C40 has developed a Clean Construction Declaration signed by five visionary members of the C40 network: Budapest, Los Angeles, Oslo, Mexico City, and now San Francisco. 

Vedant

1. C40 has developed a Clean Construction Declaration signed by five visionary members of the C40 network: Budapest, Los Angeles, Oslo, Mexico City, and now San Francisco. They are showing strong leadership and policy demand through city action, including setting targets for reduced embodied emissions in new developments, using incentives to maximize the use of existing buildings and materials, and mobilizing the use of low emission materials and machinery through city procurement. They have pledged to bring together and inspire stakeholders to take action and enact policies and regulations where they have the powers to Reduce embodied emissions by at least 50% for all new buildings and significant retrofits by 2030, striving for at least 30% by 2025&mdash;reducing embodied emissions by at least 50% of all infrastructure projects by 2030, aiming for at least 30% by 2025. Require zero-emission construction machinery in municipal projects from 2025 and zero-emission construction sites city-wide by 2030, where available. City dwellers can hope to start seeing these changes around soon.
2. One thousand forty-nine cities and local governments are now participating in the Race to Zero. These collectively represent more than 722 million people. Additionally, 109 regions, cities, and states have signed up to Race to Resilience. One of the newest members is India's largest state by GDP, Maharashtra, where more than 124 million people live. Sixty-eight cities, states, and regions had signed up to a range of new cross-sector actions &ndash; to be taken this decade &ndash; to decrease emissions, increase climate resilience and protect biodiversity. The Coalition covers 260 governments representing 50% of the economy. Shortly before COP26, it updated its membership criteria in line with a 1.5C temperature pathway.
3. The Race to Zero Campaign underpins the UN High-Level Climate Champions 2030 Breakthroughs Campaign. These breakthroughs are derived from the Climate Action Pathways, a set of comprehensive roadmaps to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement in line with 1.5&deg;C across all sectors. They center around breakthrough targets, the proportion of industry signed up to the Race to Zero by COP26. This target is 20%. Several built environment sub-sectors hit this breakthrough. Notably, in the month leading up to COP26, the 20% breakthrough target for global architects and engineers to join the Race to Zero was reached.
4. The UK Government launched an Urban Climate Action Programme (UCAP), which will provide &pound;27.5m to at least 15 cities in developing countries across three years. Germany signaled its support for the initiative post-launch, so there may well be more funding added. Cities including Lagos, Johannesburg, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Lima, Bogota, and Mexico City will be among those set to benefit from the initial funding, which will be used to decarbonize public transport systems and energy systems, improve climate risk assessments and make waste management more sustainable. Separately, an $8.5bn "partnership" was launched for the US, UK, France, Germany, and EU to help fund South Africa's transition from coal to a "clean energy economy" over the next five years.
5. COP26 DECLARATION ON ACCELERATING THE TRANSITION TO 100% ZERO EMISSION CARS AND VANS committed: "As governments, we will work towards all sales of new cars and vans being zero-emission by 2040 or earlier, or by no later than 2035 in leading markets." This was an ambitious step, although it lacked many signatories. C40's Mayors Migration Council Task Force will champion investments to boost Adaptation and reduce displacement in migrant communities, facilitate dignified movement and other efforts as part of their new agenda.
Future Thought Leaders is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of rising Energy &amp; Sustainability writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of Illuminem.

