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As the year 2021 comes to a close, we look at key outcomes and lessons from COP26, the latest United Nations global climate summit.

The outcomes of COP26 will be felt for decades to come–and are crucial to mitigating the climate crisis. Find out what COP26 is, why it’s pivotal to the fight against climate change, and what lessons we can gain from this global climate summit.

What is COP26?

COP stands for “Conference of the Parties”. It refers to the United Nations global climate summit, which brings together world leaders to address the challenges of climate change. As the 26th annual summit, this year’s climate change conference was named COP26. It was held in Glasgow, Scotland, with approximately 25,000 delegates from 200 countries.

Why was COP26 important?

COP26 was significant because it was the summit where countries revisited the climate pledges they made under the historic 2015 Paris Agreement. This legally binding international treaty on climate change was adopted by 195 nations. It aims to significantly reduce global greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming to well below 2°C and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. Countries were tasked with submitting, by 2020, their nationally determined contributions (NDCS), which are their plans for reducing their emissions. COP26 was delayed by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

What were the goals of COP26?

The four key objectives of COP26 focused on mitigation, adaptation, finance, and collaboration.

What were the key outcomes of COP26?

The Glasgow Climate Pact, a new global agreement, was reached at COP26. After two weeks of intense dialogue, here are the key outcomes of COP26.

Emissions

Over 90% of world GDP is now covered by net zero commitments. 153 countries have put forward new or updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to 2030. These emissions targets cover around 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions. All countries have also agreed to revisit and bolster their NDCs in 2022.

(Also read: Carbon-Free Roads: Will Nations Hit Their Targets?)

Trees

At COP26, 137 countries–with 91% of the world's forests–committed to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030. In addition, 12 developed countries pledged to provide USD 12 billion for forest-related climate finance between 2021 to 2025.

Coal

"I've been very clear that I want COP26 to be the COP where we consign coal power to history," COP26 president Alok Sharma told Reuter last July. For the first time in a climate change conference, a key driver of global warming was explicitly mentioned in a climate summit decision. However, India and China, the world’s two largest coal-burning countries, insisted on a last-minute change in wording from “phase out” to a “phase down” of coal. 

(Also read: Long-Duration Energy Storage: New Tech that Could Lead the Way to a Carbon-Free World)

Fossil fuel subsidies

For the first time in its history, fossil fuels were explicitly mentioned in climate summit agreements, with world leaders agreeing to phase out "inefficient" subsidies for fossil fuels. However, no dates have been set. Despite being one of the key drivers of global warming, oil, gas, and coal received USD 5.9 trillion in subsidies in 2020.

Paris Rulebook

After six years of discussions, the guidelines for the implementation of the Paris Agreement were finalized. At COP26, world leaders established a new mechanism and standards for carbon markets. They also agreed on the “enhanced transparency framework” for a common reporting format as well as common timeframes for emissions reduction targets.

Methane emissions

Over 100 countries committed to reducing global methane emissions by 30% by 2030, including six of the world’s top 10 methane emitters: the United States, Brazil, EU, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Argentina. Measured over a 20-year period, methane is 80 times more potent at trapping heat in the atmosphere compared to carbon dioxide. Since pre-industrial times, methane has accounted for around 30% of global warming. 

Electric vehicles

Over 35 countries, six major carmakers, 43 cities, states, and regions, 28 fleet owners, and 15 financial institutions pledged that all new car and van sales will be zero-emission by 2040 globally and 2030 in leading markets. 

(Also read: Plugging into E-Mobility)

Climate adaptation 

The first organization of its kind in the world, the Adaptation Research Alliance (ARA) was launched at COP26. Representing over 100 countries, the ARA will “catalyze and scale investment in action-oriented research and innovation for adaptation that strengthens resilience in communities most vulnerable to climate change.”

(Also read: Solar Power for Agriculture: The Future of Food)

Climate finance

Developed countries have pledged to provide USD 100 billion a year to help poorer countries cope with climate change impacts and support their transition to clean energy. This goal is to be reached by 2023 at the latest and will “continue on a rising trajectory through to 2025.”

(Also read: Climate Technology: Time for a Cool Change)

US-China agreement

The world's top two greenhouse gas-emitting countries, China and the United States, unveiled a joint declaration to boost climate cooperation. Despite butting heads over other international issues, the two countries will take “concrete actions” on reducing emissions, as well as share policies and technologies to bolster decarbonization and electrification. 

What lessons can we learn from COP26?

Journalists, communication specialists, policymakers, and delegate observers share lessons they’ve learned from COP26.

The US-China relationship is crucial.

As the world’s biggest emitters and the two largest economies, climate cooperation between the United States and China was pivotal to the Paris Agreement. “When the two largest emitters lock arms to solve climate change, that is when you know we are on the right track,” David Waskow, the international climate director of the World Resources Institute, told The Guardian in 2016. At COP26, history repeats itself, bringing hope for a greener future. “As man-made climate change is becoming an existential threat to humanity, one would hope that great power politics can give way to joining forces against a new enemy - climate change,” said Georg Kell, founding Director of the United Nations Global Compact, the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative.

Young people have power.

Steffan Messenger, a BBC Wales Environment Correspondent, covered COP26 for BBC Wales News. After interviewing Wales' Youth Climate Ambassadors, Messenger shared, “I found them to be among the most impressive interviewees I spoke to. Take note - some of our future leaders are among this bunch.”

Face-to-face interaction makes a difference.

"They always say about COPs that the really important conversations happen in the corridors and coffee shops," Professor Mary Gagen, a climate scientist from Swansea University, told the BBC. "One of the most important things about this being a physical COP is that those informal conversations then get taken into the negotiating room."

Climate action must be inclusive.

Emily Polakowski was awarded a scholarship to attend COP26 as a delegate observer for the League of Women Voters - United States. “My biggest take-away from COP26 is the division between the people on the ground facing these impacts every day and identifying solutions as their lives and livelihoods depend on it, and the people making the decisions,” she shared in an article for The Day.

“Women, indigenous people, young people, and people in the Global South have a lot to say on this topic, and they're often not invited to the rooms where the decisions are made,” Polakowski continued. “Many people were allowed into the conference grounds, but were not allowed in the actual rooms where these discussions occurred.”

We must bridge the gap between research and policy.

At COP26, student representative Lily Margaroli, President at Exeter Students’ Guild, observed that the plenaries were in a different area from the science pavilions, separating policymakers from researchers and academics. 

“That gap between policy and research has to be bridged, and effort needs to come from both sides to do this,” Margaroli shared in an article for Wonkhe. “Researchers must understand the political implications of the decisions politicians must make, and be cognizant of this when lobbying for change, in the presentation of recommendations, and in the specific recommendations that they make. Politicians need to listen to the scientists, and academics and researchers must be invited into the rooms where decisions are made, given the floor to speak, and listened to.”

Not by fear, but by hope

“Is this how our story is due to end? A tale of the smartest species doomed by that all too human characteristic of failing to see the bigger picture in pursuit of short-term goals?” Sir David Attenborough asked during his speech at COP26. “Perhaps the fact that the people most affected by climate change are no longer some imagined future generation, but young people alive today, perhaps that will give us the impetus we need to rewrite our story, to turn this tragedy into a triumph. We are, after all, the greatest problem solvers to have ever existed on Earth.”

“If working apart, we are a force powerful enough to destabilize our planet, surely, working together, we are powerful enough to save it,” said Attenborough.

“We must use this opportunity to create a more equal world,” he urged world leaders. “And our motivation should not be fear, but hope.”

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