(GLASGOW, Scotland) — Leaders from nearly every country in the world have converged upon Glasgow, Scotland, for COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference that experts are touting as the most important environmental summit in history.
The conference, delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was designed as the check-in for the progress countries are making after entering the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, a value that would be disastrous to exceed, according to climate scientists. More ambitious efforts aim to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Not one country is going into COP26 on track to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement, according to experts. They will need to work together to find collective solutions that will drastically cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.
“We need to move from commitments into action,” Jim Harmon, chairman of the World Resources Institute, told ABC News. “The path to a better future is still possible, but time is running out.”
All eyes will be on the biggest emitters: China, the U.S. and India. While China is responsible for about 26% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, more than all other developed countries combined, the cumulative emissions from the U.S. over the past century are likely twice that of China’s, David Sandalow, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, told ABC News.
Here’s how the conference is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 04, 1:52 pm
American agriculture is ready to tackle climate change, agriculture secretary says
The Department of Agriculture is researching initiatives to invest in more climate-friendly alternatives to traditional agriculture, Tom Vilsack, the secretary of Agriculture, told ABC News.
“I was here in 2009 at Copenhagen, and at that point in time, American agriculture was not ready for this day,” Vilsack told ABC News’ Maggie Rulli on Thursday. “Today they are, and that is a big difference and an important difference.”
Vilsack said he understands why some farmers are reluctant to attribute changes in their land or trends in weather patterns to climate change because many are scraping to get by and can’t take on the cost of changing their operations.
But the Department of Agriculture hopes to take away some of that burden, Vilsack said.
“There’s a tremendous opportunity here for us to make a significant impact early in this process, and we’re excited at USDA to be part of part of the solution instead of part of the problem,” he said.
About 24% of emissions in the U.S. come from agriculture and land use, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
-ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs
Nov 04, 12:15 pm
Secretary of Interior issues global challenge for offshore wind energy
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland highlighted the ongoing efforts the U.S. is making to ramp up offshore wind production to encourage the rest of the world to set equally ambitious targets for commitments.
The Biden administration has pledged to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030. Haaland issued a global challenge at COP26 for every country to join in setting ambitious domestic offshore wind production.
“Climate change doesn’t recognize territorial or political boundaries,” she said. “It’s a global problem that requires a global effort to address it.”
The Interior Department is looking to complete the review of more than a dozen plans for offshore wind facilities by 2025.
Implementing the target could create 80,000 good-paying jobs, the White House announced in March.
-ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs
Nov 04, 10:31 am
End of coal in sight, UN says
The use of coal as an energy source is quickly coming to an end, according to the United Nations.
At least 23 countries made new commitments Thursday to phase out coal power, including five of the world’s top 20 coal power-using countries, the U.N. announced.
In addition, major international banks have committed to effectively end all international public financing of new unabated coal power by the end of 2021, and at least 25 countries and public finance institutions have committed to ending international public support for the unabated fossil fuel energy sector by the end of 2022.
The rapid phaseout of coal has been a recurring theme of COP26, with the breadth of commitments today signaling that the world is moving toward a renewable future, according to the U.N.
At least 23 nations made new commitments to phase out coal power, including Indonesia, Vietnam, Poland, South Korea, Egypt, Spain, Nepal, Singapore, Chile and Ukraine. As part of the “Global Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement,” countries also committed to scaling up clean power and ensuring a just transition away from coal.
Nov 04, 10:33 am
Annual horizon scan summarizes new climate research insights
Future Earth, Earth League and the World Climate Research Programme released their annual climate report today at COP26 summarizing the latest climate change data and research.
The 10 New Insights in Climate Science 2021 report was launched at a press conference with UNFCC executive secretary Patricia Espinosa and three of the report’s authors.
“We hope that the work presented in this report will drive the deep transformations we desperately need,” said Wendy Broadgate, Future Earth’s Global Hub director.
The goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is only attainable with “immediate and drastic” global climate action, which must be “just,” the report said.
The dangers of megafires and methane and nitrous oxide emissions were among the other key insights from the report.
Nov 04, 9:48 am
Recycling law targets packaging waste in bid to save taxpayers and climate
Americans are more of their waste than ever before, and manufacturers are ravenous for a steady stream of materials to turn into new products.
But a growing , coupled with major market disruptions overseas, is threatening the sustainability of municipal recycling programs nationwide and the environmental benefits that help counter , experts say.
Nov 04, 8:10 am
US needs to ‘get in the game’ on clean energy transitions, energy secretary say
The U.S. needs to lead by example in the clean energy transition and leaders should jump at the chance to scale up new technology to stay competitive on the global stage, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told ABC News.
As the “richest country in the world” and one of the biggest polluters, it will be incumbent upon Americans to “do our part,” Granholm told ABC News’ Maggie Rulli on Thursday.
“If you’re a businessperson, you want to be able to get in the game,” Granholm said. “And in the United States, we don’t want our economic competitors getting those jobs, getting those businesses. We want to be able to create it in the United States for our people to work.”
Granholm, the former governor of Michigan, said governors from states that have relied heavily on one fossil fuel industry, such as coal or oil and gas, should prioritize creating clean energy jobs for workers, adding that there are opportunities in clean energy, such as geothermal power, that use the same set of skills.
“If you’re a governor, you don’t want people moving to a new state,” she said. “They want to be able to create those opportunities inside of your state, and every single state in the United States has something to offer as a competitive advantage in clean energy.”
Nov 04, 7:34 am
Dozens of countries promise to phase out coal
A coalition of 190 countries and organizations have agreed to commit to the end of coal power at COP26, a potentially major step toward limiting global temperature increases.
Major coal-using countries such as Poland and Vietnam have committed to phasing out the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel for the first time, the U.K. government announced Wednesday night.
The coalition has committed to ending all investment in new coal power generation both domestically and internationally, rapidly scale up deployment of clean power generation, phase out coal power for major economies in the 2030s and the rest of the world by the 2040s and make a transition away from coal power in a way that benefits workers and communities.
China, Japan and Korea, the three largest public financiers of goal, have already committed to ending overseas finance for goal generation by the end of 2021.
Nov 03, 8:04 pm
Global carbon emissions set to rise after 2020’s COVID-induced reduction
Carbon emissions are on track to return to pre-COVID levels after dropping by 5.4% in 2020, according to the 16th annual Global Carbon Budget prepared by the Global Carbon Project.
Researchers from University of Exeter, University of East Anglia, CICERO and Stanford University found that coal and gas emissions are set to grow more in 2021 than they fell in 2020.
While all major emitters – U.S., China, India and the EU27 – are seeing a rise in emissions by a minimum of 4% in 2021, India and China are set to beat their respective 2019 emission levels.
“Investments in the green economy in post-COVID recovery plans of some countries have been insufficient so far, on their own, to avoid a substantial return close to pre-COVID emissions,” study leader Pierre Friedlingstein, who holds a chair in Mathematical Modelling of the Climate System at the University of Exeter, said.
Looking ahead, Friedlingstein said, “To achieve net-zero by 2050, we must cut emissions every year by an amount comparable to that seen during COVID.”
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