Environmental organizations call COP26 final agreement “too poor” in ambition

The head of Climate of SEO / BirdLife, David Howell, has pointed out from Glasgow that overall the result of COP26 is “totally insufficient”, because the abandonment of fossil fuels and associated subsidies although they appear “finally” in the final agreement, “is expressed in terms too timid to drive the colossal transformation required”. In Howell’s opinion, the path of the limit of global warming of 1.5 degrees in relation to the pre-industrial era “is still far away”, this year there have been “modest steps”, when every year it is time to take giant steps and running. In the following years, the steps will have to be increasingly “more gigantic and hasty” and therefore, “will cost more and more”. According to Howell, the result is also not satisfactory in relation to the “funding delays” for the countries most in need and vulnerable to the climate emergency, with the lives and livelihoods of millions of people at serious permanent risk. For its part, Greenpeace warns that the COP26 decision “is submissive, it is weak and the 1.5 degree target is barely alive. However, the environmental organization had stressed that since the summit a signal had been sent that the coal era is ending “and that is important”, although India introduced at the last minute a modification in which it speaks of “progressive reduction”, instead of elimination of coal. Greenpeace International Director Jennifer Morgan said in a statement that “while the agreement recognizes the need to reduce emissions this decade, those commitments have been left for next year.” Young people who have reached adulthood in a climate crisis will not tolerate many more outcomes like this. Why should they do it if they are fighting for their future? Greenpeace’s director for the EU, Jorgo Riss, noted that “the EU’s behaviour at COP26 is the definition of hypocrisy and greenwashing.” While in Glasgow the EU urged the world to take far-reaching climate action, in Brussels European officials were working hard to maintain fossil gas for decades to come and backed funding for industrial agriculture and other destructive industries.” According to Riss, during the two weeks of climate talks, “the European Commission has supported fast-track funding for new terminals and gas pipelines, and has rated gas, nuclear power and industrial agriculture as sustainable and eligible for green finance.” According to Friends of the Earth, COP26 has been the “most exclusive summit in history”. Friends of the Earth’s Head of Climate Justice, Cristina Alonso, said: “The lack of ambition in the Glasgow agreement leads to a rise in global temperature far greater than what science determines and what civil society around the world is demanding.” We are running out of time to act,” Alonso concluded from Glasgow.

Original source in Spanish