COP26 Offers A Chance To Revise Zero-Emission Targets

Context: High expectations are in stake as United Kingdom will be hosting 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) in November, 2021.

Prospects of COP26, UNFCC

     

• To feature first quinquennial ‘global stock take’.
• Opportunities for countries to strengthen commitments to new NDC plans and ‘ratchet’ their contributions.
• US returns to the table: US re-joined legally-binding Paris Agreement and will likely play a larger role in COP26.
• Calibrating pandemic distortion in mitigation of carbon emissions: wide-spread lockdowns reduced emissions but economic policy responses around the world have not been uniformly green.

• Unequal impact of pandemic on poor countries and within each country is likely to exacerbate any future impact of extreme weather events and climate change.
• Incorporate new learning: health environmental policy will have to go hand in hand.

About Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

• Provides regular assessments of scientific basis of climate change, its impacts, future risks and options for adaptation and mitigation.
  • While it does not conduct its own scientific research, it assesses and synthesizes scientific output from around the world.

• Like UNFCC, IPCC has nearly 200 countries as members, representing almost all of mankind.
• Landmark Special Report released in 2018: IPCC evaluated the potential impact of a 1.5°C temperature rise compared to 2°C.
  • Concluded that limiting global warming to 1.5°C is projected to reduce increases in ocean temperatures, associated increases in ocean acidity and decreases in ocean oxygen levels and also reduces risks to marine biodiversity, fisheries and ecosystems.