Alok Sharma: negotiations at Cop 26 harder than in Paris in 2015
Environment — di Andrea Barolini
The Cop 26 president admits that the negotiations in Glasgow will be even more complicated than those that led to the Paris Agreement six years ago.
Alok Sharma: negotiations at Cop 26 harder than in Paris in 2015
The Cop 26 president admits that the negotiations in Glasgow will be even more complicated than those that led to the Paris Agreement six years ago.
The negotiations at the twenty-sixth United Nations world climate conference – Cop 26, to be held in Glasgow in the first half of November – will be even harder than those that took place in France in 2015, at Cop 21, which led to the Paris Agreement. This was explained by Alok Sharma, who will preside over the event in Scotland.
The Paris Agreement is like a constitution: it sets out principles that then need to be applied
The reasons for the pessimism are twofold: on one hand, six years ago the deal concerned a document based on broad principles and objectives. It was decided to limit the rise in average global temperature to a maximum of 2 degrees by the end of the century compared to pre-industrial levels, while aiming to keep it as close as possible to 1.5 degrees. But no explanation was given as to how to get there.
At every subsequent Cop, the game has been played on precisely this: the practical implementation of the Paris Agreement. From Marrakesh to Bonn, from Katowice to Madrid, the world has tried to give concrete form to the commitments made in France. And the difficulties in the negotiations have, paradoxically, been growing.
In Paris, the detailed rules were left to subsequent negotiations
"What we will be trying to do at Cop 26," Sharma explained in an interview with The Guardian, "is harder than Paris. That was a framework agreement, but most of the detailed rules were left to subsequent negotiations." The Cop 26 president added that "it's as if we've reached the end of the exam, we're left with the most complex questions to answer and we now have very little time to do so."
Cop26 climate deal will be harder than Paris accord, admits Sharma theguardian.com/environment/20…
Making the dialogue even more difficult is the new geopolitical context. Compared to a few years ago, relations between the United Kingdom and the United States on one side, and China and Russia on the other, are more strained. The presidents of the latter two countries, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, are not even expected to attend Cop 26 in Glasgow. "As Paris approached, the stars were aligned differently," Alok Sharma observed in this regard. "In our favour," he added, "is the fact that we have a conscience to answer to. And the latest Ipcc report, which is deeply alarming, should help focus minds on the goal."
Greta Thunberg: "As things stand, Cop 26 will not bring major changes"
A few days earlier, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg had also made her scepticism plain: "As things stand, this Cop will not lead to major changes. We will have to keep up the pressure." The leader of the Fridays for Future movement added that "my hope, obviously, is that there will be a sudden realisation that we are facing an existential crisis and that we need to act accordingly."