How Will COP26 Decisions Affect Urban Citizens and Professionals

1. Personally, as an integral part of the UNFCCC youth constituency (YOUNGO), I was a part of the organizing team behind the Conference of Youth (COY16), which aggregated 40000+ youth voices from 140+ countries to produce a policy recommendation document: Global youth Statement (GYS). I delivered the GYS to 120+ Heads of States/Governments at the World Leaders Summit. Furthermore, I advised 400 young delegates from 193 countries to participate in a special pre-COP 26 session called &quot;Youth4Climate,&quot; which produced a youth manifesto in Milan in September.
The CP.26 Decision said:
&quot;66. Expresses appreciation for the outcomes of the sixteenth Conference of Youth, organized by the constituency of children and youth non-governmental organizations and held in Glasgow in November 2021, and the &quot;Youth4Climate2021: Driving Ambition&quot; event hosted by Italy in Milan, Italy, in September 2021;.&quot;
The COP26 presidency keenly included the suggestions mentioned both in the GYS and Youth Manifesto, which was a sign of increasing youth participation. The appreciation and implementation of these efforts indeed made this a distinctive COP for the Youth.
 2. The COP26 decision also included a part of the youth paragraph (as recommended by the YOUNGO) saying: &quot;67. Urges Parties and stakeholders to ensure meaningful youth participation and representation in multilateral, national, and local decision-making processes, including under the Convention and the Paris Agreement;
68. Invites future Presidencies of the Conference of the Parties, with the support of the secretariat, to facilitate the organization of a youth-led climate forum for dialogue betweenParties and Youth, to be held in conjunction with the sessions of the Conference of the Parties, in collaboration with the UNFCCC children and youth constituency and other youth organizations to contribute to the implementation of the Glasgow work program on Action for Climate Empowerment;
This indeed was a great success that set the way for Youth to be included in decision-making processes and was unprecedented.
 3. Although youth washing was evident several times when it came to giving Youth the voice in decision making, a historical win came in the form of the Youth getting a seat on the advisory board of the Climate Technology Centre and Network (a UNFCCC Constituted body).
 4. In terms of jobseekers, we should not be worried about job losses in the near term. There are more opportunities for job creation than there will be losses from the decisions evident at COP26. However, there will be job losses in the coal sector in the long term, but not likely to happen before 25-30 years from now. Many of the currently employed workers would retire by then. Hence a well-thought-out plan for supporting the rest in the final stages of their work-life and ensuring that their children are educated and trained to be gainfully employed in other professions is critical. Jobs in the Clean Energy, Innovation, technology, local implementation, HR, and even policy advising can be expected to rise as we see the pledges made to come converted into reality.
Future Thought Leaders is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of rising Energy &amp; Sustainability writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of Illuminem.

