COP26 - Climate Hopes, Promises, Negotiations, Delays and Failures, by Peter Boyce

COP26 - the 26th United Nations (UN) Conference of the Parties on Climate Change, will convene at Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom (UK), this Sunday, October 31 and run until November 12.

This very important global conference on Climate Change comes at a crucial time for Planet Earth, which is experiencing unprecedented increases in temperatures and calamitous natural events from wild fires, to extreme weather happenings across the many continents because of high concentrations of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) from emissions due to the vast burning of fossil fuels in factories, vehicles and in homes. The last decade, according to scientific data, has been the warmest on record and the world is 1.2 degrees Celsius warmer today that it was in the 19th Century, while CO2 concentrations have risen by 50%. 

Scientists have warned of climatic catastrophies, worsening droughts, greater sea level rise and mass extinction of species should humanity fail to keep global warming under 2 degrees Celsius by 2100.

So at COP26, about 200 nations have been challenged to submit their plans to cut poisonous emissions by 2030. COP26 follows the significant COP21 at Paris, France, December 12, 2015, when 196 countries, for the first time ever, signed the lagally binding Paris Accords on Climate Change that went into effect on November 4, 2016, imploring nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions and to limit temperature rises below 2 degrees Celsius, preferrably, 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels, with a view to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Yet, the reality of actions by humans has seen individual nations and the world faultering on implementing the most likely steps to combat Climate Change. Four-years of Climate action in the United States (US) was wasted under Donald Trump when he pulled the nation out of the Paris Agreement before President Joe Biden, sensibly, returned the US to the global pact. The Courts of France are monitoring the Republic's faultering pledge to keeping up with the accords of COP21. India and China have just increased coal production in order to keep up with industry and residential demands for more energy. And whereby wealthy nations in 2009 pledged $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poorer nations make the transition to clean energy, that figure has never yet been met. $52 billion was given in 2013; $44.6 billion in 2015; $71 billion in 2017 and $79.6 billion in 2019. The 2020 $100 billion pledge has now been deferred to, hopefully, 2023.  

COP26 holds big hopes to set humanity onto a sustainable path toward achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. If all of the parties should agree to abide by efficient low-emission scientific means, then COP26 could be a savior for Planet Earth. But will nations live up to their promises and responsibilities to salvaging our Globe from reaching the point of beyond recall in respect of Climate Change? Are negotiations plausible per humanity's actions to saving itself? Can our World surviive anymore delays to cementing concrete climate protections? Can humanity afford to fail at putting in place immediate Climate protections? Time will certainly tell and it will be sooner, rather than later.