INTHEBLACK February 2022 - Magazine - Page 24
F E AT U R E
// C L I M AT E C H A N G E
Above: Banners hung by
climate activists near
Glasgow’s Clyde Arc
bridge, ahead of the
COP26 conference.
Top: Members of the
media at work during the
COP26 conference. As
the climate change crisis
deepens, media
organisations expect
nearly all areas of
journalism to focus
increasingly on
environmental concerns.
24 ITB February 2022
In addition to the Pact, two quite separate coal
pledges, or side deals, were made during the
Glasgow conference.
The first is 45 countries and the EU agreeing to
no longer permit the construction of unabated
coal-fired power stations. Importantly, Australia,
India, Mainland China and the US did not sign
this agreement.
However, the US and Australia are part of the
second side deal, the G20’s pledge to end the public
financing of unabated coal-fired power generation
abroad by the end of 2021. This pledge mirrors a
similar commitment from Mainland China earlier
in 2021.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
Conspicuously absent from COP26, to the great
disappointment of many delegates, was a meaningful
commitment to loss and damage finance from
developed countries.
An early draft of the Pact proposed a fund
specifically to address losses and damage for countries
such as low-lying island nations that are the first
to experience the existential risk posed by climate
change. However, the fund was blocked by the EU
and the US due to concerns about litigation.
Another source of disappointment is the Pact’s
watered down language related to accelerating the
rate of transition and adaptation finance. According
to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD), in 2019 the amount was just
below US$80 billion (A$114 billion) – much of it in
loans, not grants.
When asked if, in the absence of strong direction
from the ongoing COP process, solutions to these
issues can be expected from the private sector, Purcell
is clear.
“I don’t think so. There are limits to what can-do
capitalism can achieve. We need a better conference
in 2022.”