How Will COP26 Decisions Affect Youth and Jobseekers 

How Will COP26 Decisions Affect Indigenous People and Vulnerable Communities

1. The Glasgow Leaders&#x27; Declaration included:
$12bn in public funding to &quot;support work to protect, restore and sustainably manage forests&quot; from 12 countries, to be delivered over 2021-2025; $7.2bn in private funding from corporate and philanthropic funds; At least $1.5bn earmarked explicitly for protecting the forests of the Congo Basin; At least $1.7bn pledged towards supporting Indigenous Peoples and local communities and advancing their land tenure rights; A commitment from the CEOs of more than 30 financial institutions to divest from activities linked to commodity-driven deforestation. 131+ countries signed the declaration accounting for 90 percent of the forest cover on Earth. Indigenous people were included in the discussions when this pact was launched, and their voices were heard (however, giving them a seat at the decision-making table still seems to be an idea).
In parallel, some of those signatures were controversial—particularly that of Brazil (the home of amazon rainforests). Since Brazil&#x27;s President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019, deforestation rates in the country have reached a 12-year high deforestation rate. Furthermore, just two days after the declaration, Indonesia—one of the most heavily forested countries—seemed to walk back its commitment when the country&#x27;s vice foreign minister, Mahendra Sinegar, denied on Thursday that zero-deforestation was even part of the Glasgow pledge that his country interpreted it as a commitment to &quot;sustainable forest management ... not end deforestation by 2030.&quot;
Thus, this declaration sent multiple messages: commitment to stop deforestation but no clear steps to deliver those, leaving vulnerable communities still in threat.
2. Several announcements were made for Equity, including a US commitment of $14m towards the Gender Equity and Equality Action Fund and Canada&#x27;s commitment to ensure that 80% of climate finance pledges over the next five years would target gender equality. On 11 November, parties adopted a decision text which &quot;urges&quot; parties to &quot;accelerate their efforts&quot; to implement the GAP. The text also makes multiple references to the coronavirus pandemic and its &quot;deepening of pre-existing inequalities.&quot;
3. Under Adaptation - the call was made for developed nations to &quot;at least double their collective provision of climate finance for adaptation&quot; from 2019 levels by 2025. As a great outcome, several countries, including the US, committed to the same during the plenary on final days. Another critical development for adaptation finance came in record-breaking pledges to the Adaptation Fund, including new announcements from the US and EU. Again, this funding is a fraction of the billions required by developing countries. Still, the fund has the advantage of being focused exclusively on adaptation projects and being 100% grant-based rather than providing loans to poorer nations. A fresh US$145 million will go to the Global Funds for Coral Reefs, including $125 million from the UN&#x27;s Green Climate Fund. This will help small island states protect and restore coral reefs, build coastal resilience and adapt to the impacts of climate change. 
4. In terms of Loss and Damage, vulnerable countries wanted this to be the COP where loss and damage finance was finally offered up, and there were calls for a standing agenda item besides the WIM that could address this. This issue received an unexpected boost in the first week from Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon where her pledge of £1m (later doubled to £2m) to &quot;address&quot; Loss and damage was appreciated as it was also the first money ever explicitly committed towards this cause. A draft text that emerged on Wednesday was notable in that it &quot;urged&quot; developed countries, NGOs and private donors to fund Loss and damage. However, it lacked any specific financial commitments. Ultimately, the only loss-and-damage fiscal demand that made it into the final text was for wealthier nations to support the Santiago network. However, with 12 mentions of Loss and damage making it into the final &quot;Glasgow pact,&quot; there was hope that this issue could be reignited at COP27. If we were to consider the positive, Loss and damage is now up the political agenda in a way it was never before, and the future for it to get delivered doesn&#x27;t seem far away.
5. Negotiations on the topic of response measures (Implementations) were preoccupied with how to implement the six-year work plan of the Katowice Committee on Impacts (KCI), the forum&#x27;s technical committee, which was disrupted due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Disputes arose in the negotiation rooms. A gap in opinions was created when developed countries favoured accepting the existing inputs provided by subsidiary chairs for implementing the work plan. At the same time, developing countries felt disruption had been too significant, and change was necessary to bring in impact. The final report &quot;requests&quot; that the secretariat convene a two-day workshop in conjunction with the next subsidiary body meeting in June 2022 to advance the implementation of work plan activities.
6. The importance of recognising the contributions of the indigenous people was highlighted again in the COP decision. The parties adopted the second three-year work plan of the LCIPP, which mandates that these events under the LCIPP continue throughout the next three years. Following COP 26, the platform will continue this work in facilitating increased engagement of indigenous peoples and local communities in climate policy and action.
Future Thought Leaders is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of rising Energy &amp; Sustainability writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of Illuminem.

On the Energy day, 39+ signatories (UK, US, Canada, Germany along with institutions such as the European Investment Bank and East African Development Bank) signed "end new direct public support for the international unabated fossil fuel energy sector by the end of 2022, except in limited and clearly defined circumstances that are consistent with a 1.5C warming limit and the goals of the Paris Agreement"

