Climate Change
Climate Diplomacy

COP26 Announcement Tracker: Key Announcements from the 2021 U.N. Climate Summit

By Anna McGinn and Emma Johnson and Savannah Bertrand

November 13, 2021

Throughout the Glasgow climate summit (COP26)—which officially ran from November 1 to 12, 2021—a number of agreements, declarations, and collaborations were announced on a range of climate, environmental, and energy topics. EESI tracked the happenings of COP26 through our daily newsletter, Glasgow Dispatch: What Congress Needs to Know About COP26. This article provides a compilation of the announcements included in Glasgow Dispatch.

There were also a number of announcements made by world leaders related to nationally determined contributions (NDCs)—the commitments nations make under the Paris Agreement to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. While this document does not include announcements related to NDCs, that information can be found in the Climate Action Tracker or through ClimateWatch.

As a point of reference, there were several pavilions at COP26, including the U.S. Center, which was the U.S. federal government hub at COP26; the U.S. Climate Action Center, which was the U.S. subnation hub; and the U.K. Pavillion, which was the United Kingdom’s COP26 Presidency hub.

These announcements are organized by key themes and signatories but many also touch on multiple different themes. For more on reports, tools, and U.S. federal government plans released during COP26, check out our article "COP26 Report Tracker: Key Climate Reports Launched at the 2021 U.N. Climate Summit."

Glasgow Declaration on Tourism signing. Credit: UNFCCC Flickr

International declarations and announcements that include the United States

Adaptation and resilience

  • U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry announced that the United States has signed onto an initiative in support of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) called the LDC Initiative for Effective Adaptation and Resilience (LIFE-AR). The initiative is designed to support LDCs in reaching their 2050 Vision of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. President Biden has said he plans to work with Congress to provide $3 billion to LIFE-AR.
  • The United States committed to the World Health Organization’s COP26 Health Programme, which aims to build climate-resilient health systems and reduce emissions from the health sector. Forty-six additional countries have also committed to building climate-resilient health systems, with 12 countries committing to net-zero health systems by 2050 or earlier.
  • The Adaptation Research Alliance (ARA) was officially launched with 90 partners to spur more funding for action-oriented adaptation research. The United Kingdom and Canada partnered to announce CA$170 million (about $136 million) for the Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CLARE) research program, which will support the ARA’s work. The launch event also outlined the alliance’s Adaptation Research for Impact Principles.

 

Aviation

  • The International Aviation Climate Ambition Coalition was launched with 20 countries signing on. The Coalition, which includes the United States, Kenya, Canada, and the United Kingdom, committed to adopting “an ambitious global goal for international aviation CO2 emissions,” and supporting “specific measures to reduce aviation emissions including sustainable aviation fuels.”

 

Clean energy

  • The United States, European Union, South Africa, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom announced the Just Energy Transition Partnership, which “aims to accelerate the decarbonisation of South Africa’s economy, with a focus on the electricity system.” An initial commitment of $8.5 billion will be mobilized, and the Partnership is expected to prevent 1 to 1.5 gigatonnes of emissions over 20 years.
  • Over 40 countries, including the United States, India, European Union, and China, have signed onto the United Kingdom’s Breakthrough Agenda, which is an “unprecedented international clean technology plan to help keep 1.5°C in reach” (under the Paris Agreement, countries agreed to seek to limit the increase in average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius).
  • The United States launched the Net Zero World Initiative, which is “a new partnership between countries working to implement their climate ambition pledges and accelerate transitions to net-zero, resilient, and inclusive energy systems.” According to U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, the Department of Energy and its partners have committed $18 million in initial seed capital and aim to mobilize $10 billion by 2024.
  • The One Sun Declaration: Green Grids Initiative was endorsed by 83 countries, including the United States. The idea is to build a more interconnected grid, as the press release explains: “The sun never sets–every hour, half the planet is bathed in sunshine. By trading energy from sun, wind, and water across borders, we can deliver more than enough clean energy to meet the needs of everyone on earth."

 

Climate finance

  • The United States and the United Kingdom announced their intention to fully support the Capital Markets Mechanism under the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) Clean Technology Fund. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated, “Through an innovative leveraging structure, this initiative will help attract significant new private climate finance and provide $500 million per year for the Clean Technology Fund’s programming.” Representatives from the United States, United Kingdom, and Japan spoke in depth about the CIF’s Clean Technology Fund a U.S. Center event

 

Emissions reductions

  • The United States and the European Union formally launched the Global Methane Pledge Over 100 countries, including Brazil, Indonesia, and Nigeria, signed onto it. According to the U.S. State Department,“Countries joining the Global Methane Pledge commit to a collective goal of reducing global methane emissions by at least 30 percent from 2020 levels by 2030 and moving towards using best available inventory methodologies to quantify methane emissions, with a particular focus on high emission sources.”
  • The First Movers Coalition, led by U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and the World Economic Forum, was officially launched on November 4. The Coalition—made up of companies like Apple and Amazon—will commit to buying low-carbon products by 2030 and developing green supply chains. The launch followed up on an announcement from President Biden on November 2, 2021, on the same topic.
  • A group of 27 countries—including the United States, many small island states, and European countries—and the Least Developed Countries Group released a wide-ranging statement from the High Ambition Coalition covering NDCs, coal-fired power plants, fossil fuel subsidies, methane, transportation policies, national adaptation plans, loss and damage, and finance.

