China, the EU and the US promise to scale up their fight against climate change

No bustle, no crowds, no rumors in the corridors. The Climate Ambition Summit held this Saturday by the UN has little to do with the appointments that the organization convenes every year to try to limit global warming to 1.5ºC. However, there have been two things that neither the pandemic nor the virtual encounter have changed. On the one hand, the calls of the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, for countries to act now to cut their greenhouse gases. On the other, last minute surprises. Throughout a six-hour summit, China has promised to increase (albeit slightly) its 2030 targets. And Joe Biden, in a statement, has assured that the United States will not only return to the Paris Agreement on the first day of his term as president, but will put the country on track to be carbon neutral by 2050.

In his inaugural address, Guterres urged all world leaders to “declare a state of climate emergency” in their countries “until carbon neutrality is achieved.” Today everything indicates that that day will take time to arrive. Most of the 110 countries that have already set out not to emit more CO2 than they can extract from the atmosphere (with trees, for example) have set it for mid-century. And in the meantime, short-term goals are insufficient, according to the UN. “We are still not moving in the right direction,” Guterres said. The latest scientific reports suggest that the rate of emissions is moving the planet towards 3ºC of warming, far from the threshold that would prevent an exponential growth of heat waves, floods or droughts.

Therefore, the UN wants countries to start taking short-term measures, taking advantage of the reconstruction after the pandemic. “Significant efforts are needed now to reduce global emissions by 45% by 2030,” Guterres demanded.

With the Glasgow Climate Summit delayed by a year by the pandemic (now, to November 2021), the UN convened the virtual Summit in a bid to relaunch the fight against climate change and the Paris Agreement. Countries needed to tighten their plans for emissions cuts, and only those who announced some concrete progress on their targets would be given a voice. Of the 197 parties that make up the agreement, only 70 have taken the floor this Saturday. Large emitters such as Australia, Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia or Brazil have been left out.

But there have also been surprises. The president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, announced in a statement on the sidelines of the Summit – he has not participated because he is outside the pact – that the country will return “the first day” of his presidency to the Paris Agreement. It will also convene in 2021 a meeting with the largest emitters in the world and that its Administration will increase “the ambition of domestic objectives” on climate and direct the country to be carbon neutral “no later than 2050”.

New announcements

An announcement that adds to the consensus reached on Friday in extremis by the EU and repeated this Saturday to increase the emissions cut from 40% planned to 55% in 2030 and, above all, to the promise that China has made to slightly reinforce its objectives. If in September the Asian giant announced carbon neutrality by 2060, Xi Jinping has assured today that by 2030 he will double the country’s wind and solar energy capacity and increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 25%. Also

“China welcomes the Paris Agreement, but no one should open the bottle of champagne,” said Li Shuo of Greenpeace Asia. Environmental groups are demanding that the country reach its peak emissions in five years and the European Union wanted it to halt all new coal projects, but there has been no mention of either issue.

The sensations at the end of the summit, once again in one of this type, have been bittersweet. According to the president of the 2021 Climate Summit, Alok Sharma, progress has been made this Saturday, but not enough. “We must be honest with ourselves,” he said. “As encouraging as all this ambition is. It’s not enough.”

Source: ABC