Advanced Search
November 12, 2021
The annual U.N. climate negotiations offer a significant platform for organizations to release new climate reports. COP26 in Glasgow was no exception, with a number of reports unveiled over the last two weeks. These reports cover both adaptation and mitigation and propose climate solutions from multiple perspectives.
Additionally, the U.S. federal government released a number of plans to reduce emissions and increase climate resilience. These include steps the United States plans to take domestically and internationally.
EESI tracked the daily happenings at COP26 through our newsletter, Glasgow Dispatch: What Congress Needs to Know About COP26. Much of the content of this article is drawn directly from COP26 coverage in the newsletter. You can view all issues of Glasgow Dispatch here. For a breakdown of key announcements from COP26, check out our COP26 Announcement Tracker.
High-level global action event. Credit: UNFCCC Flickr
Adaptation Gap Report 2021: A new report launched by the U.N. Environment Programme found that climate adaptation costs in developing countries are five to ten times greater than current public financing.
Emissions Gap Report 2021: The U.N. Environment Programme found that national climate pledges made before COP26, if implemented, would keep the global temperature rise to 2.7 degrees Celsius. Under the Paris Agreement, the international community agreed to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius, and to seek to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. To keep the 1.5 degrees Celsius target alive, countries need to halve their emissions by 2030.
Production Gap Report: This report looks at country plans to produce fossil fuels and compares those with the emission reductions needed to keep temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius. The report finds that “governments plan to produce more than twice the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than would be consistent with limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The production gap has remained largely unchanged since our first analysis in 2019.”
Determination of the Needs of Developing Country Parties: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Standing Committee on Finance published this report in the lead up to COP26. This was the first report of this kind produced by the UNFCCC. As described in the executive summary, the report “contains an analysis and presentation of the needs of developing country Parties by time frame, geographical region, thematic area, means of implementation, and sector and subsector.”
Rural Agenda for Climate Change: The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) launched a Rural Agenda for Climate Change report covering six focus areas: climate data, a just transition, renewable energy production, sustainable land management, a circular and bio-economy, and transportation decarbonization.
Climate Action Tracker: A new report, Glasgow’s 2030 Credibility Gap: Net Zero’s Lip Service to Climate Action, which includes new commitments made during COP26, found that 2030 climate targets, if implemented, would keep global temperature rise to 2.4 degrees Celsius—well above the 2-degree maximum countries committed to in the Paris Agreement.
Governance of Infrastructure for Resilience: The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure and the Resilience Shift released a white paper that draws on case studies and stakeholder input from around the world to help ensure good governance of resilience infrastructure. Themes covered in the white paper include infrastructure financing; regulations, codes, and standards; and data, information, and technology.
Greenhouse Gas Monitoring from Space: Earth observation groups came together to produce a new report to highlight current and future capabilities to track emissions using satellites for more accurate, timely, and transparent reporting.
Net Zero Whole Life Carbon Roadmap for the Built Environment: The U.K. Green Building Council released the roadmap to lay out a common vision for achieving net zero in the operation of building and infrastructure in the United Kingdom, excluding transportation. The report lays out a number of policy recommendations, including retrofitting homes nationwide and mandating public disclosure of energy use.
Ocean Acidification: Insight for Policy and Integrated Management: The International Alliance to Combat Ocean Acidification (OA Alliance) and U.S. state partners released a special issue of the Coastal Management Journal. The issue, which includes input from 42 authors across nine states, explores the opportunities and challenges of state-level responses to ocean acidification.
Zero Emission Vehicles Factbook: BloombergNEF published a factbook prepared specifically for COP26 examining zero-emission vehicle trends throughout the world and across all vehicle classes.
The COP26 venue in Glasgow. Credit: UNFCCC Flickr
Confronting the Climate Crisis: The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched a new climate strategy for 2022-2030. The strategy is open for public comment through November 24, 2021.
Long-Term Strategy of the United States: The Biden-Harris Administration released the strategy to lay out pathways to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience: The Administration announced PREPARE, which will provide funding ($3 billion annually) and technical support (e.g., NOAA climate information and services) to developing countries to help them adapt to the impacts of climate change.
U.S. Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan: The plan was unveiled as part of the U.S. commitment to the Global Methane Pledge. 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.”
2021 Aviation Climate Action Plan: The United States unveiled the 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.
Fossil fuel transparency: The prototype of a global registry of fossil fuel reserves and production was released to “enable policymakers and experts around the world to assess whether countries are on track to meet their climate commitments and provide data and analytics tools for identifying a means of winding down fossil fuel production.”
Infrastructure Risk Assessment Tool: The Government of Jamaica has worked closely with the Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment, Oxford University, and the Green Climate Fund to become, as Prime Minister Andrew Holness explains, “the first country in the world to develop a climate resilient assessment tool.” The tool, which was exhibited at COP26, is a way for Jamaica to systematically assess risk across the country in order to attract investment and allocate adaptation funding to the most impactful projects. The tool is open source and the goal is for other countries to use the model as well—at least 10 countries have already expressed interest.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Policy Toolkit: The World Economic Forum and the Clean Skies for Tomorrow Coalition launched the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Policy Toolkit to provide policymakers around the world with policy options for expanding sustainable aviation fuel production and implementation.
Compiled by: Savannah Bertrand, Emma Johnson, and Anna McGinn
Advancing science-based climate solutions
Top-Rated Climate Nonprofit – 4-Star Charity