COP 26 ends with agreement on Glasgow Climate Pact, but delivery will take huge effort

Nearly 200 countries agreed the “Glasgow Climate Pact” to keep 1.5C alive, “but it will only be delivered with a huge global effort” said the UK government.

Agreements made at COP26 include 130 countries across the globe, including Pakistan, committing to end and reverse deforestation, along with cutting methane emissions by 30% by the year 2030. Around 30 big Pakistani businesses signed up to the UK in Pakistan’s 26for26 campaign pledging to halve their carbon emissions by 2030 and to achieve net zero by 2050.

Last week, the UK announced more than £55 million to help Pakistan build its resilience to the impacts of climate change, manage water more sustainably and unlock climate investment. Pakistan is ranked as the 8th most vulnerable country to climate change with rising temperatures threatening to melt 36% of glaciers along the Hindu Kush and Himalayan range by 2100.

Pakistan has said it aims to produce 60% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030 and has committed to not importing any new coal. To speed up the phasing out of coal fired power stations, Pakistan signed up to the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Energy Transition Mechanism The ADB will help show how early coal plant closure might be achieved.

When the UK took on the COP26 leadership role nearly two years ago, only 30% of the world was covered by net zero targets. This figure is now at around 90%. Over the same period, 154 Parties have submitted new national targets, representing 80% of global emissions.

Cop26 president, Alok Sharma, said he was “deeply sorry” during an emotional speech as a package was agreed with last-minute changes to its wording on coal. A commitment to ‘phase out’ coal, which was included in earlier drafts, was changed to ‘phase down’ after China and India led opposition to it.

Sharma’s closing media statement said that the 1.5  of the pact was “a fragile win” and ended saying that the hard work starts now.