Climate summit COP 26: nothing new in Glasgow

Delegates fought for two weeks at the COP26 climate protection summit in Glasgow. And if there aren’t any big surprises in the last few hours, they’ll just give birth to a mouse again :Der First draft of an agreement on climate protection Was – professionals certainly expected it – weakened under pressure from countries with many important raw materials, such as Russia, Saudi Arabia or Australia. The frustration among many participants from science or environmental organizations is similarly great.

For example, the new document no longer calls for a quick phase-out of coal use, but only for “unimpeded use of coal”. According to the paper, climate-damaging subsidies should no longer be eliminated in general, but rather “disable subsidies” – whatever individual states mean, especially since the G20 countries already agreed to it. And these are just two of the document’s various weaknesses.

This officially continues on the last day, which was already clear during the convention: states make promises they give up shortly afterwards. Or they can say right away that they don’t want to participate in specific agreements. One example is the promise made by over 100 countries to reduce deforestation to zero by 2030. Given the rapid rate of deforestation in the tropics, this would be a significant step forward. On the one hand, however, it was announced by the international community in early 2014, while in many regions nothing was observed. Indonesia, on the other hand, pointed out a day later that the project should not be at the expense of development: therefore further approvals are warranted.