The launch of the forest pledge. Credit: UNFCCC Flickr

Forests

  • More than 100 world leaders, including the Biden-Harris Administration, whose countries contain 85 percent of the world’s forests, announced a commitment to “halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030.” The commitment is backed by $12 billion of public funds and $7.2 billion of private investment. Signatories include Brazil, Columbia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Indonesia.
  • The United States launched the Forest Investor Club and the Forest Finance Risk Consortium to mobilize additional funding for forests.

 

Fossil fuels

  • Over 20 countries—including the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, the Marshall Islands, and Mali—and five public finance institutions committed “to ending international public support for the unabated fossil fuel energy sector by the end of 2022 and instead prioritising support for the clean energy transition,” according to a press release. This could shift $17.8 billion annually in public financing towards clean energy.

 

Shipping

  • The United States and 21 other countries signed onto the Clydebank Declaration, which aims to establish zero-emission shipping corridors.

 

United States-China collaboration

  • The United States and China released the Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s. U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and China’s Climate Envoy Xie Zhenhua emphasized the need for collaboration to increase climate action in order to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. The joint declaration also included a focus on limiting methane and preventing deforestation.

 

U.S. plans released during COP26

Adaptation and resilience

 

Aviation

  • The United States unveiled its 2021 Aviation Climate Action Plan, with a goal of achieving net-zero emissions from the U.S. aviation sector by 2050. To reach that goal, the plan outlines several steps, including increasing the production of sustainable aviation fuels, improving the efficiency and technology of aircraft, potentially using electricity or hydrogen for short flights, and strengthening the climate resilience of airports.

 

Emissions reductions

The launch of the Global Methan Pledge. Credit: UNFCCC Flickr

U.S. Agency announcements

Department of Energy (DOE)

  • Following an announcement made by President Biden on November 2, 2021, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm launched DOE’s Carbon Negative Shot, part of the Energy Earthshots Initiative. An accompanying press release noted that this is the “U.S. government’s first major effort in carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and is an all-hands-on-deck call for innovation in the expanding field of CDR—a key facet of the plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.”
  • The H2 Twin Cities Initiative was launched at a U.S. Center event. The Initiative aims “to accelerate hydrogen deployments by pairing communities around the world to collaborate, share ideas, learn from each other, and accelerate progress, particularly at the city and municipality level,”accordingto a press release.

 

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

  • USAID launched a new climate strategy for 2022-2030. At a U.S. Center event, USAID Administrator Samatha Power stated, “we are already de facto the world's premier adaptation agency because for so many years we have been helping countries … better assess and position themselves to address climate risks.” The strategy is open for public comment through November 24, 2021.
  • The Global Power System Transformation Consortium (G-PST), a collaboration between power system operators and research institutions, announced the Women in Power System Transformation program—in partnership with USAID and a major power supplier in Indonesia—to support women interested in working in system operations and utilities.
  • USAID signed onto a strategic partnership between its program, Power Africa, and the new Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet. According to the press release, the partnership sets out three strategic goals: end energy poverty, address climate change, and strengthen conditions in which clean energy can thrive.

 

International declarations and announcements that include U.S. cities and states but not the federal government

Fossil fuels

  • The states of Oregon and Hawaii, countries including Poland, Vietnam, Egypt, and Chile, and several banks and organizations signed onto the Global Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement, an agreement to phase out coal power, end support for new coal plants domestically and internationally, and scale up development of clean energy while also supporting a just transition. Additional countries signed on to some, but not all, components of the statement. Major economies will have until the 2030s to phase out coal power and the rest of the world will have until the 2040s.
  • Twenty-eight new members, including Ukraine, Chile, Singapore, Mauritius, Azerbaijan, Slovenia, and Estonia and 11 financial institutions, joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance, a coalition working to advance the transition from coal to clean energy. Current U.S. state members include California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington, and U.S. cities include Honolulu, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia.
  • Denmark and Costa Rica launched the Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance to phase out oil and gas production. Costa Rican Minister of Energy and Environment Andrea Meza Murillo stated “we need to continue addressing the demand side … [but] we need to start seeing concrete measures around the supply side as well.” Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities Dan Jørgensen stated “we are all charting a common cause for net zero. And yet, it is somehow provocative to state that we need to end our own production of fossil fuels … But just as the stone age did not end due to the lack of stone, the fossil era will not end because there is no more oil left in the ground.” Core members include France, Greenland, Ireland, Quebec, Sweden, and Wales, and associate members include the state of California, New Zealand, and Portugal.

