Good COP, bad COP: Climate summit praised and panned

Good COP, bad COP: Climate summit praised and panned

GLASGOW: The COP26 climate talks resuming yesterday have so far unfolded on parallel planes, with high-level announcements stage-managed by host country Britain during week one riding roughshod over a laborious UN process built on consensus among nearly 200 countries. A dizzying blitz of pledges to curb methane emissions, phase out coal-fired power, stop overseas fossil fuel financing, and halt deforestation would appear to have moved the dial towards the Paris Agreement’s most ambitious goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

With a rise of 1.1C to date, storms, heatwaves and floods have become more frequent, intense and deadly. An International Energy Agency (IEA) tally of the commitments, along with one by India to boost renewables and reach net zero by 2070, found they would hold warming to 1.8C – not good enough, but way better than the “catastrophic” 2.7C projected by the UN just last month. US special envoy John Kerry, a 30-year veteran of climate geopolitics, said he “had never counted as many initiatives and as much money – real money – being put on the table.”

But not everyone was equally impressed. On the streets, climate activist Greta Thunberg, leading a global protest march on Saturday,