1. On the Energy day, 39+ signatories (UK, US, Canada, Germany along with institutions such as the European Investment Bank and East African Development Bank) signed "end new direct public support for the international unabated fossil fuel energy sector by the end of 2022, except in limited and clearly defined circumstances that are consistent with a 1.5C warming limit and the goals of the Paris Agreement" - diverting the spending to green energy and innovative solutions. This might be great news to researchers studying alternative energy pathways, as those would get even more demand after reduced investments in unabated coal. Additionally, countries might want to use abated coal, and scientists might help figure out better coal usage technologies.
2. Under the ACE work program (Action for Climate Empowerment), the CP.26 decision (Glasgow work program) text included:&ldquo;11. Also requests the Subsidiary Body for Implementation to: (b) Hold an annual in-session Action for Climate Empowerment dialogue at its first regular session of each year with the participation of Parties, representatives of relevant constituted bodies, and relevant experts, practitioners and stakeholders that focuses on the progress of implementation of the Glasgow work programme and on its four priority areas: policy coherence; coordinated action; tools and support; and monitoring, evaluation and reporting;&rdquo;Thus, this dialogue will act as an additional step for capacity building for new enthusiasts and as it says, will give new avenues for researchers in evaluation and reporting. It also said: &ldquo;7.Encourages Parties to strengthen the integration of Action for Climate Empowerment into the development and implementation of national climate policies, plans, strategies and action, including by developing and implementing a national strategy that covers all six elements of Action for Climate Empowerment and facilitates broad cross-sectoral coordination and collaboration;&rdquo; This would further implement the six ACE elements in national policies, creating new opportunities for better climate education worldwide.
3. The UK secured a 190-strong coalition of countries and organizations at COP26, with countries such as Poland, Vietnam, Egypt, Chile and Morocco announcing commitments to phase out coal power." Among the initiatives was a "global coal to clean power transition statement," which committed nations to "end all investment in new coal power generation domestically and internationally." This included 23 countries "committing for the first time to phase out and not build or invest in new coal power, including Indonesia, South Korea, Poland, Vietnam, and Chile." according to the UK government. This furthered the action said in point a).
4. The India-China watering down of the agreement at the last minute was a contentious topic and might be of interest for students to understand deeper. Here&rsquo;s an analysis: The Final agreed text said: &ldquo;Calls upon Parties to accelerate the development, deployment and dissemination of technologies, and the adoption of policies, to transition towards low-emission energy systems, including by rapidly scaling up the deployment of clean power generation and energy effic including accelerating efforts towards the phasedown of unabated coal power and phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, while providing targeted support to the poorest and most vulnerable in line with national circumstances and recognizing the need for support towards a just transition.&rdquo;
- Regardless of the "phase out" or "phase down" debate, the text had already been weakened significantly (mainly by the developed nations) by adding qualifiers such as "unabated" before coal and "inefficient" before subsidies. Only coal was focused and mentioned, and other primary emitting fuels (which the developed countries are expanding) like oil (petroleum, diesel..) and natural gas were discussed (oil use in the US remains the highest globally, at 6.1 tonnes per person in 2020, compared to India's 0.4). Hence, overall the text was weak in itself, but the "phase down" replacement became the face and hid the other shortcomings.&nbsp;
- In terms of whether India (who took a significant lead in this change) should be blamed, the per-capita emissions of India are among the lowest. The dependency on coal is among the highest (both of which are incomparable to the wealthy states). Then if we consider the principles of common but differentiated responsibility, and even by a common judgment, agreeing to phase out would not have been realistic. Furthermore, India's target for 500 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy by 2030 might well imply a phasing down of coal use eventually.
