We have started on the path towards a net-zero world, with 61% of governments and about a fifth of global corporates having pledged to reach the goal by 2050, but it is not enough. To meet our targets, we need to move much faster.
As the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow approaches, Friends of Europe’s 2021 Climate and Energy Summit heard that net zero has become a mainstream idea over the last 12 months, with global opinion notably influenced by recent reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as well as a string of extreme weather events around the globe.
“It does seem world leaders are listening to the science and engaging to take meaningful action,” Ko Barrett, Vice Chair of the IPCC, told the summit. “There is momentum and a chorus of voices to hold temperature rises to 1.5°C, which is more stringent than the commitments made in Paris.”
The debate ranged from from how to finance the transition to how the EU plans mobilise a green recovery from the Covid pandemic to expectations for COP26.
Yet there is still uncertainty about how quickly the transition is going to happen, not least because the disruption to the global economy caused by Covid, including recent gas price rises, has created a massive threat to the momentum to cut emissions.
That means that social justice should be at the heart of the talks in Glasgow, where rich countries should ensure they provide the climate finance that the developing world needs, said Eamon Ryan, Irish Minister for Environment, Climate, Communications and Transport.
Social justice and solidarity are also crucial closer to home, added Mauro Petriccione, European Commission Director General for Climate Action. “If we don’t have a policy for decarbonising the economy that is also a policy for prosperity, we will fail,” he stressed.
Countries need to be more ambitious, and that higher level of ambition must be underpinned by concrete sector-based initiatives, argued Karsten Sach, Director General for Climate Policy at the German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.
“We need more clarity on what the targets mean, and we need to design trajectories for each country and each company,” he said. “Companies need clear signals.” This call was echoed by Claire Waysand, Executive Vice President, Corporate Secretariat, Strategy, Research & Innovation and Communication at ENGIE and Alexandre Marty, Head of Climate and Natural Resources at EDF.
Governments have a key role to play in laying down clear timetables, as we have seen for coal and internal combustion engine cars, Emelia Holdaway, Policy Programme Director at Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), told the summit.
Government and company net-zero targets must be science-based to be credible, said Eric Usher, Head of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative, and investors must not only put money into low-carbon companies but move it away from the worst polluters. Nancy Saich, Chief Climate Change Expert at the European Investment Bank, agreed and said that “one of the things we’re doing is using the EU Taxonomy already this year for our tracking of green finance.”
Combining digitisation with decarbonising will be key to introducing huge efficiencies, and also align political and financial efforts so they are pulling in the right direction, but it is not the only answer. Lubomila Jordanova, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Plan A, highlighted the importance of inviting start-ups and innovators to the table. Kirsten Dunlop, Chief Executive Officer of EIT Climate-KIC said that “The digital transformation is not an end in itself. It serves a purpose. If its purpose is to create a sustainable world, that creates a narrative for taking action together.” Throughout the event, participants heard how they could take climate action on the different topics of the day through the European Climate Pact.
