After a first week punctuated by numerous announcements and declarations, the second week of the 26th session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) opens in Glasgow on Monday 8 November, with the heavy task of negotiating compromises on the finalisation of the Paris agreement and climate financing.
“This is going to be a totally different week from last week (...) This week it will be the week of negotiations, on making sure that those pledges are not just pledges but are also really put into practice”, said Dutch MEP Bas Eickhout (Greens/EFA) at a press conference.
Present in Glasgow to lead the negotiations on behalf of the EU, the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President in charge of the European Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, listed the EU’s ambitions for the week.
The vice-president says he hopes to first convince other major emitting countries “not just to declare a date for carbon neutrality or climate neutrality, but then also come up with the policies that we have to undertake now”, using the EU’s Green Deal as an example.
Finalising the Paris Agreement
Mr Timmermans also wants to close the issue of the ‘rulebook’ of the Paris Agreement, on which countries were unable to agree at the COP25 in Madrid in 2019.
This includes reaching a compromise agreement on rules for global carbon markets (Article 6 of the Paris Agreement) and on transparency and reporting obligations to monitor progress on each party’s nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement.
“We need to be sure that we’re comparing apples to apples and not apples to oranges. So we need clarity on transparency, we need clarity on accountability”, said Mr Timmermans.
He also called for a solution to be found on setting a common timetable for NDCs.
The vice-president said he also hopes to advance the issue of adaptation to climate change and climate finance, i.e. financial support to the least developed and most vulnerable countries to help them cope with climate change.
While developed countries had committed to increasing this funding to $100 billion per year by 2020 and up to 2025, a recent report published by the UK Presidency of the COP26 - and based on analysis by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - showed that this target would only be met (and exceeded) by 2023. The EU hopes to bring this date forward to 2022 (see EUROPE 12822/9).
‘Loss and damage’
Another issue that is driving the discussions at COP26 is that of compensation for ‘loss and damage’ caused by climate change.
“Until now, when we were talking about finance, we were talking about financing mitigation, financing adaptation but never about loss and damage”, Mr Eickhout said.
However, this could change after the recent announcement by Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon that Scotland is ready to mobilise £1 million to help developing countries cope with the loss and damage caused by climate change.
According to Bas Eickhout, this announcement is mainly “symbolic”, given the small amount of funds pledged, because it breaks the “taboo” on the link between climate finance and the issue of loss and damage.
However, the Greens/EFA MEP does not expect any major breakthroughs on this front at the COP26. “I think this is something we need to address in the years to come”, he added, pointing in particular to US opposition to accepting any form of responsibility in this context.
More optimistically, Mr Timmermans said he believes that progress on this issue is possible during this week. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)