COP26 adopts half-hearted deal after two weeks of grueling negotiations

The president of the world climate conference, Alok Sharma, said he was "deeply sorry" for the changes introduced at the last minute in the final text.

AP - Alberto Pezzali

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

The 200 countries of the COP26 adopted on Saturday a "Glasgow pact" to accelerate the fight against global warming, without ensuring to contain it at 1.5 ° C or respond to requests for assistance from poor countries.

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The text was adopted with a hammer blow from the British president of the world climate conference, Alok Sharma, after two weeks of trying negotiations.

Witnessing the difficulty in reaching this agreement, the president of COP26 said in a voice moved and with tears in his eyes " 

 " for last minute changes introduced on the issue of fossil fuels at the request of China and India.

He had earlier estimated that the agreement " 

 " on the climate.

On the critical point of limiting temperatures, while the planet is according to the UN on a "

 "

trajectory 

of warming of 2.7 ° C compared to the pre-industrial era, the text calls on Member States to raise their reduction commitments more regularly than provided for in the Paris agreement, starting in 2022. But with the possibility of adjustments for " 

 ", a point which has aroused criticism from NGOs on the real ambitions of the text .

The limit of + 1.5 ° C not guaranteed

Moreover, the compromise found does not ensure compliance with the objectives of the Paris Agreement, limiting warming to “ 

 ” 2 ° C and if possible to 1.5 ° C. But it offers prospects for the British presidency to show success on its objective of seeing Glasgow " 

 ". Experts regularly warn that " 

 " while disasters linked to climate change are already increasing: floods, droughts or heat waves, with their attendant damage and victims.

The text also contains a mention, unprecedented at this level, of fossil fuels, the main responsible for global warming and which are not even mentioned in the Paris agreement.

The wording was attenuated over the versions and until the last minute before the adoption in plenary, at the insistence of China and India in particular.

The final version calls for “ 

 ”. 

After a failure at the last two COPs, it has also succeeded in finalizing the rules for using the Paris Agreement, in particular on the functioning of the carbon markets supposed to help reduce emissions.

Poor countries "extremely disappointed"

The explosive issue of aid to poor countries, which at one time seemed able to derail the negotiations, has however not found a resolution.

Scared by the still unfulfilled promise of the richest to increase their climate aid in the South to $ 100 billion per year from 2020 onwards, the poor countries, the least responsible for global warming, but on the front line in the face of its impacts, demanded a specific financing of the " 

 " they already suffer.

But developed countries, foremost the United States, which fears possible legal consequences, strongly opposed it.

Reluctantly, the poor countries therefore gave in, accepting a continuation of the dialogue so as not to lose the progress made in the fight against global warming, the effects of which already threaten them directly.

But they said they were “ 

 ”.

" 

 " commented Teresa Anderson, from the NGO ActionAid International.

The face of the global youth climate movement, Greta Thunberg, was no more tender, denouncing on Twitter “ 

 ” in an attempt to pass this Glasgow Pact as “a step in the right direction”.

(

AFP)

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