Deep Sea Mining: Threatening Our Oceans

The Glasgow Climate Pact coming out of the 2021 U.N. Conference on Climate Change (COP26) recognizes the need for deep emissions cuts in this decade—but it fell far short of securing the action we need now.

Nations had promised to do more at the Glasgow talks, and, from the start, Glasgow was meant to deliver commitments that would limit warming to 1.5°C. That didn’t happen, and we have lost precious time to tackle the worsening climate crisis.

Before COP27 is held in Egypt in 2022, we need to mobilize by the millions and redouble our efforts so that countries come back with much stronger targets and clearly defined plans.

Main Outcomes from COP26

Frontline Activism

First, credit where credit is overwhelmingly overdue: without Indigenous leaders, youth activists, and countries on the front lines of the climate emergency fighting for our future, the climate talks would have failed.

Both inside and outside the COP conference center, voices from countries and communities most affected by the impacts of the climate crisis demanded action from world leaders. In the days leading up to the opening of COP26, young activists from Namibia, Uganda, Bangladesh, and Mexico sailed to COP on board the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior to tell leaders to “Stop Failing Us.”

Days later, activists including Greta Thunberg and Greenpeace International Executive Director Jennifer Morgan challenged Mark Carney, the U.N. Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, at a side event on voluntary carbon offsets, calling it “greenwash.” These actions, amid the daily relentless demands from frontline activists, highlighted inaction and the insufficient ambition of the talks, holding government negotiators accountable.

Help to Address Climate Impacts

The idea behind climate “adaptation” is simple: even if we limit warming, countries will still need to make big investments to deal with climate impacts. Climate vulnerable countries need and deserve resources from the richest countries and biggest polluters to deal with the mounting impacts of the climate crisis. Expectations that COP26 would finally deliver real support for communities needing to recover and rebuild in the aftermath of climate disasters were high.

Although rich countries finally began to acknowledge the calls from more climate vulnerable countries for funding and resources, acknowledgement is not enough without ambitious, concrete commitments. The world’s nations that are disproportionately responsible for rising temperatures must both dramatically reduce their own climate pollution and deliver much more help to those suffering from the mess they have created. This must be a top priority for developed countries as climate negotiations continue in 2022.

Carbon Offsets

Disappointingly, the carbon offset scam got a boost in Glasgow, creating new loopholes that endanger nature, Indigenous Peoples, and the 1.5°C goal itself. Although the U.N. Secretary-General announced a new Group of Experts to scrutinize the role of offsets, much work still needs to be done to prevent giving big polluters a pass to continue dirty business as usual.

Phasing Out Fossil Fuels

The Glasgow Climate Pact is the first UN agreement to specifically include lines about phasing out coal and ending fossil fuel subsidies. While this is a step forward, the actual language is compromised and weak.

The call for emissions reductions of 45% by the end of this decade is still in line with what we need to do to stay under 1.5°C and keeps the science in this deal. But countries need to specify how much and by when they will cut emissions. And a focus on a just transition to clean energy will be essential.

What Happens After COP26?

Our climate is now breaking down around us. We see it every day in wildfires, extreme storms, droughts, and melting ice. There is no time to waste. It’s in the interests of all countries to transition to clean renewable energy. And richer countries must do more to support that shift. Our future depends on it.

COP27 will take place this year in Egypt, where climate justice activists will intensify efforts to raise awareness about the severe climate impacts and to secure more support for adaptation, loss, and damage. In the meantime, we must continue to mobilize and urgently create irrepressible pressure that finally ends the era of fossil fuels.