Building ‘COP-timism’: The Key Takeaways of COP26
With COP26 – one of the most important climate change conferences take place in years – coming to a close, questions remain about whether countries can maintain their pledges and beef up commitments towards mitigating climate change.
Despite bringing parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, a lot of climate diplomacy needs to be done over the next 12 months – especially in the build up to COP27 in Egypt and COP28 in the United Arab Emirates.
In this episode, WSP Middle East’s ESG Advisory Service Lead, Daniel Gribbin is joined by David Symons, the head of WSP’s global innovation and sustainability programme ‘Future Ready’, to outline the key breakthroughs and takeaways of COP26, as well as question if the target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is still alive.
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Topics covered in this podcast…
- COP26 saw many significant private and public agreements come to light which could help drive the climate agenda forward into the next decade
- Formally, countries were requested before COP26 to attend with beefed up plans for cutting greenhouse gas emissions at a pace that limits climate change
- The UAE made a commitment to being net zero by 2050, and Saudi Arabia presented its ambition to be net zero by 2060
- Countries in attendance were requested to return to COP27 in Egypt with strengthened targets
- Side agreements made included 100 countries signing on to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030 compared to 2020 levels
- 40 nations said that they would work together to align standards, coordinate investments to speed up the tipping point for green technologies
- This was the first time that a global climate deal has explicitly set out that fossil fuel is a major driver of climate change and set out a plan to reduce the use of coal to generate electricity
- The Glasgow Declaration on Deforestation was a significant pledge made by 100+ countries
- The 1.5C world is still alive, but a lot of climate diplomacy is required leading into COP27 in Egypt and COP28 in the UAE
- Net zero rulebook published prior to COP26 now sets out that carbon offsets can only be used for 10% of residual emissions for private companies
- WSP encourages clients to understand both the risks and opportunities that the climate change and net zero agendas provide
- Climate action a substantial top-line growth opportunity for organisations
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