Images that perfectly reflect the disappointment surrounding the Glasgow Pact.
Saturday evening November 13, the 22 countries of the COP26 adopted an agreement to accelerate the fight against global warming, without ensuring to contain it at 1.5 ° C or respond to requests for assistance from poor countries.
The text, dubbed the “
Glasgow Climate Pact
”, was adopted after two weeks of tough negotiations, with a hammer blow from the British President of the World Climate Conference, Alok Sharma.
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Witnessing the difficulty in reaching this agreement, he said he was “
deeply sorry
” for the last minute changes introduced on the issue of fossil fuels at the request of China and India.
With a trembling voice and tears in his eyes, Alok Sharma had to stop his speech, overtaken by emotion, and to the applause of the crowd.
"
I understand the deep disappointment, but it is also vital that we protect this agreement,
" he blurted out.
A half hearted compromise
On the critical point of limiting temperatures, while the planet is according to the UN on a "
catastrophic
"
trajectory
of warming of 2.7 ° C compared to the pre-industrial era, the text calls on Member States to raise their reduction commitments more regularly than provided for in the Paris agreement, starting in 2022. But with the possibility of adjustments for "
particular national circumstances
", a point which has aroused criticism from NGOs on the real ambitions of the text .
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Moreover, the compromise found does not ensure compliance with the objectives of the Paris Agreement, limiting warming to “
well below
” 2 ° C and if possible to 1.5 ° C. But it offers prospects for the British presidency to show success on its objective of seeing Glasgow "
keep 1.5 alive
". Experts regularly warn that "
every tenth of a degree counts
" while disasters linked to climate change are already increasing: floods, droughts or heat waves, with their attendant damage and victims.
The text also contains a mention, unprecedented at this level, of fossil fuels, the main responsible for global warming and which are not even mentioned in the Paris agreement.
The wording was attenuated over the versions and until the last minute before the adoption in plenary, at the insistence of China and India in particular.
The final version calls for “
stepping up efforts towards reducing coal without (CO2) capture systems and phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies
”.