Feedback on the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow

The historic climate agreement created strong reactions around the world.

Greta Thunberg sums up the meeting in her favorite phrases:

“Blah, blah, blah,” Thunberg wrote on Twitter.

Climate Summit in GlasgowAnd COP26concluded after 15 days of negotiations. The deadline passed on Friday and intense negotiations continued on Saturday.

The summit eventually culminated in a ten-page “climate pact” that 197 countries could finally agree to.

The agreement contains, among other things, rules for trading in emissions rights and common time frames for reporting on climate action. Rounds about what exactly should be in the document have been a lot. A particularly controversial issue is the formulation of coal power – which is now included in the global climate agreement for the first time.

At the last minute, India managed to bring about a change of wording.

But instead of “phasing out” coal power, it is now stated in the document that it will be “reduced”.

“I understand the deep disappointment but it is important that we protect this package,” said meeting chair Alok Sharma.

He was noticeably taken inspecting the historic deal.

Greta: blah blah blah

Reactions from the outside world after reaching the agreement scattered.

Greenpeace president Jennifer Morgan still calls the coal power issue a victory, despite India’s ability to water down the wording at the last minute.

“They have changed a word, but they cannot change the signal that comes from this COP: that the age of coal is over. If you are the manager of a coal company, this COP has had a poor outcome,” she says in a statement Saturday evening.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres believes that the agreement is not enough.

“It’s an important step but it’s not enough. It’s time to go into emergency mode. The battle for the climate is the battle of our lives and that battle must be won,” he wrote on Twitter.

The Paris Agreement’s goal is to hold the world to a 1.5 degree rise

Johan Rockstrom, professor of environmental sciences, told TT that the convention in Glasgow is going in the right direction, but it is not enough.

– When the states went to Glasgow, we were on our way to a disaster, a temperature rise of 2.7 degrees. He says when we left the meeting, we are following a dangerous path.

If countries follow the convention, Rockstrom believes the world is heading toward 1.8 or 1.9 degrees Celsius.

– I consider it a dangerous future, but not catastrophic, he says.

Nor was Greta Thunberg affected by the outcome of the climate summit.

“Here’s a short summary: so-and-so,” Thunberg wrote on Twitter.

The head of the Swedish Society for the Conservation of Nature expresses himself rather positively.

It is gratifying that the two countries have been able to agree, but despite important progress, the Glasgow Charter is still not strong enough to respond to the climate crisis, says Karin Lyksen, Secretary General of the Swedish Society for the Conservation of Nature.

One of the major issues during COP26 was the Western world’s financing of climate action in developing countries. At this point, Karen Lixen thinks the agreement hasn’t come to the end.

It’s positive that there is information about the fulfillment of previous promises on climate finance, but we would have liked to see also promises of further expansion.