Global Leaders Convene for COP26

From October 31 to November 13 in Glasgow, Scotland, leaders from around the world met for the 26th annual United Nations Climate Change conference, referred to as COP26.  

Many policies were proposed in order to curb climate change and protect diminishing ecosystems. Many of the goals reinforced those introduced in the Paris Agreement of 2015: Limiting global warming to 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels; financing from high-income, high-polluting countries for low-income countries towards a transition to renewable energy; and ensuring that all new cars sold by 2035 are zero-emission vehicles. COP26 also prominently featured discussions on climate finance, as developed countries fell short of their previously set targets for funding renewable energy.

Of the 120 heads of state who gave speeches at the summit, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state speaking on behalf of Pope Francis, spoke last, saying, “As the Glasgow Conference begins, all of us are aware that it has the vital task of demonstrating to the entire international community whether there really exists a political will to devote — with honesty, responsibility and courage — greater human, financial and technological resources to mitigating the negative effects of climate change and assisting the poorer and more vulnerable nations most affected by it. Sadly, we must acknowledge how far we remain from achieving the goals set for tackling climate change.  We need to be honest: this cannot continue!”

Cardinal Parolin, on behalf of the pope, also expressed a strong support for the repayment of “ecological debt” by high-income countries “not only by significantly limiting their consumption of non-renewable energy or by assisting poorer countries to enact policies and programmes of sustainable development, but also by covering the costs of the innovation required for that purpose.”

Bishop John Arnold, lead bishop on the Environment for the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales, echoed a similar sentiment, saying, “All major economies will have to commit to more ambitious climate plans by 2030, including decarbonising their transport, energy and agriculture sectors,” the bishop said. “Richer countries will need to provide what they’ve promised – at least $100 billion in climate finance every year until 2025 with a focus on helping low-income countries adapt to the impacts of climate change. They must also establish how this finance will increase in the future.”

Since his election in 2013, Pope Francis has addressed many issues related to social justice, including socio-economic inequality, consumerism, modern technology, and environmental protection. The pope wrote his encyclical Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home in 2015. In the document, he affirms global warming as scientifically proven and resulting largely from human activity: “Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last two hundred years,” he wrote. He also links climate change to poverty, technology, and economic greed. Pope Francis writes: “We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis that is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded and at the same time protecting nature.”

By the conference’s conclusion on November 13, the Glasgow Climate Pact was passed with a clause requesting countries to deliver plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by next year.