 

Vehicles

  • Ministers from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands announced the launch of the COP26 Declaration on Accelerating the Transition to 100% Zero Emissions Cars and Vans, which states that signatory countries “will work towards all sales of new cars and vans being zero emission globally by 2040, and by no later than 2035 in leading markets.” There are currently 33 signatory countries, 40 cities, states, and regional governments (including many U.S. cities and states), and 11 car manufacturers (including as well as numerous fleet owners and operators, shared mobility platforms, investors with significant shareholdings in the auto industry, and financial institutions.
  • The United Kingdom announced £4 million (about $5.3 million) toward the World Bank’s new funding stream for transportation decarbonization, kicking off the goal to mobilize $200 million over the next 10 years.

 

International declarations and announcements that do not involve the United States, U.S. states, or U.S. cities

Vehicles

 

Private sector announcements

Aviation

  • The Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA) announced the addition of an Aviators Group. SABA was founded in April 2021 to drive investment in sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) such as biofuels and its Customer Group includes Bank of America, Boeing, and Netflix. The new Aviators Group includes Amazon Air, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue, and United Airlines and “enables SABA to send an even stronger demand signal to drive greater SAF production, price reduction and technological innovation,” according to RMI, a co-founder of SABA. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, and other airline officials spoke at the event.

 

Emissions reductions

  • The U.N. Global Compact is the world’s largest sustainability initiative, calling on companies to align their strategies with the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. In a United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) event, it was announced that 1,045 companies have now joined the initiative. These companies span over 53 sectors in 60 countries, have more than 32 million employees, and represent $23 trillion in market capitalization. The Global Compact also recently released a new status report on the business ambition for limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

 

Fossil fuels

  • U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions Michael Bloomberg announced an effort to shut down 25 percent of the world’s coal plants and cancel all proposed plants by 2025. Bloomberg Philanthropies launched an accompanying Global Coal Countdown platform to track progress. These initiatives build off the Beyond Coal project, which “has helped retire 65 percent of U.S. coal plants, leading to a 43 percent drop in coal emissions (2011-2019). This also allowed the U.S. to achieve 31 percent of its nationally determined contribution (NDC) by 2019 and put the country on track for a total coal phaseout that will comprise 58 percent of the U.S. NDC by 2030."

 

Other notable announcements

Adaptation and resilience

  • Albania, Armenia, Nepal, South Africa, South Sudan, and Tonga have submitted National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) in the lead-up to and during COP26. NAPs are a tool established by the UNFCCC for countries to chart a strategy to address the impacts of climate change.

 

Clean energy

  • Indonesia has agreed to a partnership with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) “to identify and implement decarbonisation pathways aligned with a 1.5°C future,” according to the press release. IRENA will write a roadmap for Indonesia’s energy transition. Indonesia is the highest emitter of greenhouse gases in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
  • The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) furthered their partnership by signing an agreement to work together to mobilize climate finance and install renewable energy. This initiative will be carried out through the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Lighthouses Initiative.

 

Climate finance

  • A major new commitment came from Japan, which will deliver an additional $2 billion per year in international climate finance over the next five years.
  • The United Kingdom announced £290 million (about $393 million) in new funding for adaptation, including £274 million for the Climate Action for a Resilient Asia program.
  • $232 million has been newly committed to the Adaptation Fund (which finances projects helping vulnerable communities in developing countries adapt to climate change), including an additional £15 million (about $20 million) announced by the United Kingdom.
  • The United Kingdom will provide £165 million (about $223 million) to address gender equality and climate change.
  • A new Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS) fund was launched to “support small island states to develop resilient, sustainable infrastructure that can withstand climate shocks, protecting lives and livelihoods.” The United Kingdom announced it will contribute £10 million ($13.6 million) to IRIS and £40 million ($54.5 million) for the Small Island Developing State Capacity and Resilience (SIDAR) program, “which will support capacity-building for small island states to access funding and technical solutions at scale.”
  • The United Kingdom announced it would provide £27.5 million (about $36.8 million) through the Urban Climate Action program to help developing cities reduce their emissions with initiatives around renewable energy and public transportation.
  • The Scottish government became the first country to commit to international climate finance for loss and damage in developing countries, with a contribution of £2 million (about $2.6 million).

*Note that this section does not capture all climate finance commitments made at COP26.

 

Education

  • Twenty-three countries, including Finland, the United Kingdom, and Nicaragua, made national climate education pledges ranging from teaching climate change to young people to building net-zero schools.

 

Emissions reductions

  • Diederik Samsom of the European Commission and Prime Minister of Samoa Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa launched the European Union-Pacific Green-Blue Alliance. The initiative will focus on the implementation of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and “sustainable use of the Pacific’s natural capital,” according to Mata’afa. The alliance is focused on consulting youth to ensure their full participation in the design and implementation of the partnership.

 

Vehicles

  • The United Kingdom announced it would “shift to clean trucks by committing to end the sale of most new diesel trucks between 2035 and 2040.” The COP26 Presidency held an event on efforts to reduce emissions from the freight industry.

 

Compiled by: Savannah Bertrand, Emma Johnson, and Anna McGinn