5. Another prominent partnership provided much-needed momentum during the negotiations. The United States and China made a joint announcement that the two nations would work together on more ambitious climate action in this decade, doing more to cut emissions, including methane. It said:
"The two sides intend to cooperate on:
<ul>
<li>Critical areas related to the circular economy, such as green design and renewable resource utilization; and</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Deployment and application of technology such as CCUS and direct air capture. The United States has set a goal to reach 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035, while China will phase down coal consumption during the 15th Five Year Plan and make best efforts to accelerate this work.</li>
</ul>
The two sides intend to establish a "Working Group on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s," which will meet regularly to address the climate crisis and advance the multilateral process, focusing on enhancing concrete actions in this decade. This may include, inter alia, continued policy and technical exchanges, identification of programs and projects in areas of mutual interest, meetings of governmental and non-governmental experts, facilitating participation by local governments, enterprises, think tanks, academics, and other experts, exchanging updates on their respective national efforts, considering the need for additional measures, and reviewing the implementation of the Joint Statement and this Joint Declaration."
Thus, this gives further rise to opportunities for researchers to participate and input their suggestions and follow and monitor the success of this pact.
6. In terms of growth opportunities for Research:
The Adaptation Research Alliance, a network of more than 90 governments, research institutions, and communities in 30 economies, is working to increase resilience including by funding research and the development of solutions. Mission Innovation (a coalition of 23 governments) launched four new missions for international collaboration to advance technologies for industry, cities, CO2 removals, and the bioeconomy. Twenty commercial-scale steel facilities are now planned to be deployed by 2030, marking a steel sector breakthrough with two significant additions at COP26. More than 15 corporations across the concrete value chain, including in engineering, are preparing to launch the ConcreteZero buyers club, which will send a strong signal of demand for net-zero-emission concrete. The club will be modeled on SteelZero, in which members commit to making half the steel they buy net-zero by 2030. The Solar Investment Action Agenda identified the high-impact opportunities for scaling up solar energy en route to US$1 trillion of solar investment by 2030. This will be followed by a more detailed Solar Investment Roadmap coming out in 2022. A new initiative of 18 countries + EU, called the Global Partnership on AI, presented a playbook for policymakers on using AI to drive climate action, proposing new partnerships across countries and the private sector. Forty-seven countries have now committed to developing health systems resilient to the impacts of climate change under the COP26 health program. Of those, 42 - covering 34% of health care emissions - have also committed to making their health systems low-carbon.
7. For farmers, The Koronivia Joint work on agriculture (a landmark decision that recognizes the unique potential of agriculture in tackling climate change), at COP26 said: "Having considered the report on the workshop on topic 2(e) of the Koronivia road map, the SBSTA, and the SBI also recognized that livestock management systems are very vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, enhancing sinks on pasture and grazing lands, can contribute to achieving long-term climate objectives, taking into account different systems and national circumstances."
This indeed indicated further actions that could be taken shortly towards making livestock management systems more sustainable and leaning towards vegetarian and vegan options; however, no apparent signs of the evolution of direct actions were clear even this time. What the Koronivia process will look like going forward will now be debated at the 56th session of the subsidiary bodies in June 2022. Some other small commitments also came in from non-state actors like A new US$150 million investment in agricultural regeneration, announced by the EverGreening Alliance at COP26, to build the resilience of rural communities in Africa.
Future Thought Leaders is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of rising Energy &amp; Sustainability writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of Illuminem.

