaluated based on the [COP26 commitments].” COP26 executive director Peter Hill recently briefed the UK parliament. “There’s so much to offer.”
