COP26 climate change summit: A hope for our future

What is COP26 and why is it so important?

 

The COP26 climate change summit is the United Nations’ 26th conference of parties, aiming to tackle climate change by achieving net-zero by 2050 and maintaining the agreement, made at COP21, of keeping global warming temperatures at 1.5°C. Almost 200 countries are at COP26 to discuss what they will do to achieve the net-zero goal. Net-zero means balancing out greenhouse gases emissions with the amount taken out of the atmosphere. The conference was delayed from 2020 and is now taking place this year in Glasgow, with the UK as its host, from October 31 to November 12. Plans and decisions made at COP26 could change the fate of our future. However, success can only happen if countries are able to reach the goals set from the summit.  

 

What are countries planning to do?

 

Some action plans that countries have decided on include:

 

More than 40 countries along with several organizations and banks have signed a pledge to eliminate coal emissions. This includes quitting coal energy and halting funds and investments for coal-fired power plants. However, some huge emitter and coal-dependent countries have yet to sign.

 

Over 100 countries have agreed to reverse deforestation by 2030. This is crucial in achieving net-zero as trees are able to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release oxygen.

 

The United States and the European Union declared a global partnership to cut methane emissions by 2030, first proposed back in September, now with over 100 other countries signing the pledge including Indonesia. The Global Methane Pledge is striving to cut methane emissions by 30% from the 2020 levels.

 

Other plans and proposals include some nations targeting to help other lower-income countries progress to clean energy, the introduction of carbon border taxes (imposing tax on imported goods made from technology or materials that increase carbon emissions), South Africa receiving an $8.5 billion fund from a few higher-income countries to quit coal usage and many more.

 

This article only covers a few plans from COP26. For now, countries seem to be moving ahead with the net-zero goal but there is still more work to be done and decisions to be made at the summit. These promises also need to be kept if we want to hope for a cleaner future.