Summary Report: Glasgow Climate Change Conference

The Glasgow Climate Change Conference convened after a year-long postponement due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Parties adopted the Glasgow Climate Pact: a series of three overarching cover decisions that provide an overall political narrative of the Conference of the Parties (COP). For the first time in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process, there is a reference to phasing down unabated coal power and phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies. Some of the substantive aspects of the decisions include calls for:

developed countries to double their adaptation finance from 2019 levels, by 2025; and
parties that have not yet communicated new or updated nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to do so before the next COP.

The Pact also establishes:

an annual high-level ministerial roundtable on pre-2030 ambition;
the Glasgow Dialogue between parties on loss and damage, to convene from 2022 to 2024; and
an annual dialogue to strengthen ocean-based action.

There are sections on science, adaptation, adaptation finance, mitigation, finance, technology and capacity building, loss and damage, implementation, and collaboration in the cover decisions, except for the one related to the Kyoto Protocol.

Before COP 26 convened, 153 countries, accounting for 49% of global greenhouse gas emissions, had updated their NDCs to the Paris Agreement. As estimated by the Secretariat’s NDC Synthesis Report, these updated NDCs would lead to 2.7°C of global warming by 2100. Developed countries had also published a road map that admitted that they would miss the promised USD 100 billion per year by 2020 climate finance goal, and would not likely achieve it before 2023.

Against this modest beginning, the World Leaders’ Summit brought together over 120 Heads of State and Government. There were strong calls for greater ambition, and several developed countries made new financial pledges. The UK Presidency tallied that USD 800 million was pledged for adaptation over COP 26, including the first-ever US contribution to the Adaptation Fund. Additional financial pledges came from Japan, Germany, and Spain, among others. There were a few new NDC or net zero pledges. Most notable among these was India’s pledge for net zero by 2070. There are estimates that the new NDCs and net zero pledges, taken with NDCs and net zero pledges submitted before the COP, would lead to 1.8°C to 2.4°C of global warming by 2100, if these pledges are fully implemented.

New partnerships and declarations announced during the Leaders’ Summit included:

the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use, signed by 120 countries, to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030, backed by public funds for forest conservation and a global roadmap to make 75% of forest commodity supply chains sustainable; and
the Global Methane Pledge, signed by over 100 countries, to commit to collectively reduce global methane emissions by 30% by 2030.

Throughout COP 26, many other declarations and alliances were announced, in Presidency-led events or in press conferences.

After the leaders left, despite divisive negotiations, parties managed to finalize the Paris Agreement Rulebook and adopt other substantive outcomes. During the closing plenaries, parties reflected that the overall package was not perfect, and many stressed that they were adopting the package “in the spirit of compromise.” Many developing countries lamented the outcome on loss and damage. They had called for a financial mechanism for loss and damage, but the outcomes on loss and damage only include a strengthened Santiago Network and its technical support functions, and a two-year dialogue.

In completing the Paris Agreement Rulebook, the Agreement is now operational and implementable. Since 2018, when countries completed most of the elements of the rulebook, Article 6 (cooperative approaches) and common time frames remained missing elements. In Glasgow, decisions were adopted on both issues to operationalize carbon credit trading, a carbon market, and a framework for non-market-based approaches. On common time frames, countries agreed to submit new NDCs in 2025, that will have an end date of 2035, and, in 2030 to submit NDCs with an end date of 2040, and so on. It will provide regular five-year updates to NDCs, with each lasting for ten years.

The enhanced transparency framework was fully completed, with the tables, outlines and other formats for the reports agreed. This will enable parties to submit their first biennial transparency reports under the Paris Agreement in 2024. Support for developing countries to undertake their obligations under the enhanced transparency framework was included in the finance decisions.

The Glasgow Climate Change Conference convened from 31 October – 13 November 2021. This was the first in-person meeting for a multilateral environmental agreement to take place since the global COVID-19 pandemic began. In total, 39,509 people registered for the conference: 21,967 representatives from parties and observer states; 14,033 observers; and 3,781 media.

The Conference featured unique arrangements, including daily testing requirements and socially-distanced meeting rooms. There was a 10,000-person limit to the Blue Zone, where negotiations and side events took place, which was often reached by midday. For those unable to access the Blue Zone, an online platform facilitated access to negotiations and other events. Throughout the Conference, and particularly during the World Leaders’ Summit, observers drew attention to the lack of access for civil society to negotiation spaces. Some aspects of the meeting were more familiar, including last minute huddles in plenary to work through outstanding issues. Data related to COVID-19 infection rates were not published.