Youth and public empowerment

COP26 has been bringing together parties from across the world to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Open University has official observer status at COP26 and is learning from the conference to inform the university’s wider sustainability mission and inspire students and staff to take action. Here are some of the conference’s highlights, as told by our Open University observers. 

COP26 Diary - 5 November: Dr Clive Mitchell, Associate Lecturer.

As we reach the halfway house, there are lots of common themes from today including the uneven distribution of emissions and impacts; loss and damage funding; good governance and risk.

The role of parliaments in scrutinising government action on climate and nature policy showed how scrutiny ensures Government’s deliver on promises. Developing countries emphasised their vulnerability to climate change, while the G20 are responsible for 78% of global emissions. It also emphasises good governance including participatory approaches – engaging academic and civil society – transparency, openness, and the impact of wider actions.

In The danger we're in and the case for hope, Al Gore gave an inspired refresh of An Inconvenient Truth. Opening with a grim assessment of climate science with dramatic images of the impact of climate change. For every 1°C rise in temperature, the atmosphere holds 7% more moisture, delivered in less predictable ways. Water stress in low latitudes will lead to large parts of north Africa and the Middle East becoming uninhabitable, potentially leading to a billion climate migrants this century. It then shifted to the solutions: we have them and can deploy them at scale if there is the political will to do so.

Coal is rapidly becoming un-investible as the cost of wind energy and solar tumbles. Nevertheless, low rates of investment in developing countries are due to punishing interest rates for financing. Petrochemical giants remain unresponsive, merely shifting the emphasis from fuels to plastics with 96% of investment devoted to oil and gas. Investment in gas pipelines remains high and global subsidies for fossil fuels is 42-times that of renewables.

Capitalism must change. A just transition must redistribute wealth. Hyper inequality where 1% of global population owns 46% of world’s wealth cannot be sustained. The current net zero promises could lead to 1.8°C temperature rise by 2100 if they are acted upon. Climate trace.org will identify emissions from every installation, allowing targeted action by governments and civic society. Listen to the voices of young people and the climate vulnerable. We can solve this.