Thread by @DaveGormanUoE

I thought I’d do another thread on things that caught my eye today as highlighted by @guardian COP26 and @BusinessGreen @James_BG Remember I’m not physically at COP yet,and I am only giving my impression as the announcements and projects continue to pour out #COP26 #EdinUniCOP26

Today was finance day at COP- a lot was announced. I’m no finance expert but I do advise the University on what it means to invest our £500m endowment fund,c£700m treasury funds in a climate friendly and responsible way and have done for 8 yrs so hopefully have some insights 1/n

The U.K. chancellor made a speech (no questions and apparently young protesters not allowed!) setting out plans to make U.K. finance system net zero,including requiring net zero transition plans.Note this is mandatory to have plans but doesn’t require company by company zero 2/n

Details are here gov.uk/government/new… here gov.uk/government/pub… and here bbc.co.uk/news/business-… 3/n

At the same time a new alliance, announced by @MarkJCarney and snappily called GFANZ has companies managing assets of more than $130 trillion committing to get to net zero gfanzero.com/press/amount-o… and here businessgreen.com/news/4039667/e… 4/n

The US Treasury Secretary was also speaking and committed to quadruple US climate development finance finance.yahoo.com/news/climate-c… 5/n

And a group of 20 countries also committed to stop financing overseas fossil fuel developments theguardian.com/environment/20… and well as MDB commitments eib.org/attachments/do… 6/n

Clearly these are major, major developments and @AlokSharma_RDG and others deserve credit for moving the dial as part of these daily presidency themes ( tomorrow is Energy) ukcop26.org/the-conference… 7/n

There is a but -companies in the U.K. could chose not to commit,or commit to net zero slowly,or sanctions could be weak.FWIW,I think markets will move swiftly and this will have major impacts but it’s not perfect-which is why strong standards, transparency, reporting needed 8/n

More informed reaction than mine on this from @bencaldecott @CampanaleMark here mobile.twitter.com/CampanaleMark?… here carbontracker.org/reaction-to-uk… and here

https://mobile.twitter.com/bencaldecott/status/1455785916006600705?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1455785916006600705%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwhitelabel-test-123.scribblelive.com%2FEvent%2FCOP26_live_blog_-_wednesday_0311

9/n

And the reality is banks are still funding fossil fuels despite @IEA warnings see …theguardian.com/environment/20… but theguardian.com/business/2021/… 10/n

And @GeorgeMonbiot keeps it simple for us…theguardian.com/commentisfree/… 11/n

Still on finance and some good news from major coal user and exporter Indonesia assuming that wall of money Mark Carney says is there can be deployed….along with another new net zero commitment reuters.com/world/asia-pac… 12/n

A lot of excitement around a new analysis, which if confirmed, says for the first time we are on track to come in under 2 degrees of warming- still not enough but major progress data.climateresource.com.au/ndc/20211103-C… 13/n

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority had also published a new strategy which I’m told is a big deal but I’ve not had time to review! Any takers or explainers @bencaldecott ? fca.org.uk/publications/c… 14/n

A new 1.5 degree supply chain strategy also caught my eye businessgreen.com/news/4039672/5… 15/n

And a new statement from the High Ambition coalition is significant say those in the know…highambitioncoalition.org/statements/coc… analysis here businessgreen.com/news/4039692/c… 16/n

Although this piece shows why the diplomacy remains difficult…theguardian.com/environment/20… 17/n

And this worrying piece using attribution studies shows why we are right to be alarmed…theguardian.com/environment/20… 18/n

I’ve seen some suggestions that access is easing, but at the same time activist and civil society/campaigners groups anger seems to be rising- see this theguardian.com/environment/20… or these tweets from a 16 year old campaigner

https://mobile.twitter.com/AlexandriaV2005/status/1455706003798777861?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1455706003798777861%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwhitelabel-test-123.scribblelive.com%2FEvent%2FCOP26_live_blog_-_wednesday_0311

19/n

I saw some useful explainers on what makes a good net zero approach bbc.com/future/article… what offsetting is and it’s limitations eciu.net/analysis/brief… and interesting commitments from broadcasters on climate businessgreen.com/news/4039704/c… 20/n

A hint that finally, the U.K. might begin to align its aviation strategy to climate change? ( yes despite the budget duty decision)

https://mobile.twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1455869795421855765?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1455869795421855765%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwhitelabel-test-123.scribblelive.com%2FEvent%2FCOP26_live_blog_-_wednesday_0311

and I thought this on the psychology of leadership on display was interesting politico.eu/article/climat… 21/n

https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1455869795421855765

Closer to home the Scottish Government recently updated its already substantial deck of climate policies gov.scot/binaries/conte… 22/n

And almost finally, to end on some hope as I like to, some extraordinary EV sales figures from Germany with EV sales at 30% of the market!

https://twitter.com/wpschill/status/1455872969683742739

Finally,two colleagues with wise words on change,leadership and why we need to fight for a better world @eebomberg @ShannonVallor. Liz makes the point there may not be a big single agreement but look around!blogs.ed.ac.uk/sustainability… Shannon talks about the effort needed from us all

https://twitter.com/shannonvallor/status/1455724487727517697