#COP26: A Growing Consensus Towards Adaptation, Mitigating and Financing Climate Change

#COP26: A Growing Consensus Towards Adaptation, Mitigating and Financing Climate Change

As curtains dropped on the recently held 26th Conference of Parties championed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow, Scotland, Chiemelie Ezeobi reports that the overarching objective of climate adaptation, mitigation and financing, which are the three pillars of collective climate action, was somewhat achieved, but with the consensus that all 197 nations involved walk the talk

The 2021 Conference of Parties (COP26) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ended on November 13 in Glasgow, Scotland, with about 200 countries agreeing to the Glasgow Climate Pact to keep 1.5°C alive and finalise the outstanding elements of the Paris Agreement.

Conference of Parties

The Conference of Parties, also known by its acronym COP is an annual meeting of Parties to the UNFCCC. Annually, stakeholders from 197 member countries known as “Parties” to the Convention come together at predetermined venues to avert dangerous climate change.

At each COP, the mandate is to monitor, review and implement issues agreed upon by Parties and this has been the trend since its inception in 1995.

The first conference was held in 1995 in Berlin, Germany. In 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000, it was held in Geneva, Switzerland; Kyoto, Japan; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Bonn, Germany; and The Hague, Netherlands, respectively.

In 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007, it was held at Bonn, Germany; Marrakech, Morocco; New Delhi, India; Milan, Italy; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Montreal, Canada; Nairobi, Kenya; and Bali, Indonesia, respectively.

While the 2008 COP was held in Poznań, Poland, the 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, were held in Copenhagen, Denmark; Cancún, Mexico; Durban, South Africa; Doha, Qatar; Warsaw, Poland; Lima, Peru; Paris, France; Marrakech, Morocco; and Bonn, Germany, respectively.

From 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021, the COP held at Katowice, Poland; Bonn, Germany; Madrid, Spain; and Glasgow, United Kingdom, respectively.

For next year, it will be held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, while that of 2023 and 2024 would be held in United Arab Emirates and Odessa, Ukraine, respectively.

COP26 in Glasgow
Already, a total of 26 annual conferences have been held in different countries. But this year, the annual conference touched down in Glasgow, Scotland.

According to COP26 President, Alok Sharma, “climate change is the biggest challenge of our time and we need to work together to deliver a cleaner, greener world. We must work together and agree on ambitious emission reduction targets that lead us to net-zero by 2050.”

Objectives

Essentially, the objectives of COP26 was streamlined into four goals and they were: securing global net-zero by the middle of the century; adapting to protect our communities and natural habitats; mobilising $100bn in climate finance per year; and working together to meet the challenges of the climate crisis.

Climate Pact

After two weeks of intense talks and negotiations at the just concluded 2021 Conference of Parties (COP) 26, of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at Glasgow, Scotland, nearly 200 countries agreed to keep 1.5°C alive and also finalised the outstanding elements of the Paris Agreement.

The Glasgow Climate Pact, combined with increased ambition and action from countries, means that the goal of limiting global temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels remains in sight, but it will only be delivered with concerted and immediate global efforts.

Also, the Glasgow Climate Pact will speed up the pace of climate action. All countries agreed to revisit and strengthen their current emissions targets to 2030, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), in 2022. This will be combined with a yearly political roundtable to consider a global progress report and a Leaders summit in 2023.

While the COP agreed on phasing down unabated coal power, the first time such move was seemingly successful, Africa also benefitted from Clean Transport, Adaption and Resilience, Finance and Nature based programmes, and Nigeria introduced Climate Change Bill into Law just days after COP26.

UK’s Contribution

For the United Kingdom (UK) government, the final COP26 text followed two years of intense diplomacy and campaigning undertaken by its Presidency to raise ambition and secure action from almost 200 countries.

Accordingly, when the UK took on the COP26 mantle, in partnership with Italy, nearly two years ago, only 30 per cent of the world was covered by net zero targets. This figure is now at around 90 per cent. Over the same period, 154 Parties have submitted new national targets, representing 80 per cent of global emissions.

