There's a sense of urgency at the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow, says NZ journalist Rod Oram who is in attendance.
“The negotiations are still incredibly painstaking … you're still getting quite a few countries saying no to all the things they've been saying no to for a long time.
“So that's really hard work. And in fairness to negotiators, that level of close scrutiny of any texts or agreement is important, of course. But there is so little time.”
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi presents his national statement at the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland Photo: AFP
Rod Oram Photo: RNZ/Dru Faulkner
India’s climate pledges have been among the highlights of the summit so far, Oram tells Nine to Noon.
“On the very first day, Modi [Narendra], its president, announced that India was going to be carbon neutral by 2070.
“Now that's a long way off, and it's past the 2050 mid-century deadline for everybody else, but India is very rapidly on the way to becoming the second-largest economy in the world after China, and ahead of the United States.
“It's also made a commitment to reduce the carbon intensity of its economy - that's how much the emissions are per unit of GDP - and that's a very bold thing to do for a country that's still developing very rapidly.”
China, too, has been active at COP26 despite President Xi Jinping not attending.
“They've got a big delegation here and very active, and there'll be getting very close political guidance on where that goes.”
This year's COP climate change summit differs significantly from past ones, Oram says.
“In this COP, the world leaders came at the beginning of the two weeks. Normally, they come at the end as a way of stepping in to try to broker those last-minute deals.”
There remain many “square brackets” in the text of agreements being negotiated, he says.
“The square brackets are the bits that people can't agree on. And so, for carbon markets, which is again a very important one to the world, but also to New Zealand, because we're going to be so such an unusually big user of those carbon markets, to buy credits to make up for our insufficient domestic emissions reductions.
“The carbon markets text as of 24 hours ago still had 300 square brackets in it, which is an awful lot for the negotiators to work through.”
Photo: AFP
Another significant shift at this COP is a move from the apportioning of pain to the apportioning of opportunities, Oram says.
“Because as technologies advance, so for now renewable forms of generating electricity are the cheapest around, and there's a much bigger emphasis on getting all of that out as many countries, particularly the developing ones as possible.
“So that is a very positive shift in the dynamic, but that's mostly being pushed by the civil society in the negotiations here.”
Politicians, however, are lagging.
“Politicians are still trying to deal with all the vested interest in their countries that are pushing back on various things or they're uncertain about how broad the political support in their countries is or how deep the understanding of the benefits of change are amongst their electorate.
“So, the politicians are the slow ones here.”
Despite delays, capital is flowing into renewable energy sources, Oram says. A group called GFANZ (Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero) has mobilised $US130 trillion.
At this year's conference, the climate and biodiversity are being addressed simultaneously, he says.
“The UN is deliberately trying to bring together two negotiating streams. One is the Conference of the Parties on Climate - COP26. But the other one is the Conference of the Parties on the Biodiversity Protocol.”
It's been a partial success bringing these two strands together, Oram says.
“Because they are co-crises, they are interdependent on each other. And therefore, if you come up with a solution for one, and you could well have a benefit in the other.”
Fijian Prime Minister, Hon Voreque Bainimarama (right) with Samoa’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Fatumanava Luteru (left) at COP26 in Glasgow Photo: Supplied / SPREP
