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COP26, Paris Agreement, Green Deal, IPCC … getting lost? With the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow around the corner, we thought to prepare you a quick guide:

We’re all familiar with the United Nations as it is the world’s most representative, and most powerful international organization. The United Nations came into being in 1945, with as its central mission the maintenance of international peace and security. Today membership is 193, representing almost all of the world’s sovereign states.

In 1992, at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, 154 states signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC established an international environmental treaty to combat “dangerous human interference with the climate system”, in part by looking to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.The Conference of Parties, known as COP, is the decision-making body responsible for monitoring and reviewing the implementation of the UNFCCC. Today, it has near-universal membership and the 197 countries that have ratified the Convention are called Parties to the Convention. The COP has met annually since 1995.

Conferences with a COP include (amongst others):

The Kyoto Protocol (adopted in 1997, entered into force in 2005) operationalised the UNFCCC by setting binding greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets. As an additional means of meeting these targets, flexible market mechanisms, based on the trade of emissions permits, were introduced. They allow countries that have emission units to spare to sell their excess capacity to countries that are over their targets, thereby creating what is now known as the carbon market.
The Paris Agreement was agreed at the 21st Session of the COP (COP21) in December 2015 in Paris. This Conference was historic in its outcome, as it was the first time ever that almost every country around the world entered into a legally binding commitment to reduce emissions. In order to reach the goal of the Paris agreement, countries are required to set goals for their climate efforts, increasing their level of ambition over time. Their progress will be reviewed and evaluated every five years. These goals are known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs). (Did you know the Paris Agreement is a short agreement with 29 articles and only counts 25 pages, why not read a copy here)

The 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) will be held in Glasgow on 31 October – 12 November 2021. The COP26 summit will bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement. Countries are being asked to come forward with ambitious 2030 emissions reductions targets (NDCs) that align with reaching net zero by 2050. To deliver on these stretching targets, countries will need to accelerate the phase-out of coal, invest in renewables, combat deforestation and speed up the switch to electric vehicles (mitigation). Moreover, since the climate is already changing, countries affected by climate change need to protect and restore ecosystems, build defences and make infrastructure and agriculture more resilient to avoid loss of homes, livelihoods and lives (adaptation). To realise these goals, developed countries must deliver on their promise to raise at least $100bn in climate finance per year.

IPCC

The United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change is called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It was created to provide policymakers with regular scientific assessments on climate change, its implications and potential future risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation options.

The IPCC does not carry out its own research, but drafts its reports taking into account all available science, including the science questioning the anthropogenic nature of climate change. These findings are then subjected to a double external review, during which there is another opportunity to hear diverging scientific opinions. Once the draft has passed the test of these external experts, the document is submitted to the member countries for another round of scrutiny. The member countries will send the draft to their national scientists and non-governmental organisations for a second opinion. In this way, countries are given the opportunity to make recommendations or comment on the draft report. The feedback obtained must then be studied again by the IPCC so that, if necessary, the report can be amended before it is adopted in a plenary session. Thus, there is a process of contradiction of scientific views at three levels, which is why IPCC findings have a special status.

The IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) is the latest set of IPCC reports that brings together the most recent and comprehensive scientific knowledge on the climate system and climate change to date. A total of eight reports will be released during this AR6 cycle (2015-2023): 3 Special Reports (The 1.5°C report, Climate Change and Land, the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate), A Refinement to the 2006 Methodology Report, Reports from 3 Working Groups and the Synthesis Report that builds on the findings from all the reports of this cycle. The Working Group I Report was released over summer and that’s where you heard that climate change is going faster than expected, it is more widespread and more intense and a warming of 1.5°C cannot be avoided – it might even happen in 10 years. This new report is timely because during the COP 26 progress towards meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement will be assessed.

The IPCC itself does not propose policy measures, it only outlines where we are now and where we could possibly go under which (emissions) scenario. It will become clear in November whether this new report can spur world leaders to more action, while climate change is becoming more and more tangible.

EUROPE

The Paris agreement has been signed by 194 countries as well as the European Union. All EU countries are signatories on their own, but they coordinate their positions together and set common emission reduction goals at the EU level. In December 2019, the European Commission presented the roadmap for a climate-neutral Europe: the Green Deal.

The main elements of the EU Green Deal are:

Climate action: All 27 EU Member States committed to turning the EU into the first climate neutral continent by 2050. To get there the European Commission raised its ambitions to reduce emissions by at least 55% (from 40%) by 2030, compared to 1990 levels (named ‘Fit for 55’).
Clean energy: The production and use of energy currently accounts for more than 75% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions. The Clean Energy policy aims to reduce this figure by developing a power sector based largely on renewable sources.
Sustainable industry: At present, industry accounts for 20% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions. The strategy includes actions to strengthen the decarbonisation efforts, ranging from product sustainability to the supply of raw materials.
Buildings and renovations: Buildings are responsible for approximately 40% of the EU’s energy consumption and 36% of greenhouse gas emissions from energy. The objectives of the EU Green Deal require cleaner buildings and construction sectors.
Sustainable mobility: Transport emissions account for 25% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions. The EU aims to cut transport emissions with 90% by 2050, delivered by a smart, competitive, safe, accessible and affordable transport system.
Eliminating pollution: Pollution is the largest environmental cause of multiple mental and physical diseases, and of premature deaths. It is also a significant driver of biodiversity loss. The Zero Pollution Action Planincorporates pollution elimination measures into all policy developments.
Farm to Fork: Food systems are responsible for around 21-37% of global greenhouse gas emissions and use up significant natural resources. The strategy will focus on reducing waste, and transforming the manufacturing, processing, retailing, packaging and transportation of food. Methane being the second biggest contributor to climate change after carbon dioxide, the EU also proposed a strategy to reduce methane emissions via a cross sector approach: in the EU, 53% of anthropogenic methane emissions come from agriculture, 26% from waste and 19% from energy.
Preserving biodiversity: In the last 40 years, the population of wild species has fallen by 60% due to human activities. The key drivers in biodiversity loss are identified as changes in land and sea use, overexploitation, climate change, pollution, and invasive alien species. The industries highly dependent on biodiversity are the construction, agriculture and food and drink sectors. This framework includes imposing legally binding nature-restoration targets to restore degraded ecosystems.
Research and development: Many of the EU Green Deal initiatives require harnessing new technologies, and transforming financial models and supply chains. Many research and development initiatives will be funded by Horizon Europe.
Preventing unfair competition from carbon leakage: The EU Green Deal will require significant reorientation of the EU economy towards a low carbon model. This brings with it the risk of carbon leakage (= increase in CO2 emissions outside the EU due to production being transferred from the EU to other countries with lower ambition for emission reduction). The EU Commission is therefore proposing a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism to ensure that the price of imports reflects more accurately their carbon content.

In June 2021, the European Parliament adopted the EU Climate Law, making the political commitment of climate neutrality by 2050 under the Green Deal into a binding obligation, and giving Europeans and businesses the legal certainty and predictability they need to plan for this transition.