Work in progress

Glasgow's conference will be freshly over when this newsletter is out. Only then will we know the results, impressions, and analyses of such an important meeting for the history of climate policy. At the moment, the majority anticipate the potential conclusions that still have to be reached and confirmed while hoping for a positive final agreement between the participants. Let's review the essential points of the two previous weeks.

The UN summit in Glasgow has started the same day in which the G20 leaders (countries responsible for 80% of the global emissions) were finishing their roman meetings. The Italian G20 should have built the diplomatic grounds onto which to have Glasgow's discussions. However, as it happens always, expectations have not been met. Of course, the world's most industrialized and powerful countries have signed an agreement in which they have declared the necessity to stop financing coal plants to drastically reduce methane emissions while also recognizing the critical relevance of 'net zero' by the middle of the century. Still, they have not been explicit about the milestone of 2050 as the "limit year" before the rising temperature must be limited under +1,5° from pre-industrial levels.

The physical absence of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping has weighted on the summit: they only connected virtually, showing a doubtful engagement to the discussions. Glasgow's conference, therefore, opens the need to overcome limits and push forward the strain for concrete commitment. Unlike the Russian and Chinese presidents at the G20, the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has presented the new climate commitments for India. He promised that the country would reach climate neutrality by 2070 and that within 2030 half of the country's electricity would be supplied from renewable sources. Additionally, by the same deadline, global emissions will be reduced by one billion tonnes.

During the meeting, John Kerry, the American main climate negotiator, and the representatives of the European Union have announced a global effort to reduce methane emissions by 30% before 2030 (compared with 2020 levels). More than 100 countries have undersigned the agreement.
Simultaneously, another agreement was reached in which more than 100 world leaders pledged to end deforestation, responsible for about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions, by 2030. Brazil, Canada, and Russia, given the vastness of the forest heritage, have joined, and the agreement will cover approximately 85% of the world's forests.

Following this, the British chancellor Rishi Sunak has declared "finance day," he announced that the UK is becoming the first financial centre for carbon neutrality. From 2023 the UK government will strengthen the related requirements, allowing the country's financial institutions and listed companies to prepare plans to decarbonize their operations to fall in line with the carbon-neutral economy planned for 2050.

In the end, the complex topic regarding coal phase-out had to be discussed, which is one of the main goals of COP26. Most meetings had this matter at their core, considering the world's countries' different needs, perspectives, and views. Brazil's 'green revelation' has been quite interesting: the Country is one of the notorious opposers of environmental policy. During that week, the Brazilian delegates have shared some ambitious climate targets such as emissions' cuts and the reach of net zero by 2050.
During the "Fridays for Future" march through Glasgow, led by Greta Thunberg and the Ugandan Vanessa Nakate, discussions were held about land use, agriculture, and financing towards least developed countries to facilitate climate change adaptation.