COP26: Now for the tough negotiations

COP26: Now for the tough negotiations

On any unbiased assessment, the first week of COP26 was a pretty good start to the gathering charged with saving the world. The geopolitical spats — largely it seems instigated by the US and directed at their global rival China — should not detract from some real progress on the granular details of combating climate change. There have been notable successes, like the commitment by 105 nations to halt desertification and commence large-scale reforestation in an effort to mitigate CO2 emissions and protect biodiversity — a move that Saudi Arabia can legitimately claim to have pioneered via the Saudi Green Initiative. It was backed with a $19bn fund by sovereign and private sector financiers. var width=document.documentElement.clientWidth;if(width>=320&&width<728){}; googletag.cmd.push(function(){try{var d=document.documentElement.clientWidth;var a;var c="/21857811890/en.zcom/";var b;if(d>=320&&d<728){a=[300,250];b=["mobile_mr_story"]}else{a=[300,250];b=["MR_Story"]}var h="MR_Story";var g=googletag.defineSlot("/21857811890/en.zcom/",a,"div-gpt-ad-MR_Story").setTargeting("type",b).addService(googletag.pubads());gptAdSlots.push(g);if(h!="MR_Story"){googletag.pubads().collapseEmptyDivs(true,true)}googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest();googletag.enableServices();if((h=="PSB_Left")||(h=="mobile_psb_left")||(h=="PSB_Top")||(h=="mobile_psb_top")||(h=="PSB_Bottom")||(h=="mobile_psb_bottom")||(h=="PSB_Middle")||(h=="mobile_psb_middle")||(h=="leaderboard_home")||(h=="leaderboard_bottom_home")||(h=="mobile_leaderboard_home")||(h=="mobile_leaderboard_bottom_home")){setInterval(function(){googletag.pubads().refresh([g])},240000)}}catch(f){console.log("Error loading Ad banner "+h)}}); try{googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display("div-gpt-ad-MR_Story")})}catch(e){console.log("Error displaying Ad banner "+bannerName)}; There was also progress on agreeing deadlines for net zero emissions, with India the most notable with its pledge to achieve carbon neutrality by 2070, though the environmental activists were still not satisfied with that date. But there are still significant hurdles to overcome. Sideline conversations with Saudi officials at the event highlighted four main areas that still have to be decided by the negotiators who now take