A difficult final spurt is emerging at the UN climate summit in Glasgow. COP President Alok Sharma conjures up the “We can spirit” on the official final day, while hundreds of delegates protest for “climate justice”. The Russian delegation is calling for a move on emissions certificates and further protests are still pending.
It is about Article 6 of the “Rules Book” of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The part that the Austrian Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) negotiates for the EU at the climate conference. This lays down rules for regulating the global markets for emission certificates. “The current version of the text on the market and non-market mechanisms of Article 6 requires additional elaboration, “said a representative of the Russian delegation at the climate summit. Above all, a solution with the old loans, which were stipulated in the framework of the Kyoto Protocol were transferred to the new “Paris markets” and can be calculated there, should have been in the special interest of Russia. The ideas of Gewessler and the EU that a “complete transfer” from the “Kyoto period” to the “Paris Period “is excluded, contradicts Russia’s demands completely.
A draft for the final declaration, in which demands from the earlier version, such as an accelerated phase-out of coal and an end to support for fossil fuels, caused great outrage among environmentalists. In the framework decision of COP26, which was published on Friday, the call to states to review their climate protection goals more often than planned was restricted. Some environmental organizations have criticized the fact that some “crucial elements” are still missing. “Despite decades of negotiations, we are still racing towards a world that is 2.4 degrees hotter. That is a breach of contract,” argued Jasmin Duregger from Greenpeace Austria. In the current final report you can see very clearly “that the oil and gas lobby had their fingers in the game. The text about the end of fossil fuels is still available, but has been massively weakened.”
Agreement between China and USA well received
The call to the countries to review their national climate protection targets (NDCs) more often than in the previous agreement was retained. As early as next year, they should therefore put their NDCs to the test. That’s three years ahead of schedule. In the revised version of the text, however, it was added that “the particular national circumstances” had to be taken into account.
However, an agreement between China and the USA was received largely positively. Despite the dispute between the two economic powers, it was possible here to agree on a pact to reduce methane emissions, protect forests and phase out coal. In 2025, they also want to publish new climate targets for the period up to 2035.
And the cooperation between two such powerful rivals is probably a good sign.
Source From: Nachrichten
