What COP26 left for us

By Jang Daul

The 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held in Glasgow, Scotland, from Oct. 31 to Nov. 13.

The largest number of participants in the history of the UNFCCC COP joined seemingly the most important conference since the Paris Climate Change Conference in 2015. The record attendance showed the high expectations of people around the world living in this era of climate crisis.

Global warming, or more accurately, "global heating," is not just about a temperature increase. It is also not only about the increased use of air conditioning and therefore higher electricity bills. It is more than an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events.

What climate change means is in fact a collapse of the Earth's life support system itself. That is why climate change is associated with a possible global food crisis, a water crisis, another pandemic and a global economic crisis, and it is why, therefore, the current pace of global heating is appropriately being called a "code red for humanity."

The mission of the Glasgow COP was meant to deliver on firmly closing the temperature increase gap to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as the U.N. Environment Programme announced right before COP26 that we are on a "catastrophic" path to a temperature increase of 2.7 degrees, with a 66 percent or greater chance of this rise actually occurring.

However, to sum up the outcome of COP26, it failed to deliver the scientifically required carbon emissions reduction level to limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial levels, which amounts to a 45 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 compared to 2010 levels.

Of this failure, Jennifer Morgan, the executive director of Greenpeace International, said, "It is meek, it is weak and the 1.5 degrees goal is only just alive, but a signal has been sent that the era of coal is ending. And that matters."

President Moon Jae-in delivered a speech at the World Leaders Summit in Glasgow. He announced the update for Korea's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions target: a 40 percent reduction compared to 2018 levels. However, without some tricks to make the target more ambitious, it amounts to in fact merely a 30 percent reduction.

While Moon was right to say that "it is very challenging" to reduce GHG emissions drastically in a relatively shorter span of time, it is also an inconvenient truth that this fact is all because Korea has not put much effort in so far, while taking massive advantage of economic growth at the expense of the lives of people and other living beings on Earth, especially those who are vulnerable and future generations.

The responsibility of Korea as one of the major GHG emitters in the world scientifically translates into not just a reduction of 30 percent or 40 percent, but minimally at least a 50 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030.

This is the reason why Moon having said, "Let us not find ourselves later regretting that we failed to take action earlier on Earth's behalf," while announcing Korea's de facto 30 percent target, rang nothing but hollow.

The Korean government has also made itself appear ridiculous and not interested in meeting even the 1.5 degree temperature increase goal by signing the Global Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement at Glasgow, which requires major economies ― including Korea ― to phase out coal power generation by the 2030s, and then later clarifying that Korea will continue to burn coal for electricity generation until 2050.

The parties to the UNFCCC, including Korea, agreed in Glasgow on the need to come back with stronger targets in 2022. It is largely due to strong actions worldwide from young people, indigenous leaders, activists and countries on the climate frontline that this concession was made at all.

Even though it is weak and compromised compared to the initial draft, the line on phasing out unabated coal and fossil fuel subsidies in the outcome of the COP26, Glasgow Climate Pact, is nevertheless a breakthrough.

The era of fossil fuels is clearly ending, and the era of renewables will come fast. If you are an executive of a company still using a lot of fossil fuels and little renewable energy, you need to take the outcome of the COP26 seriously.

Held around COP26, there were two contrasting events organized by two major global ICT companies, including the largest Korean one.

On the one hand, ahead of the Glasgow Conference, Apple, the company ranked first on the Forbes' Top 100 Digital Companies list in 2019, launched 10 new initiatives to support communities around the world to meet its ambitious target of becoming carbon neutral by 2030 across its supply chains and products. These initiatives come in addition to its 2018 achievement of 100 percent renewable electricity use.

On the other hand, Samsung Electronics, which ranked third on the same Forbes' list, had to face activists at Glasgow in costumes from the popular Korean Netflix TV series "Squid Game," urging Korea's largest industrial electricity consumer as well as its third-biggest private GHG emitter, demanding that Samsung also switch to 100 percent renewable energy to address the global climate crisis.

It should be in the interest of all countries and corporations to transition to clean renewable energy from dirty fossil energy as soon as possible. Richer countries like South Korea and global corporations like Samsung Electronics need to do more to support the shift. People need to take action and push the government and corporations to do so. Our future depends on it.

Jang Daul (daul.jang@greenpeace.org) is a government relations and advocacy specialist at Greenpeace East Asia's Seoul Office.