END OF WEEK 1 COP26 UPDATE

1/11/21 – World leaders pt 1

• COP26 President Alok Sharma calls for immediate action and solidarity to ensure Glasgow delivers on the promise of Paris 
• Leaders addressed by young climate activists, indigenous peoples and business leaders from across the globe as they focus on keeping 1.5C within reach
• New country and finance announcements due, including additional UK package to mobilise billions of private investment into green, resilient infrastructure in developing countries

The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a funding package, as part of the UK’s Clean Green Initiative, to support the rollout of sustainable infrastructure and revolutionary green technology in developing countries. This includes:

• A package of guarantees to the World Bank and the African Development Bank to provide £2.2bn ($3bn) for investments in climate-related projects in India, supporting India’s target to achieve 450 GW of renewable energy installed capacity by 2030, and across Africa. 
• The UK’s development finance institution, CDC, will commit to deliver more than £3bn of climate financing for green growth over the next five years. This will include £200m for a new Climate Innovation Facility to support the scale-up of technologies that will  help communities deal with the impacts of climate change. This is double the amount of climate finance CDC invested in its previous strategy period from 2017-2021. 
• The FCDO-backed Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) will also commit more than £210m in new investment today(MON) to back transformational green projects in developing countries such as Vietnam, Burkina Faso, Pakistan, Nepal and Chad.
• he world needs to secure global net zero by 2050 and halve emissions by 2030 to keep 1.5 degrees of warming in reach.
• To do this the UK COP26 Presidency is calling on countries to set ambitious 2030 emissions reduction targets and take action to:
• consign coal power to history
• accelerate the move to clean electric vehicles
• end deforestation
• finance the green transition and help the most vulnerable countries
• Almost 200 countries will come together in Glasgow, in the biggest international summit the UK has ever hosted.
• Negotiations, run by the UN, will focus on securing the final parts of the Paris Agreement, setting national targets for reducing emissions by 2030 and reaching net zero. 
• Coming out of COP26, we need to see a negotiated outcome that responds to the emissions gap and sets the tone for the next decade to keep 1.5C alive.

Modelled on the UK’s landmark Net Zero Strategy, the Breakthrough Agenda will see countries and businesses coordinate and strengthen their climate action each year to dramatically scale and speed up the development and deployment of clean technologies and drive down costs this decade.

The aim is to make clean technologies the most affordable, accessible and attractive choice for all globally in each of the most polluting sectors by 2030, particularly supporting the developing world to access the innovation and tools needed to transition to net zero.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is setting out the first five goals, the Glasgow Breakthroughs, collectively covering more than 50% of global emissions:

• Power: Clean power is the most affordable and reliable option for all countries to meet their power needs efficiently by 2030.
• Road Transport: Zero emission vehicles are the new normal and accessible, affordable, and sustainable in all regions by 2030.
• Steel: Near-zero emission steel is the preferred choice in global markets, with efficient use and near-zero emission steel production established and growing in every region by 2030.
• Hydrogen: Affordable renewable and low carbon hydrogen is globally available by 2030.
• Agriculture: Climate-resilient, sustainable agriculture is the most attractive and widely adopted option for farmers everywhere by 2030.

3/11/21 - Finance

Finance day

$100 billion climate finance goal

The Climate Finance Delivery Plan was published by the COP26 Presidency last week. Led by German State Secretary Flasbarth and Canada’s Minister Wilkinson, at the request of the COP President, the plan shows the trajectory for developed countries to deliver on the agreed goal of mobilizing $100 billion per year in climate finance to support developing countries.

The COP Presidency is tracking post 2020 climate finance commitments by developed countries on the COP26 website.

Taskforce on Access to Climate finance

The UK announced £100 million to respond to recommendations from the Taskforce on Access to Climate Finance, co-chaired by the UK and Fiji, to provide capital grants to the most climate vulnerable countries to help them deliver ambitious climate plans. Access to finance is directly linked with countries’ emissions reduction and adaptation plans which creates incentives for greater climate ambition in these plans.

Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero

• Now firms across the entire financial spectrum – banks, insurers, pension funds, asset managers, export credit agencies, stock exchanges, credit rating agencies, index providers and audit firms – have committed to high ambition, science-based targets, including achieving net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest, delivering their fair share of 50% emission reductions this decade, and reviewing their targets towards this every five years. All firms will report their progress and financed emissions annually.