How Will COP26 Decisions Affect Students, Researchers and Farmers

In this article, we scrutinise what went well and what went wrong at the decisive COP26 and how it will affect us as:
• Investors and enterprise/venture owners
• Students, Researchers and Farmers
• Youth and Jobseekers
• Indigenous and Vulnerable Communities
• Urban Citizen and Professionals

Two weeks of the UN Climate Change conference COP26 were filled with meetings lasting across midnights and heated discussions among country groups on amending and replacing words, brackets, and commas in decision texts. But do these minute changes impact a layperson?
The UNFCCC mandate (along with its Subsidiary bodies) looks after intergovernmental negotiations to create documents with agreed actions on topics like Adaptation, Loss and damage, climate finance, agriculture, and innovation, ultimately to mitigate climate change impacts. Ideally, all national delegations take these agreed-upon action points back to their home countries, where they induce them into their NDCs (Nationally determined contributions) and ultimately into legislation to impact every citizen. And an efficient forum for these parties to discuss, compromise, and negotiate these potential policies is the Conference of Parties (COP). Whether or not the agreed texts and pledges make an impact hugely depends on their specificity and pragmatically.
Here we scrutinise what went well and what went wrong at this decisive COP26 and how it will affect us as:​ ​
- <a href="https://illuminem.com/energyvoices/b83c703f-709f-40b6-aa82-1d28477467f9">Investors and Enterprise/Value Owners</a>
- <a href="https://illuminem.com/energyvoices/4f70a070-8175-4868-ae71-10efd57fc9a6">Students, Researchers and Farmers</a>
- <a href="https://illuminem.com/energyvoices/a0f30210-e523-4036-ac31-5871332bf1f4">Youth and Jobseekers</a>
- <a href="https://illuminem.com/energyvoices/2a88c174-d921-4290-bbbc-1046870610b0">Indigenous and Vulnerable Communities</a>
- <a href="https://illuminem.com/energyvoices/13da0aad-9296-48ce-a1d7-af53603e2ed8">Urban Citizen and Professionals</a>
A detailed overlook is provided for each.
<h1>To wrap it in a nutshell</h1>
Every life is deeply interlinked with climate change, and hence, intergovernmental decisions do impact everyone. The key to success in this strife is to bring all these decisions and commitments on the ground. Two key factors are potent to bring this to possibility:
i) Political will - following the trajectory of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees will also benefit the economy and overall growth of the country. If the decision-makers do not understand and implement accordingly, the citizens of the respective country must remind them about it. Youth all over the world have been playing a critical role in putting that pressure.
ii) International Pressure on a country: Although there are no &quot;binding&quot; tasks that these conferences can obligate on countries, seeing the reputation of their own country at risk can pull them into action. Thus, even though certain declarations (ex. BOGA (beyond oil and gas alliance which seek[s] to deliver a managed and transition away from oil and gas production&quot;) might seem to have only a few pioneers and honest actors. Still, they have that capacity to attract colossal impact and hence, must be supported and appreciated hugely.
Just three years ago at COP24 in Katowice, Saudi Arabia, the US had fought off efforts to &quot;welcome&quot; the findings of the IPCC special report. The world was still considering 2-degree goals, and topics like Adaptation, Loss, and damage fund were rare to hear. The rulebook of the Paris Agreement was incomplete. Net Zero commitments and stronger NDCs still lacked major polluters...
Now, the Glasgow text puts the IPCC&#x27;s findings front and center, under the first subheading, &quot;science and urgency.&quot; It &quot;recognizes&quot; that the impacts of climate change will be &quot;much lower&quot; at 1.5C compared with 2C and &quot;resolves to pursue efforts&quot; to stay under the lower limit. The rulebook is complete, and the world has seen more substantial commitments and ambitions, with around 90 percent of the global economy being covered by net-zero obligations.
So, the progress is unarguable. Although the projections are still menacing, an exponential bend is what we can and are working towards. We have proved to do the same across some sectors in the past few years. With efforts from all those whose lives are affected (businessmen, researchers, urban citizens, vulnerable communities, and Youth along with the political leaders), this will be possible!
Future Thought Leaders is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of rising Energy &amp; Sustainability writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of Illuminem.

