So how’s Cop26 been for you?
An unexpected success, with a ground-breaking agreement on methane reduction, and a commitment to stopping de-forestation by 2030? An opportunity for key nations such as India to make new commitments for a net zero future? That’s the positive view we might take after the first week of discussion in Glasgow. On the other hand, climate campaigner Greta Thunberg made a powerful speech, branding the event a "global greenwash festival", a "failure" and a "PR exercise".
“The leaders are not doing nothing, they are actively creating loopholes and shaping frameworks to benefit themselves and to continue profiting from this destructive system,” she said.
Meanwhile, the British Prime Minster flew back to London from the summit on a private jet to go o a private party and then make a foolish political decision that reflected badly on his ethics and judgement. So nothing new there.
In truth, we won’t know for years whether Cop26 was a failure or a success. I guess I tend to be slightly more on the Greta side here, and the loopholes in the various agreements and commitments are certainly big enough to drive a diesel-fume-emitting double-decker bus through. Even while Cop26 is still running, some nations are already backing out, or explaining that they don’t really intend to change their plans too much.
For example, Indonesia, home to the world’s third-biggest rainforest, signed up to the deforestation agreement. But only two days later, Siti Nurbaya Bakar, the environment minister, said that “forcing Indonesia to zero deforestation in 2030 is clearly inappropriate and unfair”. She said that there were different ways to define deforestation, and that economic growth could not be halted. “The massive development of President Jokowi’s era must not stop in the name of carbon emissions or in the name of deforestation.”
And it is hard to trust anything President Bolsanaro of Brazil says, a man who has constantly denied that the Amazon rainforest is being destroyed, even as analysis shows the rate of deforestation increasing since he came to power.
India’s commitment to net zero by 2070 illustrates the difficult trade-offs here. Given India’s state of economic development, it would be unfair for the more developed countries (who have historically contributed a vast proportion of total cumulative emissions) to expect India to stop rolling out electricity supply to rural areas, for instance. India’s emissions per head are still currently only one-eighth of the US figure. However cynics will say that 2070 is far enough away that India’s leaders don’t actually have to do anything in the short -term, and of course the huge population of India means it ranks third globally in total CO2 emissions despite the per head figure appearing low.
But you do learn something new every day in the world of climate change. I must admit, I did not realise methane was such a significant “greenhouse gas”. As New Scientist reported;
“While international climate summits usually focus mostly on carbon dioxide, the dominant driver of the 1.1°C of global warming that has occurred since pre-industrial levels, methane is responsible for about 30 per cent of global warming to date, and atmospheric concentrations of the gas have surged since 2007, sparking concern from scientists”.
So the global methane pledge seeks to curb methane emissions by 30% by 2030, and has been signed by more than 100 countries, which must be a positive step. However, the agreement, led by the United States and the European Union, was not signed by countries including Australia, China, India and Russia, so only covers 40% of global emissions. Again, it’s a glass half full/half empty story!
But the agreement will have an impact on various industries, from oil and gas to agriculture, cows digestive systems being a major source of methane emission! So, as always, procurement leaders need to keep a close eye on what is going on in Glasgow, and look out for issues that might have relevance in their own organisations.
Finally, this week has highlighted that our new book Procurement with Purpose is going to need regular updating – the second edition will be more methane-aware, for instance! The whole area is moving so quickly, as issues such as climate, deforestation, waste and recycling constantly see technical and political developments. But you can now buy the e-book version on Amazon and Apple, and it will be on more platforms soon, with the physical book available later this month. Take a look at my collaborator Mark Perera’s useful list of links here if you want to get hold of it.