Global climate reporting standards

• The IFRS Foundation announced the establishment of an International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) to develop comprehensive global baseline sustainability reporting standards under robust governance and public oversight. The IFRS Foundation confirmed agreements with existing sustainability reporting bodies to create the global standard-setter for sustainability disclosures for the capital markets.
• The Foundation also published two prototype standards to enable the ISSB to rapidly build on existing frameworks – including the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) – when developing its standards. Standards will be subject to full public consultation and can be considered for adoption by jurisdictions on a voluntary basis. Jurisdictions will have their own legal frameworks for adopting, applying or otherwise making use of international standards.
• Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors from 36 jurisdictions (list footnoted) from across 6 continents (see below) publicly welcomed the announcement of the establishment of the ISSB and its work programme to develop a set of internationally consistent, high-quality, and reliable baseline standards for disclosure of sustainability-related information on enterprise value creation.
• Jurisdictions are: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, European Commission, Fiji, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Luxembourg, Morocco. Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Tonga, Turkey, UK, Uruguay, USA

Mobilising green investments into developing countries

New expertise and funding is being announced to support developing countries to mobilise finance for low carbon, resilient development. Including: 

• The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) Capital Market Mechanism (CCMM) initiative will raise finance for projects in clean energy and sustainable infrastructure in developing and emerging economies. Bonds are planned to be issued in 2022 in the City of London and could mobilize up to $700 million annually, with the potential to leverage a further $70 billion from both the private and public sector
• The International Finance Corporation (IFC), with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), Allianz, through Allianz Global Investors, today launched a new global platform, MCPP One Planet, for Paris-Aligned climate smart investments that will provide up to $3 billion to private enterprises in developing economies.
• The Asian Development Bank (ADB) launched the Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM) to accelerate the retiring of coal power and the move to clean energy, one of the key goals for COP26. As part of the pilot phase in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Viet Nam, the ETM is expected to raise $2.5 to $3.5 billion to retire 2-3 coal-fired power plants per country.
• The International Finance Corporation (IFC), together with Amundi, announced a new $2 billion fund that will help to directly mobilize private investment into sustainable and green bonds in emerging markets. It will channel capital from institutional investors into anchor investments involving sustainable bond issuances from developing countries. It will provide a new model for other asset managers and institutional investors to replicate – giving a major boost to affordable green finance.

4/11/21 - Energy

Energy day

• At least 23 countries have made new commitments today to phase out coal power, including five of the world’s top 20 coal power-using countries
• Major international banks commit to effectively end all international public financing of new unabated coal power by the end of 2021
• At least 25 countries and public finance institutions commit to ending international public support for the unabated fossil fuel energy sector by the end of 2022
• Boost comes as overall a 190-strong coalition agrees to phase out coal power and end support for new coal power plants thanks to a package of support from the UK and international partners

At least 23 nations made new commitments to phase out coal power, including Indonesia, Vietnam, Poland, South Korea, Egypt, Spain, Nepal, Singapore, Chile and Ukraine.

Banks and financial institutions also made landmark commitments at COP26 today to end the funding of unabated coal, including major international lenders like HSBC, Fidelity International and Ethos.

This follows recent announcements from China, Japan and South Korea to end overseas coal financing which now means all significant public international financing for coal power has effectively ended.

Other announcements on Energy Day included:

• A strategic partnership between the Energy Transition Council and the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP). The GEAPP, announced on 2 November with $10 billion funding from philanthropies and development banks, aims to deliver clean, renewable energy to 1 billion people in developing and emerging economies and create 150 million green jobs by 2030.  The partnership will include up to £25 million from GEAPP to support the Energy Transition Council’s Rapid Response Facility.
• Fourteen countries including India, Indonesia, Japan and Nigeria committed to the largest ever increase in product efficiency by signing up to a global goal of doubling the efficiency of lighting, cooling, motors and refrigeration by 2030 with support from the Climate Group’s EP100 initiative of 129 businesses.
• The launch of the Africa and Latin America Green Hydrogen Alliances with membership from six African countries and five Latin American countries. They aim to kickstart development of millions of metric tons of production of reliably near-zero-carbon green hydrogen to be used in domestic and international industries worldwide. 

5/11/21 - Youth

Youth and public empowerment

• COP President Alok Sharma urges ministers to consider youth priorities in COP negotiations and national climate action

• Young climate leaders join ministers and senior figures in Glasgow

• 23 countries make national climate education pledges including net-zero schools and putting climate at the heart of national curriculums

• Views of over 40,000 young climate leaders presented to ministers, negotiators and officials 

6/11/21 - Nature

The World Bank will commit to spending $25 billion in climate finance annually to 2025 through its Climate Action Plan, including a focus on agriculture and food systems.  

8/11/21 – Adaption, loss & damage

Adaption loss and damage

• Global leaders commit to a shift towards locally-led adaptation through over 70 endorsements to the  Principles for Locally Led Adaptation and over $450m mobilised for initiatives and programmes enhancing locally-led approaches [including LIFE-AR, FLLoCA, CRPP and the Taskforce on Access to Climate Finance].
• Race to Resilience campaign brings together initiatives that are strengthening the urban, coastal and rural resilience of 2 billion people worldwide.
• Australia, New Zealand, Italy and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have committed to a balanced approach to climate finance and joined the Champions Group on Adaptation Finance.
• $232 million has been committed to the Adaptation Fund, the highest single mobilisation to the Fund and more than double the previous highest collective mobilisation with a $20m contribution from the UK. Commitments came from the USA, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Germany, Norway, Qatar, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the Quebec and Flanders governments.
• The UK has announced £290 million in new funding for adaptation today, including £274 million for the Climate Action for a Resilient Asia (CARA) programme.
• 88 countries are now covered by Adaptation Communications or National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) to increase preparedness to climate risks, with 38 published in the last year.