How Will COP26 Decisions Affect You - A Comprehensive Guide. 

Increasing financial flows towards net-zero commitments

1. Increasing financial flows towards net-zero commitments: On the finance day, COP26 saw the launch of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net-Zero (GFANZ), with 450 firms in 45 countries committing $130tn towards the net-zero transition. This workstream will support a significant increase in the flow of private capital to emerging markets and developing countries (EM&amp;DCs) for their transition needs through private sector investments and public-private collaboration. In essence, this means that these GFANZ commitments can deliver the estimated $100 trillion of finance needed for net zero over the next three decades. Thus, showing the increasing trend of mobility of investors, firms, and their private capital towards net-zero solutions, which is a great insight. Also, the International Monetary Fund announced in week two that its recent $650bn allocation of "special drawing rights" (SDR) &ndash; an international reserve asset created by the IMF to supplement the official reserves of member countries &ndash; would include a Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) of up to $50bn, thus showing further willingness for fund allocation for sustainability.
 2. Business growth opportunities: Achieving NetZero is essentially about economic transformation, not just a climate agenda. To achieve this ambitious target, countries need to push some critical reforms on their energy supply, including reforming the electricity pricing markets, distribution companies, and just transition. Several Energy transition goals are for the 2030 horizon, mainly focusing on pushing renewable energy into the grid. So the near-term opportunities lie clearly in the renewable space, with solar panel and wind turbine manufacturing and deployment. The early movers and proactive businesses will be the ones that will gain from this transition. The short-term (2030) and the long-term (2050-2070) goals are a package that gives a great sense of certainty to the investors and businesses, who should act now to seize the opportunities in this long-term transition process.
3. Enterprises will need to follow emission standards: Globally, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is now tasked with coming up with global reporting standards with a focus on carbon emissions. Net zero is the next industrial revolution. If companies already have a credible, quantified plan for their emissions reductions, then good; else, should begin to consider one soon.
4. Non-Party Stakeholder (NPS) involvement campaigns and commitments marked a new era with the Marrakech Partnership: Over 100 SME construction companies across ten countries joined Race to Zero (the UN-backed, global campaign to rally leadership and support from all non-state actors for a zero-carbon recovery). For real estate assets under management, globally, $1.16 trillion of property assets under management now have a net-zero carbon commitment. This means that these real estate asset management companies will need to bring their property portfolio to net-zero carbon across all scopes of emissions that relate to the whole life of carbon.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/b3dcd57368baae2bda1f49ccccaef57685674fe0.png" alt="undefined" />
5. Unprecedented decarbonization of elements involved in shipping business: Over 200 firms from across the shipping value chain commit to scaling and commercializing zero-emission shipping vessels and fuels by 2030 and call on governments to get the pertinent regulations and infrastructure in place to enable a just transition by 2050. Nine big-name brands, including Amazon, IKEA, Michelin, Unilever, and Patagonia, announced that they will shift 100% of their ocean freight to vessels powered by zero-carbon fuel by 2040. Nineteen countries signed the Clydebank declaration to support the establishment of zero-emission shipping routes, collectively aiming to create at least six zero-emissions maritime corridors by the middle of this decade while aspiring to see many more in operation by 2030. All of these portray the new opened up opportunities for zero-carbon fueled vessels and ships.&nbsp;
6. The official launch of the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) by The Rockefeller Foundation, IKEA Foundation, and Bezos Earth Fund signaled the importance of much-needed philanthropic capital to catalyze the much greater levels of investment needed for countries to achieve their energy access and net-zero ambitions. The GEAPP is a platform built on partnerships, and new strategic alliances were entered into during the COP. These included the US Government's Power Africa initiative, which would bring together nearly two dozen public and private sector partners to seize the opportunity to realize universal, clean energy generation and access for Sub-Saharan Africa by accelerating new distributed renewable energy and grid-based solutions. These actions added more power to national declarations and partnerships such as India and UK's One Sun, One World, One Grid initiative, which aimed for similar objectives - thus, again indicating growing importance and openings for high volume investment and focus on grid connections for energy access.
7. Ending Coal exploration took real momentum: 28 new members joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance &ndash; the world's largest alliance on phasing out coal &ndash; bringing the number to more than 160 countries, sub-national governments, and businesses. Banks and financial institutions made commitments to end the funding of unabated coal. These complement announcements made earlier in the year by China, Japan, and South Korea to stop overseas coal financing. Additionally, a group of 25 countries signed a UK-led joint statement committing to ending international public funding for the unabated fossil fuel energy sector by the end of 2022, prioritizing support for clean energy instead. This functionally ends almost all concessional or public financing of global coal power. The Climate Investment Fund and Asian Development Bank also announced partnerships supporting accelerated transitions away from coal power. All these indicate the international pressure building up on coal phase-out/down and thus further rise in renewable energy enterprises.
Future Thought Leaders is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of rising Energy &amp; Sustainability writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of Illuminem.

How Will COP26 Decisions Affect Investors and Enterprise/Venture Owners

Did the pioneers leave Glasgow with empty words or genuine pledges "motivated from hope, not fear"? Here is an Inside perspective from what I experienced, live, inside those negotiation rooms as I represented the youth constituency of the UNFCCC at the World Leaders Summit 2021.

