GECO - Sustainability virtual italian fair
After the COP26 conference in Glasgow, many are talking of missed opportunities and the generalised consensus is that opportunities were missed to take a decisive stand on climate action. Hardly anyone has hailed the outcome of the conference as a success: while the most optimistic sources – which are often close to the governments of the attending Countries – maintain that steps have been taken towards achieving the target of containing global warming to 1.5° higher than pre-industrial levels, most non-institutional media are skeptical that this goal can be kept within reach without a serious commitment from some of the highest-emitting Countries. Meanwhile, climate activists are entirely pessimistic and very vocal about their disappointment with the conference as a whole.
The intervening Countries agreed to speed up the process of revising and strengthening their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the fight against climate change in a new conference next year, rather than in five years, as the Paris Agreement originally established. The COP27 will be held in Egypt. One major point of the COP26 conference was setting down precise guidelines for the phasing out of coal use, especially from Countries like China and India, whose emissions have a significant impact on the achievement of global emission targets. Most activists and a significant number of participants were disappointed by the fact that even the expression “phasing out” didn’t make it to the final agreement, and was changed into a blander and less convincing “phasing down”. Countries have also agreed to eliminate “inefficient” fossil-fuel subsidies: another expression that activists fear could leave room for the fine-print to make the whole agreement ineffective.
The so-called “1.5° target” was the focal point of many debates at the COP26 conference, with a specific focus on developing Countries, that are often left to deal with the heaviest consequence of a crisis they did not create. For small island-States and island-based communities, like Barbados, failing to achieve such target would be a death sentence, as the rapidly-rising ocean levels would submerge them entirely, displacing their entire population. What the Glasgow conference failed to do, according to most climate activist groups, is take adequate measures to protect poor communities from the devastating effects that climate change is already having on their livelihood.
Despite the generalised disappointment, the conference did reach a few promising goals. Beside the keeping of the 1.5° target, there was the strong emphasis put on the importance of keeping natural ecosystems alive, as they both preserve biodiversity and mitigate the consequence of extreme weather phenomena that are brought about by climate change. This has led to the pledge to end deforestation by 2030. The conference also ended with a promise from the world’s leading economies to deliver 100 billion Dollars per year, for a time period of five years, to help developing Countries cope with climate-related damage.
If you are interested in sustainability issues and the goals of the Green New Deal, as well as ways to make your company more sustainable, you should attend the next edition of GECO Expo!
Published on 17-11-2021
