8 | New Scientist | 20 November 2021News COP
“WHEN will leaders lead?”
asked Mia Mottley at the start
of the COP26 climate summit on
1 November. More than 100 world
leaders had gathered in Glasgow,
UK, but it was the speech by the
prime minister of Barbados that
stood out. With Earth on course
for 2.7°C of global warming ahead
of the landmark conference,
Mottley warned that 2°C would be
a “death sentence” for countries
on the front line of climate change.
Impassioned speeches
soon gave way to side deals on
everything from deforestation tomethane. They were non-binding,
often missing key countries and
replete with caveats. But they will
make a difference, if followed with
action. One analysis found they
could lower 2030 emissions by
2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide,
about 5 per cent of 2021’s levels.
These pledges saw the first
week of the conference end with
momentum, despite campaigner
Greta Thunberg deriding the
summit as a “PR exercise”. An
estimated 100,000 climate
protesters marched through
Glasgow’s streets on 6 November.
Climate adaptation was
meant to be the official theme
at the start of the second week,
but the surprise arrival of former
US president Barack Obama,
followed by US politicians
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and
Nancy Pelosi, meant that the US
held much of the focus instead.
While acknowledging progress
in Glasgow, Obama said: “We
are nowhere near where we
need to be.”
The first draft of a final “cover
decision” – the agreement fromTwo weeks in GlasgowALBE
RT
O^ PEZ
ZA
LI/AP/SHUTT
ERST
OC
KHow the drama unfolded
A fortnight of talks, side deals, sleepless nights and protests at the climate summit ended
with a shock last-minute intervention. This report and analysis opposite by Adam VaughanFor two weeks, Glasgow
was the centre of the
world’s attentionCOP26 was in the “hard yards” of
negotiations, as UK prime minister
Boris Johnson said later that day,
with differences over finance and
more. Even the usually upbeat
Johnson struggled to explain
how to unblock the impasse.
Yet only an hour later, China’s
special climate envoy Xie Zhenhua
lifted the mood with a surprise
announcement of a US-China
agreement to raise the climate
ambition of both countries in the
2020s. The declaration was light
on substance, but it marked a vital
shift after US president Joe Biden
accused Chinese president Xi
Jinping of a “big mistake” in
not attending COP26.
A new draft decision failed to
materialise on 11 November, and
it was reported that one bloc of
countries had suggested deleting
the entire section on cutting
emissions. In the ensuing lull,
people watched the cricket at the
conference’s Pakistan pavilion.The Mexican delegation offered
COP26 president Alok Sharma
a bottle of tequila if the talks
finished on time, at 6pm on
12 November. A new alliance of
nations working to end future oil
and gas extraction was launched.
COP26’s crunch came in the last
48 hours. It began with weakened
language: the “phase out” would
now apply to fossil fuels that are
“inefficient” and to coal use that
was “unabated”, giving room for
its use with carbon capture and
storage. Countries were now
“requested” instead of “urged”
to revise their plans next year,
sparking debate over the minutiae
of which is the stronger verb.
The talks spilled over into
13 November. At a meeting on the
final proposed text, nations listed
grievances. “It’s not perfect,” said
Tina Stege of the Marshall Islands.
But none rejected it outright.
In a last, unexpected twist, at
the final meeting to approve the
decision, India’s environment
minister Bhupender Yadav
intervened. Coal should see a
“phase-down” not “phase-out”,
he said. China backed the change,
but Switzerland, speaking on
behalf of six countries, was
applauded for expressing
“profound disappointment” at
the watered-down wording. The
European Union said “coal has
no future”. Stege said the change
“hurts deeply”. But, in a bid not to
lose all that had been agreed, no
one blocked the change.
Sharma said he was “deeply
sorry” at the turn of events
and stopped mid-sentence,
visibly emotional. “Hearing no
objections, it is so decided,” he
said, and his gavel came down. The
Glasgow Climate Pact was sealed. ❚“ In a last, unexpected
twist, India intervened
to weaken pledges over
ending coal use”
the summit – arrived before
sunrise on 10 November. It
included plans to phase out coal
and subsidies for fossil fuels, and
“urged” nations to submit more
ambitious plans in 2022, in a push
to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement’s
goals of keeping warming “well
below” 2°C and pursuing 1.5°C.Summit president Alok
Sharma found its final
moments emotionalRE
UTER
S/PHILNOBL
E