Thread by @Tagliapietra_S

🌍Glasgow: increasingly clear sense of direction, but still no real hard numbers. A quick thread with some key takeaways 🧵 #COP26

COP26 ended on a mixed note. Global climate action is visibly accelerating, and Glasgow did play an important role in channeling the increased sense of urgency into a clearer action plan for the coming years. However, the conference failed to deliver on the hard numbers.

1⃣ Emissions gap. First, Glasgow did not manage to fill the global emissions gap. The world is on track for 2.4C of warming despite COP26 pledges. However, some NDCs – like the one of India – did represent an important step forward for global climate action.

With the Glasgow Climate Pact, the 197 parties to the Paris Agreement committed to keep the 1.5C target alive and to reconsider their 2030 NDCs in 2022, rather than in 2025, as suggested by the UN Secretary General on Day 1 of COP26.

This provides an opportunity for countries to translate the number of side-deals and pledges emerged during the first week of COP26 (from methane to cars, from finance to forests) into more ambitious NDCs and real policy action.

2⃣ Coal. With the Glasgow Climate Pact, the parties committed to “accelerating efforts towards the phase down of unabated coal power and phase out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.”

It is the first time that a UNFCCC document mentions coal. This is a signal that the era of coal is ending. However, last-minute pushback by China & India to change language from phase-out to phase-down weakened the pledge, leaving a great degree of uncertainty over its timing.

3⃣ Cash. Parties agreed that more financial support must be provided to developing countries, notably regarding climate adaptation. However, Glasgow did not manage to fill the climate finance gap, which many considered to represent a key make-or-break element for the conference.

So, the famous USD100 billion pledge finally remains outstanding. Developed countries committed to at least double their financial support for adaptation by 2025, but failed to provide immediate assistance for people suffering now from the climate crisis.

Many saw the issue of ‘loss and damage’ as being another make-or-break of COP26. However, the proposed ‘Loss and damage facility’ aimed at channeling funding from rich nations to poor and climate-vulnerable countries was ultimately dropped, also due to US and EU blocking.

Loss and damage represents a cornerstone of international climate justice, and for this reasons this item will now have to be placed at the top of COP27 agenda.

4⃣ Rule book. Glasgow made significant achievements on the architecture of the Paris Agreement. After six years of work, negotiators concluded the PA's ‘rule book’, which includes a series of technical decisions that govern subjects including how countries report progress...

...towards their emissions reduction targets, and how a new international carbon market will work. This item, i.e., Article 6, will allow parties to scale up their cooperation, mobilize additional finance & private sector engagement & ensure that rules are the same for everyone.

🌍Crossing the climate bridge. Closing the conference, @UNFCCC's @PEspinosaC said that at COP26 parties built ‘a bridge between the admirable promises made 6 years ago in Paris & the concrete measures that the scientific evidence calls for and societies around the world demand’.

She is right: global climate ambition has never been as strong as today. However, COP26 revealed that the world is still not ready to cross that bridge. Doing that is now what 2022 should be all about. - END 🌱