Conferences of the Parties (COPs) are annual meetings organized by the United Nations to agree on effective policies to combat global warming. The 26th edition will be held in Scotland in November 2021, which will be jointly chaired by Italy and the United Kingdom. This year’s COP is particularly important for two reasons: it is the first since the outbreak of the pandemic and called for updating the Paris Agreement, the most advanced agreement ever to tackle the climate crisis. . In this bi-weekly space, we aim to cover the background of the news, systems, climate talks. We’ve reached number eight, you can find the previous ones at this link.
China and Coal: Odie et Amo.
Coal seems to be more and more a thing of the past, and it looks like Dragon really wants to do its part. This is still an insufficient share, but it is one of the signs that the entire world economy based on fossil fuels is certainly crumbling. In fact, China has announced at the United Nations General Assembly that it will no longer finance coal-fired fossil plants outside its borders.
This single statement, in fact, is enough to put an end to global financing for coal: in fact, China was the first and main sponsor of coal, with plans for about 56 GW in more than 20 countries. South Korea, with 8.4 GW, and Japan, with 4.6 GW, also made similar commitments with all G7 countries this year.
Coal is one of the main targets of COP26 this year as it is the most influential of the fossil fuels. Therefore a new power equal to the whole of Germany is abolished with this option – for comparison. Also, Xi Jinping has not provided any information about what he intends to do with the coal plants under construction in China, which currently houses 50 percent of all coal plants in the world.
It will be one of the topics discussed at the G20 in Rome to find a date for global convergence on domestic coal plants as well. In fact, the Chinese greenhouse gas reduction targets announced by Xi Jinping in 2020, i.e. reaching emissions peak by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2060 – are ambitious, but still far from the necessary cuts required by the Paris Agreement. is far.
Dragons: When Facts?
The EUMD summit was held in Athens last week, where leaders of nine EU countries, bathed by the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, shared their concerns about the worsening of the climate crisis.
Draghi was particularly determined, after showing his closeness to his Greek ally for the very serious fire that ravaged Greece this summer, recalling that “this experience tells us that there is no more time, postponement or delay.” There is no possibility, because the cost for our countries and citizens will be very high.
In a message to the virtual summit launched by United States President Joe Biden, Draghi acknowledged there is a risk that the Paris Agreement on climate is not respected. He later relaunched saying that Italy would increase its stake in the climate fund (the 100 billion that should go to the poorest countries in transition and to aid in the fight against climate change). However, more ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets are still lacking, limiting themselves to aligning themselves with European regulations on the subject; However our co-host (UK) has already stepped up.
Climate Strike and COP26
Months of preparation were done ahead of the Friday for the Future climate event, which took place on the morning of September 24. Taking to the streets in recent years seems to have worked, in fact, governments’ attention to the problem has grown exponentially, as has media coverage.
The Friday for Future strike is preceded by two of the most important events in the panorama of international climate agreements: PreCOP 26 and COP 26, which will be held in Milan from 30 September to 2 October and Glasgow from 1 to 12 November, respectively. The work of representatives of the 197 states of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is inevitably influenced by external pressures, and – according to the protesters’ statements – for COP26 to be successful it is necessary that the requests of the scientific community be heard..
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