COP26 outcomes .... what was achieved?

"COP26 has failed us and it has failed our planet" - Chris Packham .... see here.

 

Chris is absolutely right (he normally is on all the important issues of our time) and his disappointment and anger is shared by the millions of people who value life on earth and who want to conserve and protect it.

 

As we feared would be the case, the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow was indeed a cop out.

 

I guess that there is a clue in the name .... 25 previous COPs have failed to make any substantive progress …. almost 30 years of failure as the planet continues to warm unabated and as the impacts of climate change become increasingly more devastating.

 

Yes, some marginal incremental progress was made at COP26 but we are most definitely not where we need to be.

 

The outcomes from COP26 are totally insufficient in terms of the ambitions and specific actions required to meet the challenges and impacts of the climate emergency. Nothing like the scale of radical and meaningful action required has been agreed. We are nowhere near the funding, innovation and large-scale societal changes we need.

The pledges on carbon emissions cuts fell well short of those required to limit temperatures to 1.5C according to scientific advice. The long-stated goal of preventing the planet warming by more than 1.5°C is possibly just about still within reach if next year’s COP (what number have we reached?) in Egypt significantly accelerates progress by agreeing radical and binding targets.

However, at present, even after COP26, the planet is well on course for an increase in temperatures of between 1.8°C and 2.4°C (a reduction from 2.7°C a year ago) which would be catastrophic.
 

At the close of COP26, there was far too much self-congratulatory talk of a "landmark climate deal". It was far from this. It was indeed "blah, blah, blah" and weasel words.

 

There were far too many evasive words and vague promises.

 

Supposedly agreed targets are non-binding. Where are the measures for monitoring compliance and what are the penalties for non-compliance?

 

I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised. Political leaders seem incapable of looking beyond their electoral cycles, short-term goals and domestic political pressures, not to mention geopolitical issues.

 

Too many businesses in the corporate sector are still putting profit before any regard or respect for people, nature and wildlife and the planet.

 

Our pathetic excuse for a Prime Minister boldly announced at the close of COP26 that it was "truly historic" and achieved a "game changing agreement". Utter nonsense!

 

At his opening address to COP 26, he talked about James Bond, farting cows and made other inappropriate jokes. He then fell asleep during the opening addresses of other participants …. and failed to wear a face mask. He then flew back to London in a private jet for dinner with a climate change denier and to support a corrupt MP and to change the means by which such individuals are investigated and sanctioned.

 

Is there anyone more unsuitable and ill-equipped to lead our country through a global health pandemic and a global climate emergency and to set an example of honesty and integrity through competent leadership?

At least during COP 26 we learnt from our Prime Minister that Britain is not a corrupt country. How embarrassing to hear that being said in front of delegates and participants from around the world. The UK isn't a corrupt country but we do have a corrupt Government with multiple examples of inappropriate lobbying, tax evasion, dodgy political donations, avoiding procurement rules when letting huge contracts, cash for honours and promotions to the House of Lords and widespread repeated breaches of the Ministerial Code and the Nolan Principles. Yet again, we have a "sleazefest" under a Conservative Government.

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