Contributing to the discussion, British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing CB said: “Nigeria is highly vulnerable to climate change and although it has been ambitious in developing adaptation and mitigation plans, these plans need to be transformed into action – by the federal and state governments working closely with local communities, civil society and other stakeholders, and with the support of development partners.

“We will continue to support Nigeria make progress on decarbonisation of the power sector and stay the course on power sector reforms, creating the enabling environment for offgrid solar at scale by, for example, removing high VAT and customs on domestic solar equipment.

“We will also continue to support efforts that will see Nigeria take action to reduce greenhouse gases such as black carbon and methane from the atmosphere by ending gas flaring as well as adopting climate smart agro-forestry and agricultural reforms as sustainable solutions for Nigeria’s people, nature and biodiversity.”

Derivables for Nigeria

While other nations recorded impressive milestones, for Nigeria, COP26 was an avenue to boost its efforts. President Muhammadu Buhari pledged that Nigeria would cut its emissions to net zero by 2060 and called on developed countries to support countries like Nigeria which require adequate and sustained technical and financial support to attain climate goals.

To demonstrate commitment to Nigeria’s international ambition and to support the implementation of Nigeria’s adaptation and mitigation measures, the President signed Nigeria’s Climate Change Bill into Law just days after COP26.

Finance-wise, developed countries outlined how the $100bn per year climate finance goal will be delivered by 2023 at the latest that it will continue on a rising trajectory through to 2025 and the UK committed a further $1bn taking our total to £12.6bn by 2025. This means Nigeria and other vulnerable countries can continue to access support for their national climate plans and mitigation measures.

On Adaptation, the UK pledged £290 million in new funding for adaptation and £143.5 million of programmes to support African countries to adapt to the impact of extreme weather and changing climate. The plan is to support African governments to roll-out critical adaptation projects so that at-risk communities can adapt to the impact of extreme weather and changing climates – including boosting weather forecasting and early-warning systems so people living at risk of droughts or floods can take action in advance of climate shocks.

Helping vulnerable communities in Nigeria where c.70 per cent of the population rely on agriculture and livestock for an income – to be more resilient to cope with climate shocks. And getting drought and storm insurance so that people can respond quickly when disasters strike.

In innovation, 42 countries covering >70 per cent of global GDP and including Nigeria endorsed the Breakthrough Agenda committing to work together, including through public-private collaboration and by mobilising finance at scale, to make the global transition to a clean economy faster, lower cost and easier for all, while making solutions to adaptation more affordable and inclusive by 2030.

For nature, 128 countries including Nigeria, covering almost 90 per cent of the world’s forests, committed to more urgent action to protect our land and make our agriculture and food systems more sustainable for the future. And the UK will be providing a £500m boost to protect over five million hectares of tropical rainforests and create thousands of green jobs across Africa, Asia and Latin America; and a £65m ‘Just Rural Transition’ support programme to help communities move towards more sustainable methods of agriculture and food production.

UK’s Climate Change Support to Nigeria

Considerably, the UK government is working with Nigeria to build a greener economy with greater resilience to climate shocks through the use of financial, nature and community solutions.

According to Press & Public Affairs Officer | Comms Lead, Prosperity and Economic Development | Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, Ndidiamaka Eze, this includes supporting Nigeria to: improve access to reliable power; manage a transition from dependence on fossil fuels to more financially viable and cleaner energy supply; develop infrastructure which is more climate smart, higher quality, better planned and value for money; and boost the uptake of climate-smart agriculture.

They include finance where “Our programmes PACT/UKNIAF (Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions and Nigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility) have committed £1.5m of funding for a suite of advisers within the Ministries of Finance and Environment to boost the inflow of green finance into Nigeria, help green Nigeria’s infrastructure and tag potential projects, and create a climate finance and project database.

“Financial Sector Deepening Africa programme is supporting Nigeria on the issuance of green bonds – it has facilitated a corporate green bond in 2021 for offgrid energy (which was also a sukuk green bond). It supports Nigeria’s green bond committee;

“On energy transition: UKNIAF is supporting Nigeria’s efforts to put more renewables on the grid. Nigeria has been actively involved in the COP26 Energy Transition Council (ETC) which aims to make clean and sustainable power the most affordable and reliable option for countries to meet their power needs efficiently and accelerate their clean energy transition – moving away from coal and other fossil fuels – while ensuring a just transition and improved energy access for all;

“Nature: Nigeria has been engaged in the COP26 Forest, Agriculture and Commodity Trade (FACT) Dialogue and the Sustainable Agriculture Dialogues. It has endorsed both the FACT Roadmap and the Policy Action Agenda for Sustainable Agriculture.

“The dialogues focus on two areas of long-term action: 1) global action to protect and restore forests and critical ecosystems; 2) global transition to sustainable agriculture and land use. The challenge here will be ensuring there are sufficient financial incentives on the States to preserve forests. The UK is supporting Edo State with sustainable forestry and we are trialling the growing of rice in a way which uses less water and produces less methane in Kano, Kaduna and Jigawa;

“Adaptation and Resilience: We have supported more than 600,000 people to be more resilient to climate change in Northern Nigeria through our Propcom programme. We also support increased financial inclusion so that people can save against shocks and have enabled more than 200,000 excluded people to have access to finance through financial programmes. Our FSDA programme is advising Lagos State on flood mitigation measures;

“Transport: Lagos State endorsed the COP26 Zero Emissions Vehicles Declaration which aims to accelerate the transition to cleaner transport. UKNIAF is supporting 2 bus rapid transit systems and the Future Cities programme has supported studies for Lagos Waterways.”

Pledges

At the end of COP26, the UK pledged significant new funding to priority programmes on finance, adaptation and resilience, innovation and nature which Africa stands to benefit from.

Also, the Paris Rulebook, which are the guidelines for how the Paris Agreement will be implemented, was finalised after six years of discussions. This Rulebook will now allow countries to be held to account as they deliver on their targets. This includes Article 6 of the rulebook, which establishes a robust framework for countries to exchange carbon credits through the UNFCCC.

Also in the bag was agreed action on phasing down fossil fuels, heeding calls from civil society and countries most vulnerable to climate impacts while decisions made went further than ever before in recognising and addressing loss and damage from the existing impacts of climate change.

Commitments

Aside the pledges, the participating nations also made binding commitments- one of which was to significantly increase financial support through the Adaptation Fund as developed countries were urged to double their support to developing countries by 2025.

Also, many more countries and organisations committed to phase down unabated coal power and ending international coal financing.

#COP26: A Growing Consensus Towards Adaptation, Mitigating and Financing Climate Change

Reflecting on the task ahead, COP26 President Alok Sharma said:  “We can now say with credibility that we have kept 1.5 degrees alive. But, its pulse is weak and it will only survive if we keep our promises and translate commitments into rapid action. I am grateful to the UNFCCC for working with us to deliver a successful COP26.

“From here, we must now move forward together and deliver on the expectations set out in the Glasgow Climate Pact, and close the vast gap which remains. Because as Prime Minister Mia Mottley told us at the start of this conference, for Barbados and other small island states, ‘two degrees is a death sentence’.

“It is up to all of us to sustain our lodestar of keeping 1.5 degrees within reach and to continue our efforts to get finance flowing and boost adaptation. After the collective dedication which has delivered the Glasgow Climate Pact, our work here cannot be wasted.”

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international treaty with the goal of averting dangerous climate change and stabilising greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system, in a time frame which allows ecosystems to adapt naturally and enables sustainable development.

Essentially, the UNFCCC was adopted in 1992 by 197 countries referred to as Parties to the Convention. Meanwhile, the UNFCCC is the highest decision making body on issues relating to the goals of the convention and has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement.

The main aim of the Paris Agreement is to keep a global average temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Also, the UNFCCC is also the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

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