COP26 hosts suggest tougher climate targets next year

GLASGOW • The British hosts of the COP26 UN climate conference in Glasgow have proposed that countries raise their ambitions to slash greenhouse gas emissions by next year in a draft text that will be negotiated over the next three days.

The proposal underscores the concerns of climate experts and activists that there is a yawning gap between current national pledges and the rapid emissions cuts required to keep the world from tilting into a full-blown climate crisis.

The first draft of the political decision, which the United Nations released yesterday morning, asks countries to "revisit and strengthen the 2030 targets in their nationally determined contributions, as necessary to align with the Paris Agreement temperature goal by the end of 2022".

Put simply, that would force countries to set tougher climate targets next year - a key request from countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

Countries agreed under the Paris accord to limit global warming to well below 2 deg C above pre-industrial levels and try to cap it at 1.5 deg C. Scientists say crossing the 1.5 deg C threshold would unleash significantly worse sea level rises, droughts and storms than those already being experienced.

The draft also urged countries to speed up efforts to stop burning coal, and phase out fossil fuel subsidies. It did not set a fixed date for phasing them out.

Diplomats were set to lock horns yesterday to attempt to agree a final text in time for the end of the two-week conference tomorrow. It will not be legally binding, but will carry the political weight of the nearly 200 countries that signed the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The environmental campaign group Greenpeace dismissed the draft as an inadequate response to the climate crisis, calling it "a polite request that countries maybe, possibly, do more next year".

The draft also "urges" developed countries to "urgently scale up" aid to help poorer countries adapt to climate impacts. But it does not include a new plan for delivering that money.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE