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Nation after nation at Glasgow pledges to abandon use of coal

 The floodgates have broken. In shock after shock, diehard coal nations across the developing world have been lining up in Glasgow to forswear use of the dirtiest of fossil fuels. Four of the biggest coal emitters in East Asia have signed the pledge, promising to abandon new projects and shut down existing plants far earlier than almost anybody expected. “It’s a
massive deal.

The whole region is turning around and this really puts the screws on China to do more,” said Dave Jones from the anti-coal group Ember. “The really big surprises for all of us are Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. These were countries that were planning an aggressive expansion of coal and now they are on the list. So is South Korea, which is the fifth biggest coal user in the world. We never thought we’d see this in Glasgow,” he said. Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Egypt, Morocco, Ukraine, Poland, Chile, Zambia, and Cote d’Ivoire, among others, have signed the global ‘coal to clean power’ statement, vowing never again to issue new coal permits.

 Telegraph 5th Nov 2021

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/11/05/coal-power-consigned-history-glasgow/

November 8, 2021 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

Cop26 week one: the impression of progress – but not nearly enough

Cop26 week one: the impression of progress – but not nearly enough.
Analysis: the ‘significant outcomes’ came thick and fast but there are
question marks about credibility

 Guardian 6th Nov 2021

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/06/cop26-week-one-the-impression-of-progress-but-not-nearly-enough

November 8, 2021 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

Despite all the criticism, the COP climate process has made historic steps forward

The tidal wave of broadly positive announcements at the COP26 Climate
Summit this week has been met by a storm surge of molten hot media takes,
far too many of which have singularly failed to engage with the historic
significance of what might be happening in Glasgow.

For every potentially transformational net zero pledge, there have been naïve assessments of
whether or not any given announcement represents a ‘win’ for the UK hosts.
For each multi-billion dollar coal phase out plan, there have been
accusations of hypocritical virtue signalling, as if governments and
financiers seek to overhaul entire economies on a whim.

For all the evidence the Paris Agreement has catalysed an era-defining array of clean
tech innovations and a remarkable shift in public opinion, there have been
baseless arguments that the entire COP process is an exercise in futility.

We do not yet know how the denouement to the Glasgow Summit will play out.
But if the media allows the response to COP26 next week to be stripped of
context, shorn of nuance, and shaped by climate sceptic talking points,
then the efforts of thousands of people to deliver an historic step forward
in the global mission to avert climate disaster will have been done a grave
disservice.

 Business Green 5th Nov 2021

https://www.businessgreen.com/blog-post/4039877/cop26-taking-takes

November 8, 2021 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

Prospects of limiting global heating to 1.8C on the basis of commitmentsmade at the Cop26 climate summit are, though good, only “a hypothesis”

Prospects of limiting global heating to 1.8C on the basis of commitments
made at the Cop26 climate summit are only “a hypothesis”, the godfather
of the Paris climate agreement has warned.

Laurent Fabius, the former
French prime minister who was president of the 2015 Paris summit, said he
was “very impressed” by the commitments made in the first week of the
Cop26 conference, including a deal to reduce the potent greenhouse gas
methane, a net zero target from India, plans from China to reduce emissions
and commitments on coal.

If those plans are fulfilled, according to the
International Energy Agency, global temperature increases could be limited
to 1.8C, which is below the Paris agreement’s upper goal of limiting
rises to 2C but well below its tougher aspiration of capping heating at
1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

 Guardian 5th Nov 2021

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/05/president-of-paris-summit-says-18c-commitment-is-only-hypothetical

November 8, 2021 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment