Insights from COP26: Day 2 – Signs of progress

By Andrew Adie & Dafydd Rees

COP26 started shrouded in pessimism and doubts about whether global consensus on new carbon reduction targets was possible to achieve.

Today, at the first full day of the Glasgow Conference, a wave of pledges and new decarbonisation commitments have been made and are raising hopes that some tangible progress could be made towards net zero.

The big set piece of the day came from US President Joe Biden, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who pledged (alongside more than 80 other countries) to cut methane output by 30% by 2030. Ursula von der Leyen described the agreement as "one of the most effective things we can do" to meet the Paris Agreement target to limit the rise in lobal average temperatures to 1.5C.

The BBC reported that she concluded by stating: "We cannot wait for 2050, we have to cut emissions fast. It is the lowest hanging fruit."

We also saw a deal by more than 100 countries to reverse deforestation over the next decade which has been billed as a landmark agreement by the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

Signatories of the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forest and Land Use will commit to protect forest ecosystems. The pledge includes almost $19bn of public and private funds. Signatories include Brazil, China and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 28 countries representing 85% of the world’s forests will commit to remove deforestation from the global trade of products such as palm oil, soya and cocoa.  

 In other developments:

1. Philanthropists have announced the creation of the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet which aim to attract ten times the initial investment made. The Rockefeller and Ikea foundations hope their initiative will provide funds for the energy transition of poorer nations. The Bezos Earth Fund will be giving $500m to the project. 
2. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, surprised the Climate Summit when he said that his country, the world’s third biggest carbon emitter, would reach net zero by 2070, with 50% of its energy by 2030 generated from renewable sources. Mr Modi also demanded that developed countries provide $1 trn in climate finance for developing countries as soon as possible.   
3. Brazil promised to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030.
4. Columbia has said it will protect 30% of its territory for nature by the end of 2022.
5. The UK has announced a new initiative to help developing countries access green technologies. It involves a doubling of UK funds to more than £3bn over 5 years.
6. Boris Johnson is set to announce a sovereign guarantee for a $1bn World Bank loan for India to develop green infrastructure.
7. The UN Secretary General called on countries to update climate pledges annually rather than once every five years. The UN is to set up an expert group to analyse the net zero commitments of non-state actors.
8. Around 40 countries are to scale up clean tech by imposing global standards with a focus on five sectors. Boris Johnson is holding a press conference this afternoon.  
9. Green Grids initiative: UK and India pledge endorsed by 80 nations to create continental electricity supergrids including solar energy. 
10. The African Union is calling on philanthropists and governments to support $2.5bn a year for the next five years for climate adaptation measures. President Ramaphosa says UK and US pledged $8.5bn in funding for South Africa’s move away from coal to clean energy. 
11. US Climate Envoy John Kerry says rich countries have now pledged $98bn of the £100bn annual investment for developing countries (originally promised in 2009). 
12. Blackrock told the Green Horizon Summit that it has raised $673m for investments in climate infrastructure in emerging markets.

The Green Horizon Summit@COP26 (a joint initiative from the City of London Corporation and Green Finance Institute) also had a day of events including key notes from Mark Carney (UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance) and Larry Fink (CEO of Blackrock).

The theme coming from these events was that there is a significant amount of money being invested and ready to be invested to accelerate the transition to a net zero economy.

Lord Nicholas Stern (Chair of the UCL Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics) said that he believed COP26 “is the first COP where the private sector is out in front, pulling governments along” and that the journey to net zero is “the growth and development story of the 21^st Century.”

Tomorrow is Finance Day with a keynote from UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, with a promise of more pledges and new policy initiatives from all the nations’ present. All will be set against stark warnings from delegates about the risks of inaction and the mission to ‘ensure a just transition to net zero’ a theme that has resonated throughout the first day.