COP26 and climate action commitments - LAC perspective
We recently saw the 26th Conference of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change or COP26 held in Glasgow ended on November 12th, 2021. The annual summit was a much-needed reaffirmation of the global effort to tackle the climate crisis Amid the pandemic. We have reached a point where even to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C; countries need to cut global emissions by 45% by 2030 and achieve net-zero by 2050.
The COP26 saw an agreement to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 signed by 130 countries, major automakers, and 30 countries participated in a pledge to phase out internal combustion engines by 2040. In addition, approximately 100 countries signed a global commitment to cut emissions by 30% by 2030.
The leaders of Latin America’s governments also stepped up. Several significant commitments were made, from deforestation initiatives to creating marine protected areas, directly impacting global carbon emissions, environment, and sustainability. They also pointed out the responsibility of developed countries, asking them to take the lead and be the frontrunner for climate change initiatives.
The participation of Latin American countries was a defining moment, as eight countries in the Latin American and Caribbean region have been ranked among the world’s ten most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. In addition, droughts have been the worst in six decades, and the year 2020 saw a record number of forest fires.
This region hosts 40% of the world’s biodiversity, 10% of its coral reefs, 12% of its mangrove forests, and large expanses of wetlands critical for natural ecosystems. Latin America has a significant opportunity to undertake transformative change by investing in a more holistic development that creates a greener, healthier, and more inclusive future.
Colombia led the charge with President Iván Duque introducing the government’s new long-term strategy to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 but emphasized that Colombia will not wait for the rest of the world to act and start immediately. “We have set the goal of reducing our GHGs emissions by 51% by the year 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050,” Duque said, giving a deep insight into Colombia’s ambitious commitment to both short-term and long-term initiatives it plans to undertake.
To reaffirm its commitment to this, the government plans to declare 30 percent of its territory a protected area by 2022 instead of 2030 by leveraging green finance.
The government also announced an ambitious waterway project on the Magdalena River. The project will leverage the river for intermodal commercial cargo transport to reduce annual emissions of up to 190,000 MTs by 2030. Duque also announced a new marine protected area (MPAs) for Colombia, with 160,000 square kilometres of protected area.
For Colombia, this ambitious plan would mean dedicated actions in strategic areas such as sustainable consumption and production, holistic, resilient cities, intelligent rural development, diversified energy sources focusing on renewables, and sustainable mobility.
Along with Colombia, the other Latin American countries also came forward to ensure a participatory and coordinated effort to tackle the climate issue as a united region.
President Fernández of Argentina supported the country’s rich ‘natural capital,’ calling for further climate funding and debt reduction. He suggested debt-for-climate swaps and payment for ecosystem services as essential tools to fuel COP initiatives. Fernández also announced and signed a US$8 billion investment deal with the Australian company Fortescue at COP for a green hydrogen plant in the province of Río Negro in Patagonia.
Ecuador’s president Guillermo Lasso also announced a new 60,000 square-kilometer marine protected area (MPA) around the mega-biodiversity ecosystem of the Galápagos Islands, to be funded through a debt-for-nature swap.
Costa Rica is the only Latin American country to present a decarbonisation strategy and to have started acting on it. Along with Ecuador, Panama, and Colombia, Costa Rica also agreed at COP26 to combine their marine reserves to form one interconnected protected area covering more than 500,000 square km. A fishing-free and protected corridor of the world’s richest pockets of ocean biodiversity also see the world’s most important migratory routes for several wild species.
Bolivian President Luis Arce pointed out that past attempts to establish national carbon markets in Latin America have failed or flawed implementation. Arce called on developed nations to step up and accept their responsibility for the climate crisis with focused and committed funding strategies. He proposed replacing carbon markets with direct action mechanisms through which developed countries can fund climate adaptation and mitigation projects.
Brazil’s participation at the COP 26 was through a chosen delegation led by its environment minster Joaquim Leite, which pledged to reduce greenhouse emissions by 50 percent by 2030, end illegal deforestation by 2030, achieve net-zero by 2050. Making Brazil’s intention very clear via in a pre-recorded video for the summit, President Jair Bolsonaro said, “I reaffirm my message to all who participate in COP26 and the Brazilian people: Brazil is part of the solution to overcome this global problem.”
Chile has for the first time fully committed to phase out coal-fired power generation. Energy Minister Juan Carlos Jobet officially communicated Chile’s commitment to end use of coal power 2040, along with shutting down half of current coal plants by 2025
Cuba also reiterated its commitment at Cop26 to implementing the nation’s climate plan and was also among a few other countries which rejected a clause asking for “phasing-out unabated coal power and inefficient fossil fuel subsidies”.
The Paraguay’s delegation refrained from a full commitment to cut emissions from deforestation. Instead, it presented data and figures which reveal that the country foresees its emissions from ‘Land Use, Changes in Land Use and Forestry’ jumping 27 per cent by 2030. The country did join a COP26 pledge made by over 100 countries on zero deforestation, but even that was due to public criticism rather than a government initiative.
Health was identified as one of three science priority areas for the COP26 summit. Peru; under the COP26 Health Programme’s committed to conducting climate change and health vulnerability assessments, and to develop national adaptation plans for health. Peru, being the President Pro-Tempore of the Independent Association of Latin America and the Caribbean (AILAC), also spoke on behalf on the alliance calling for a more committed wording of the final COP26 summit agreement to ‘phase out’ the use of fossil fuels instead of just ‘phasing down’.
The summit also saw representation from the Caribbean islands who want the world to take note and address the sea level rise threatening Island Nations. Being smaller nations without too much individual political clout or representation, a coalition of 39 countries, largely from the Caribbean and South Pacific, including Jamaica, Cuba, Fiji and Antigua and Barbuda, came together to create an Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis). For the COP26 summit they stressed on the Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which details how carbon markets will work and support the ecosystem of these fragile island countries. The photo of Tuvalu’s foreign minister Simon Kofe, virtually addressing the Climate Conference standing knee-deep in seawater accurately summed up the climate change issue and need for a strong world-wide COP26 agreement.
Mexico committed to the goal of reducing global methane emissions by at least 30 percent by 2030 by joining the Global Methane Pledge at COP26. Mexico also joined the Declaration on Forests and Land Use along with 16 other countries. In addition to that the country has also prepared the Instrumentation Strategy for a Sustainable Ocean Economy 2021-2024. The Mexican President Andres Obrador Wednesday also called out the hypocrisy of such high-level summits. He pointed joined the Global Methane Pledge at COP26 out the time for talk is long past, and the urging participants of COP26 to “make decisions, act, and not just talk,".
Though there is a precedent of words without action for past U.N.-sponsored meetings, plans, agreements, and pledges which either remained on paper or were poorly implemented, the reality is they can still help promote change at a regional or local level. When countries officially and on record commit at the international stages to take actions, they are tied to a certain degree of accountability which we can leverage to make demands at the national levels. The world is working through the worst economic crisis in a century because of COVID-19 led global pandemic. But the ambitious, coordinated, and innovative approaches proposed by the leaders of Latin America might be the answer for a recovery that ensures holistic and inclusive growth for the region and the planet.