Public Space Magazine
FOCUS
CLIMATE CHANGE ARCHIVES
Conference of the Parties (COP)
COP 26
On November 13. Finally, though a day late and a dollar short a Glasgow Climate Pact was signed with mixed results. There was acknowledgement that fossil fuels are the main drivers of climate change. There was at least formal recognition of a 45% reduction of global greenhouse gases by 2030. There was an agreement to accelerate reduction of emissions. There was agreement that rules were needed to manage a global carbon market. Reports on progress toward net zero would be due in one year rather than five. There was talk of doubling funding for adaptions by developing countries by 2025.
COP27
The good news at COP27 was the establishment of a fund to protect vulnerable countries after disasters.The bad news was that nations were reluctant to adopt a more ambitious climate plan. COP 27 left the planet on a dangerous path.COP27 made it clear that letting go of the current energy system is not something that is going to happen anytime soon. Rob Jackson, a climate scientist at Stanford University, said about the progress made at COP 27 it is inevitable that a safe warming threshold will be surpassed by a reluctance to give up fossil fuels.
COP28
COP28 is distinguished from previous COPs by the conclusion of the First Stocktake. The Paris Agreement’s Global Stocktake process, designed to assess the global response to the climate crisis, is conducted every five years. It is intended to evaluate progress on climate action at the global level — not the national level — and to identify overall gaps to achieve the Paris Agreement as well as opportunities to bridge them. This First Stocktake is slated to conclude during COP28 in December. It will evaluate the world's progress on slashing greenhouse gas emissions, building resilience to climate impacts, and the success in securing finance and support to address the climate crisis.
COP29
The United Nations’ Conference of the Parties (COP 29) to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan will take place from November 11 to November 22. The agenda will include a focus on relationships between war and climate as well as the hope for a more permanent cooperative structure to explore roads to peace given climate change. The slogan, and the hope, for the 29th cop is reflected in the slogan “ In Solidarity for a Green World.” However some project that there will be fewer attendees compared to the previous COP28. For one thing there is the distraction of widening wars with no end in sight. It is also likely that the progress made in the previous cops has been inadequate and relatedly commitments by powerful interests have not been kept. The bottom line is that there is no means to effectively assign some accountability.
