Where does COP26 leave us?
Dr John Broderick is Policy Advisor Climate Change & Sustainability for the Royal Society of Chemistry.
An international cast of negotiators, scientists, protesters and politicians have now left Glasgow behind... but what is the legacy of COP26?
We welcome progress on pledges, finance, adaptation, and recognition of the loss and damage suffered by many countries around the world. Our position on climate change is clear that scientific evidence should sit at the heart of strategies to address climate change so it is heartening to see that the Glasgow Climate Pact welcomes the IPCC’s scientific contribution on the state of the climate and invites further input to the UN process during 2022.
The pact recognises that climate science shows that urgent action is required on global carbon dioxide emissions, to reduce them by 45 per cent by 2030 to keep to the 1.5°C warming goal established in the Paris Agreement. However, the pledges and agreements on emissions registered at COP26 do not reach this level. While much media attention has been focused on language around “phasing down coal”, it is clear that alternatives must be found to all fossil fuels by the middle of the century.
That includes the release of greenhouse gases from the production of steel, cement, glass and plastics; from a climate change perspective these emissions are just as damaging as those from the power and transport sectors. Chemistry is vital to this transition and our programme of events in the run up to COP26 showed how waste rubber and hydrogen can be used to produce steel and how carbon dioxide can be captured in building materials and plastics.
We also welcome the progress made by the UK COP Presidency in parallel to main negotiations, with international agreements on zero emissions vehicles and green shipping routes. The transport sector needs alternatives to fossil fuels and chemical scientists working on batteries, hydrogen and alternative fuels will be essential to phasing out internal combustion engines and the toxic pollutants they emit.
Participating in COP26 also reminds civil society organisations and businesses of the important contribution they can make. The leadership positions that we adopt will encourage the national delegations to be more ambitious as they revise their pledges during 2022, but also meaningfully contribute to reducing emissions. We will continue to deliver our manifesto of actions, reducing our own carbon footprint as part of the UN Race To Zero, and maximising our influence within the chemical science community and through the Pledge to Net Zero and Professional Bodies Climate Action Charter.
As with the conclusion of any COP, the pledges and plans made are only as good as the changes they deliver in practice. The Glasgow Climate Pact has evidently increased ambition and co-ordination – but we must all keep the pressure on our political and business leaders and work to realise a just transition to a zero emissions society.
Watch John talking to Dr Jeffrey Hardy, from Imperial College London, about Energy systems and the net zero transformation...
Understanding and tackling climate change - YouTube collection
In the run up to COP26, we convened a series of events on chemical science’s role in tackling sustainability and climate change challenges, exploring opportunities and inspirational stories from across our global chemical science community, including many speakers from the Faraday Institution, the UK's flagship battery research programme.
Watch our Chemistry and COP26 collection now.