{"id":2531,"date":"2022-02-08T17:00:29","date_gmt":"2022-02-08T11:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smarthelio.com\/?p=2531"},"modified":"2022-08-19T00:22:00","modified_gmt":"2022-08-18T18:52:00","slug":"cop26-the-time-to-act-is-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smarthelio.com\/cop26-the-time-to-act-is-now\/","title":{"rendered":"COP26: The time to Act is NOW"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/em><\/p>\n From going paperless to giving options to attendees to make sustainable food choices, the COP26 conference left no stone unturned to send the environment consciousness message both in words and through actions in every way. The beginning is inspiring, but the real work comes beyond the commitments at COP26, when these announcements will need to face accountability.<\/em><\/p>\n 200 countries and World leaders, more than 40,000 participants, 22,274 party delegates and 14,124 observers deliberated for two weeks to come up with one document of agreement at the 26th meeting of the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) that ended recently in Glasgow, UK.<\/p>\n The key issues addressed by the world leaders, researchers, scientists and activists at the COP26 included commitments like:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n From going paperless to giving options to attendees to make sustainable food choices, the COP26 conference left no stone unturned to send the environment consciousness message both in words and through actions in every way. For example, 84 kg of locally harvested Mara Seaweed was used as an entirely sustainable substitute for salt in dishes, drinking cups at the venue were reusable, saving up to approximately 250,000 single use cups, reusable, aluminium water bottles were provided to all participants.<\/p>\n Furthermore, priority was given to low- carbon, alternative energy sources such as electric and low-emission vehicles, solar energy for temporary traffic lights and Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) in generators instead of diesel.<\/p>\n The Global Forest Finance Pledge<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the key issues discussed was to finance the protection, restoration, and sustainable management of forests. Massive deforestation, recent forest fires and damages caused by natural calamities have significantly reduced the forest cover. Over 130 leaders, representing more than 90% of the world\u2019s forests, committed to work together to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030. 12 countries including UK, Japan, Canada, Germany and France announced in the COP26 Global Forest Finance pledge to collectively provide US $12 billion for forest-related climate finance between 2021 and 2025.<\/p>\n There were also discussions to scale up carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects globally, a much needed step, particularly considering the 2050 climate targets.<\/p>\n Fashion Industry\u2019s Charter for Climate Action<\/strong><\/p>\n As per McKinsey research the fashion sector was responsible for some 2.1 billion metric tons of greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions in 2018, about 4% of the global total. To put that in context, the fashion industry emits about the same quantity of GHGs per year as the entire economies of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom combined.<\/p>\n Fashion Industry\u2019s Charter for Climate Action silenced years of allegations for being one of the most prominent contributors to Climate Change.<\/p>\n The Charter will drive the fashion industry to net zero greenhouse gas emissions. More than 130 companies and 41 supporting organisations like Burberry, H&M Group, VF Corporation, Adidas, Kering, Chanel, Nike, and PUMA have signed the Fashion Charter promising commitment to climate action.<\/p>\n Accelerating transition to ZEVs by 2030<\/strong><\/p>\n According to the World Resource Institute, transport emissions accounted for over 24% of global CO2 emissions in 2016. They\u2019re also expected to grow at a faster rate than that from any other sector, posing a major challenge to efforts to reduce emissions in line with the Paris Agreement and other global goals.<\/p>\n Emissions from the transport sector are a major contributor to climate change \u2014 about 14% of annual emissions (including non-CO2 gases) and around a quarter of CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels.<\/p>\n One of the major breakthrough commitments at the COP26 summit was to accelerate transition to Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEVs) by 2030 or sooner. As many as 30 countries including India, Rwanda, Kenya agreed to work together to make ZEVs the new normal by making them accessible, affordable, and sustainable in all regions. Around $200 million of funds will be mobilised over the next 10 years for this purpose.<\/p>\n The leaders agreed on the fact that decarbonizing public transport was one of the quickest ways to reach decarbonisation. As many as 19 governments stepped forward to support the establishment of \u2018green shipping corridors\u2019 \u2014 zero-emission shipping routes between two ports.<\/p>\n\n