Climate Summit Focuses on Collaboration

Climate diplomacy is stepping up a gear in preparation for the UN COP26 summit later this year. This points to a long-awaited alignment of policy signals but also big risks for oil demand (NE Jun.4'20). Last week a virtual summit, co-hosted by International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol and UK COP26 President Alok Sharma, brought together high-level representatives from more than 40 major countries to build momentum toward COP26, which has been billed as the most important since the Paris Agreement was forged at COP21 in 2015. It is still unclear if COP26, scheduled for November in Glasgow, will be virtual or in person. Sharma said that while it was positive that 70% of the world's economy is now covered by net-zero targets, the world is still on course for global temperature rises of over 3°C, which would be a “catalyst for an apocalyptic future.” More needs to be done to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and turn "remote targets" into “immediate action,” Sharma said, calling on countries to produce credible plans to reach net-zero target and put in place policies and investments now to meet the targets. “This needs to be the decade of delivery,” he stressed (NE Feb.4'21). Transport Focus Road transport decarbonization is one area in particular that the UK COP26 presidency has targeted for action, with Sharma calling on more countries to set a date to more to “100% zero-emission vehicle sales.” This is a sector where 10 countries make up three-quarters of the global market, Sharma noted, calling on those countries to incentivize manufacturers to embrace zero emission vehicles. “The challenge here is to shift industry investment, more quickly toward zero emission vehicles so that zero emission vehicles are cheaper than [gasoline] and diesel cars all over the world.” To help achieve this the UK has set up a Zero-Emission Vehicle Transition Council that aims to bring together ministers from some of the world's biggest car markets to find collaborative ways to tackle these challenges. Working Together