Emissions

COP26 in Glasgow started with a plethora of declarations. But in the end it failed to deliver on the real and immediate action needed to avoid climate catastrophe, and to address the demand for justice and equity for those most impacted by climate harms.

The fossil fuel industry tries to present carbon dioxide removal technologies as a safe and effective technical solution to climate problems. However, they have not been proven to be safe and effective. Although the technologies have been extensively subsidized and promoted for several decades – with both public and private funding – there has been no significant progress in their development. Many projects have been abandoned due to high costs or technical problems.

COPs are a time of a plethora of announcements, pledges and initiatives by countries, businesses and financial institutes. It is hard to keep up and even harder to distinguish between newsworthy reason for hope and old wine in new bottles. Lisa Tostado reports on the climate “communication nightmare” of welcoming progress while emphasizing the persistent astronomical gap to what would be Paris Agreement-compatible.

Lisa Tostado interviewed Green MEP Jutta Paulus her about her expectations and initial assessment concerning this year’s COP26, as well as the on role of the EU and particularly Germany in international climate negotiations.

COP26 was supposed to be the “most inclusive COP ever”. Lisa Tostado reports on why the promised cannot be considered fulfilled and where inclusion and representation remain an issue to be addressed urgently.

Methane is the second biggest contributor to the climate crisis, responsible for about 0.5°C of human-caused global heating so far. One of the main emitters of the powerful greenhouse gas is the oil and gas sector, where methane can leak across the whole supply chain – during extraction, transport, storage and use. The extent to which such leakages occur is only vaguely known, with companies often reporting emissions only on the basis of calculations as opposed to actual measurements. Where measurements are being done, they often show higher emission rates than previously anticipated.

Lisa Tostado unpacks some basics in the first report during her attendance at this year’s COP26 in Glasgow.

A conversation on civil socirety participation at UN climate negotiations, between Tasneem Essop, Executive Director of Climate Action Network-International and Barbara Unmüßig, President of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung.

COP26 takes place against the backdrop of nationalist health policies with daunting consequences, failed promises to adequately scale up climate action and financial support, and an unprecedented push for false solutions that divert global attention from the urgent need to phase out fossil fuels.