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Climate and Environment

    • COP26, week 1: Key takeaways from the climate conference

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    TORONTO -

    All eyes have been on Glasgow, Scotland as the first week of the UN climate conference known as COP26 draws to a close. The conference was delayed by a year because of the coronavirus pandemic, and is set to run until Nov. 12.

    The massive international undertaking has seen countries recommit to tackling the climate crisis and rising global temperatures, while protesters have taken to the streets to demand more ambitious goals and targets to reduce emissions from world leaders.

    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau represented Canada at two days of the talks this week, co-hosting a carbon pricing event showcasing Canada’s carbon price he referred to as one of the most stringent and ambitious in the world.

    The climate crisis is top of mind for many, as extreme weather events linked to climate change, including wildfires, hurricanes, famines, and droughts have made headlines over the past year.

    Recent Nanos polling reported that Canadians are six times more likely to say climate change has a negative impact on their day-to-day health rather than positive, and that an increasing number of Canadians are ready to take significant steps to avert catastrophic global warming.

    Here are some key takeaways from the first week of the COP26 conference:

    SEVERAL PROMINENT ABSENCES

    The climate conference is a veritable who’s who of world leaders, with some 30,000 delegates descending onto Glasgow for the conference.

    However, there were several notable absences, some due to logistics and the COVID-19 pandemic, and others likely due to politics.

    Only have been able to send their leaders to the conference, despite the fact that many islands and developing nations make up the MAPA (Most Affected People and Areas) of climate change.

    According to , a third of the Pacific islands announced they were unable to send delegations for the first time. Many of those nations represent countries that are least responsible for climate change but are some of the most heavily impacted.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping were physically absent from the conference, with the Chinese leader submitting a written statement calling for action but devoid of new pledges.

    Queen Elizabeth II was also physically absent from the conference, instead making a speech remotely to world leaders via video, following medical advice to rest.

    Indigenous land defenders and other civil society organizations have also struggled with attendance at the conference this year due to reasons around accreditation and visas, plus lack of access to COVID-19 vaccines necessary to travel and international travel rules.

    According to non-profit Global Witness, more than 1,000 environmental and land rights defenders have been murdered since the Paris Accords were signed six years ago – one in three of whom were Indigenous people.

    PROMISES, PROMISES, PROMISES

    The promises were flowing thick and fast in the first week of the conference, with Canada joining a chorus of nations promising to do better and committing billions towards new projects.

    Canada, the U.S. the U.K. and 21 other countries joined a deal to stop new direct public financing for coal, oil and gas development by the end of 2022 and to shift investment to renewable energy. Few details were immediately available about the deal, however. It commits signatories to stop using loans, loan guarantees, grants, share purchases and insurance coverage from any government or government agency to finance new international fossil fuel developments.

    The deal does not include China, Japan or Korea, who are the world’s top fossil fuel funders besides Canada, which averages about $13.6 billion a year on financing fossil fuels, almost all of which flow through the federal crown corporation Export Development Canada.

    Another agreement announced on Thursday saw 23 new countries make pledges to phase out coal power. The signatories to the did not include China, India and the U.S., but the agreement does include some other large coal users like Indonesia, Ukraine and South Korea.

    Banks, insurers and investors represented by UN climate envoy Mark Carney, who assembled the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero pledged on Wednesday to put combating climate change at the centre of their work and promised efforts to make green investing a priority.

    Carney put the figure at $100 trillion over the next three decades from the finance industry.

    More than 100 countries committed to end deforestation by 2030 in a move to protect the world’s forests. Amongst the signatories are Brazil, China, Colombia, Congo, Indonesia, Russia and the U.S., with more than US$19 billion in private and public funds pledged towards the plan.

    Germany, Norway, the U.S. and the U.K. led an approximately US$1.7-billion funding pledge to be given directly to Indigenous Peoples and communities in recognition of their role in protecting the land and forests as part of the wider deforestation pledge.

    The U.S., Britain, France and Germany announced a plan to provide US$8.5 billion in loans and grants over five years to help South Africa phase out coal, as they get about 90 per cent of their electricity from coal-fired plants, a major emissions source.

    Environment Minister Steven Guilbeaut announced Saturday during a speech that the federal government will allocate at least 20 per cent of its $5.3-billion international climate finance commitment over the next five years to limit biodiversity loss.

    WELCOME TO THE CARBON-NEGATIVE CLUB

    COP26 has also highlighted how some countries have moved beyond the pledge of net-zero emissions and are operating at a carbon-negative level – meaning they absorb more climate-changing emissions than they produce each year.

    Bhutan, Suriname and Panama formed a formal alliance at COP26, and called for measures like preferential trade, carbon pricing and financing to support their economies and other carbon-negative nations that are on their way to achieving similar status.

    "We are taking the first step. What is the world doing for us? We're looking for support," said Suriname’s foreign minister Albert Ramdin. "What these three countries have achieved has been based on national efforts and national sacrifice."

    PROTESTERS FILL THE STREETS

    Protests and marches have filled the streets of Glasgow since the beginning of the conference, inspiring solidarity events the world over -- like sit-in protests from Insulate Britain members on major U.K. roadways.

    Saturday in Glasgow marked the largest protest thus far, with estimates of approximately 100,000 people marching in the “Global Day of Action for Climate Justice†to demand more action from world leaders on the climate crisis.

    Organizers from Saturday’s march said there were 250 other climate change protests held in solidarity in countries like Canada, Kenya, Turkey, Brazil, the U.K., and Australia.

    Fridays for Future leader Greta Thunberg was in attendance, but did not address the march as she had at the previous rally of tens of thousands of young people on Friday, where she denounced the alleged inaction from world leaders and greenwashing of the COP26 conference.

    Activists like Ugandan climate justice activist Vanessa Nakate did address the crowd, saying “leaders rarely have the courage to lead. It takes citizens, people like you and me, to rise up and demand action. And when we do that in great enough numbers, our leaders will move.â€

    Police presence has also been a hot topic at the conference.

    In a letter addressed to the Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, representatives from three groups, the COP26 Coalition, Stop Climate Chaos Scotland and the Climate Coalition, urged her to intervene in “"the disproportionately high number of officers deployed, combined with intrusive police surveillance" which they said is creating "an atmosphere of fear and intimidation and unacceptable chilling effect on the right to protest."

    Police arrested 21 scientists who chained themselves together and blocked a road bridge over the River Clyde and boxed-in a group of activists who lit off fireworks during the march Saturday. One person was arrested.

    ----

    With files from Reuters, CNN and the Associated Press 

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