Connect with us

Climate change

COP 27 - UN report warns climate change is accelerating

SHARE:

Published

on

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. You can unsubscribe at any time.

The world is naturally still focusing on the ongoing health pandemic but another issue of vital importance: confronting climate change. Global warming has, already this year, been blamed for a series of natural disasters across the world and a recent landmark UN report warned that climate change is occurring far faster than forecast, writes Nikolay Barekov, journalist and former MEP.

In November, the UK, together with Italy, will host an event many believe to be the world’s best last chance to get runaway climate change under control. 

This year will be the 26th annual summit – giving it the name COP 26. With the UK as president, COP 26 takes place in Glasgow.

In the run up to COP 26 the UK says it is working with every nation to reach agreement on how to tackle climate change. More than 190 world leaders will arrive in Scotland and, joining them, will be tens of thousands of negotiators, government representatives, businesses and citizens for twelve days of talks.

Nikolay Barekov

The event has set four key “goals” in tackling climate action, one of whichis to secure global net zero by mid-century and keep 1.5 degrees within reach.

Under this objective, countries are being asked to come forward with ambitious 2030 emissions reductions targets that align with reaching net zero by the middle of the century.

To deliver on these stretching targets, countries will need to accelerate the phase-out of coal; curtail deforestation; speed up the switch to electric vehicles and encourage investment in renewables.

Advertisement

EU legislation requires member states to adopt national energy and climate plans (NECPs) for the 2021-2030 period in order to contribute to the EU's binding climate and energy targets for 2030. Each individual final NECP has been assessed by the European Commission and the assessments were published in October 2020.

One of the European countries most badly affected by climate change already this year is Turkey which has seen everything from  flash floods to forest fires and drought.

Turkey is bearing the brunt of increasingly frequent disasters blamed on climate change and wildfires have led to several deaths since late July across southern coastal regions, ravaging forests and turning villages to ash. So far this year, the country has also experienced deadly floods in the northeast followed an arid spell that dried up dams, endangering water supplies.

Experts and environmentally-conscious politicians put ratifying the 2015 Paris Agreement adopted by 196 countries on top of Turkey's to-do list. Turkey is one of only six nations, including Iraq and Libya, yet to formally approve the accord.

Climate Action Tracker, a think tank that evaluates national emissions reduction plans, said Turkey's effort towards the accord's goals was "critically insufficient".

A COP26 goal is the phase out of coal but fossil fuels still made up 83 percent of Turkey's energy supply in 2019. Even so, the International Energy Agency this year praised Ankara's efforts to diversify its energy mix, with "impressive" renewable energy growth.

Elsewhere, Bulgaria submitted its final NECP in March 2020.

Bulgaria's NECP identifies several reasons for the reduction in total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). These include: structural changes in industry, such as the decline in energy-intensive enterprises, an increased share of hydro and nuclear electricity, implementation of energy efficiency measures in the housing sector, and a shift from solid and liquid fuels to natural gas in energy consumption.

However, according to the country report under the 2020 European Semester, Bulgaria is the most GHG intensive economy in the European Union, and – like Turkey -  coal is still the main source of energy.

For Romania, the most relevant possible impacts of climate change are said to be modification of vegetation periods, displacement of ecosystems, prolonged droughts smf floods.

Romania’s response includes setting-up an energy efficiency investment fund (FIEE) financed by private, public and EU funds.

The Romanian draft integrated National Energy and Climate Plan is structured along the  EU’s Energy Union dimensions and aims at a holistic approach.

A European commission spokesman said this “provides a good basis for the development of a complete and coherent final plan.”

Another EU country badly hit in recently years by climate change is Greece.

In 2018, the country suffered a devastating fire in Mati, eastern Attica, that cost 102 lives. The Greek premier said at the time that “the destruction shook the Greek public deeply.”

Extreme conditions were said to have largely contributed to the ferocity of the fire and the Greek government has warned that climate change is not an issue that be put off for a few decade.

So far, the Greek government’s response to the issue has been to adopt a new national policy for energy and the climate.

This includes a proposed ban on single-use plastic, the shutdown of lignite-fired power plants by 2028 and the increase in the share of renewable resources to 35 percent by 2030.

A Greek government spokesman said it has put the management of climate change fallout high on its policy agenda,partly because Greece's economic future is linked to its ability to protect its unique natural environment.

Greece, he noted, is “fully committed” to the COP26 goals and also to the Paris Agreement and the UN Agenda for 2030, with its 17 global Sustainable Development Goals.

The recent UN report warns we’ll likely reach 1.5 degrees warming in the next one or two decades unless we take immediate action

This latest report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a stark warning from scientists around the world that human activity is damaging the planet at an alarming rate. 

The UK International Champion on Adaptation and Resilience for the COP26 Presidency Anne-Marie Trevelyan said, “The impacts of climate change are already affecting lives and livelihoods around the world, with increasing frequency and severity. Alongside the need to drive down emissions, this report rings the alarm to urgently help vulnerable communities adapt and build resilience - in developed and developing countries alike.”

Nikolay Barekov is political journalist and presenter, former CEO of TV7 Bulgaria and a former MEP for Bulgaria and former deputy chairman of the ECR group in the European Parliament.

Share this article:

EU Reporter publishes articles from a variety of outside sources which express a wide range of viewpoints. The positions taken in these articles are not necessarily those of EU Reporter.

Trending