&quot;Code RED to the G7 countries, Code Red to the G20 countries,&quot; &quot;Either We stop it - or it stops us,&quot; &quot;Message from Earth to COP&quot; - as these voices reverberated across the Scottish Event Campus, it was indeed an endeavor to make it irresistible for the world leaders from over 120 countries to roll up their sleeves. Did it pay off and &quot;Open their Hearts?&quot; Did the pioneers leave Glasgow with empty words or genuine pledges &quot;motivated from hope, not fear&quot;? Here is an Inside perspective from what I experienced, live, inside those negotiation rooms as I represented the youth constituency of the UNFCCC at the World Leaders Summit 2021.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/57cdea98aa59966a12617a69a042fbe6b4323fb9.png" alt="undefined">
Let&#x27;s analyze the commitments that came from some of the developed nations: Japan committed an extra $10bn climate finance over the next five years. Germany plans to lower emissions from land use by 25m tonnes by 2030. Spain declared its plans to allocate 30 million euros to the United Nations adaptation plan in 2022 and plans to reach 1.35 billion euros per year by 2025. The UK aimed to engage 75% of farmers in low carbon practices by 2030 and announced funding of £500m to support the implementation of the Forest, Agriculture, and Commodity Trade (FACT) Roadmap. The EU committed to dedicate $27B and an additional 5B by 2027 for its EU Climate finance budget for supporting adaptation, biodiversity, and more.
Juxtaposing these with some of the commitments from the of the developing countries:
Brazil planned to scale its ABC+ low carbon farming program to 72m hectares, saving 1 billion tonnes of emissions. India launched the One Sun, one world, one Grid initiative and committed to increase its installed renewable capacity to 500 gigawatts (from current ~100GW), install 50 percent of its power capacity through non-fossil fuel resources, reduce carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes, and reduce the carbon emissions intensity of the economy by 45 percent. Gabon, already being Net Positive, promised to present an even more ambitious NDC. Sri Lanka to co-lead for a global energy pact for no new coal power and welcomed investments and technology transfer. Ecuador&#x27;s president announced on Nov. 1 an expansion of the existing Galápagos Islands marine reserve to encompass an additional 60,000 square kilometers (23,200 square miles). Furthermore, the presidents of Ecuador, Panama, Colombia, and Costa Rica also announced plans to create a large marine corridor by extending and joining their current marine protected areas.
From this comparison, we can clearly understand that while the developed countries&#x27; commitments are ambitious, they are more like giant leaps whose smaller milestones are unclear. Whereas the developing countries have mapped their destinations by understanding their roadmap and direct actions starting now. Even after the three-year delay of the 100B promise from the developed countries, several of such developing countries, LDCs and SIDS contribute despite having negligible per capita emissions. This is the time for the developed countries to step up and walk the talk.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/7b862bbd75d7ccd95edbafadc2c11e6ff3363548.png" alt="undefined">
So, have we progressed at the COP26 week 1? And is it enough to reach the 1.5 targets?
Let&#x27;s have a look at the significant pledges that came out from groups of countries and signatories:
<ul><li>More than 40 countries committed through the Global Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement to phasing out coal power in the 2030s, for major economies or 2040s globally, and stopping public funding for new coal-fired power plants.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Glasgow Leaders&#x27; Declaration, 134 countries covering 91% of the world&#x27;s forests (including Brazil, China, Russia, and Indonesia) have now endorsed the Glasgow Leaders&#x27; Declaration on Forests and Land Use, committing to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030.</li></ul>
<ul><li>More than 100 countries launched the Global Methane Pledge, committing to cut emissions of methane by 30% by 2030</li></ul>
<ul><li>A Just Energy Transition Partnership was announced to support South Africa&#x27;s decarbonization efforts, a powerful example of collaboration between an emerging economy and international partners.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Over 40 leaders joined the Breakthrough Agenda, a 10-year plan to work together to create green jobs and growth globally, making clean technologies and solutions the most affordable, accessible, and attractive option before 2030 – beginning with power, road transport, steel, hydrogen, and agriculture.</li></ul>
According to a report, if all of these pledges get implemented as proposed, we will have reduced 9 Gigatons (GT) out of the total 22GT required to achieve the net-zero. The commitments to reducing deforestation would give 3.5 GT reduction; Coal phase-out would give another 3.5 GT reduction; methane reduction: 0.5GT and Road Transport Electrification: 1.5GT reduction.
Furthermore, the IEA 1.8 PROJECTION said that all the climate pledges announced to date, including the new methane pledge, if met and implemented in full and on time, would be enough to hold the rise in global temperatures to 1.8 °C by 2100.
So the good news for all the tens of thousands of protesters that filled George Square a couple of days back is, the action inside is ON. But the need is to accelerate even further. With further efforts of the non-state actors (especially with UN SG&#x27;s plan to launch a group of experts to analyze private sector commitments) and commitments expected in the second week of COP26 (especially on transport and cities), we still bear the hopes of 1.5 alive.
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/de3dea30ca504b4ba9ec435180f61e07a5f797ba.png" alt="undefined">
It is indeed a pleasure to be a part of the system and to influence and push the headway, sitting at the negotiations. I optimistically look forward to action and impact and urge all critical players in this space to collaborate towards consensus and not disputes; towards resilience and not solely profits; and towards impact via political will and not desolate words!
Energy Voices is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of leading Energy &amp; Sustainability writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of illuminem.

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Vedant Kulkarni

Vedant Kulkarni

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