Friends of the Earth International comments on draft COP26 outcome

10 November 2021

Sara Shaw, Climate justice and energy programme coordinator at Friends of the Earth International, comments on draft COP26 outcome:

“This draft COP outcome is less a Glasgow Pact and more a Glasgow Get-out clause. The targets are disturbingly weak and full of loopholes allowing rich nations to avoid their responsibility for reducing emissions and providing finance to developing countries.

“Net Zero “by around mid-century” is distant and dangerous. Instead of concrete plans for a fair, fast phase out of fossil fuels, and new public finance for a just energy transformation, we get climate-wrecking business-as-usual. Rich countries and corporations are being given permission to keep polluting for decades, based on the fantasy of balancing out their emissions with offsets and technofixes. 

“The inclusion of ‘Nature Based Solutions’ rings alarm bells too. Clearly, it’s an intoxicating idea, that after decades of inaction nature can come to save us from climate breakdown. But ‘Nature Based Solutions’ but will likely lead to landgrabs, food insecurity and rights violations for people already on the sharp edge of climate impacts. There simply isn’t enough land and trees in the world to soak up the emissions that big polluters and northern governments are planning.

“The text laments the failure to meet the already grossly inadequate $100billion climate finance target. But rich countries are crying crocodile tears – as the draft sets no plans, pledges or deadlines to provide the money owed to help developing countries cope with climate impacts, and an alarming call for private finance for adaptation.”

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For further comment and interviews, contact: Sara Shaw, sara@foe.co.uk, +44 7974 008270