COP26, day 9: recent country commitments will have little impact on rising temperatures, according to the UN – archyworldys

Find every day, at the end of the day, the highlights of the 26^e United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) for the climate, which is being held until 12 November in Glasgow (Scotland), as well as insights from journalists from the World.

What you must remember :

COP26 focuses on the situation of women in the face of climate change

The COP26 reserved the day of November 9 to study the situation of women in the face of climate change. In a presentation press release, the Conference thus recalls that women are, in all countries, “More dependent on natural resources to live, and / or are also those who have a lower capacity to react to natural disasters, such as drought, landslides, floods and hurricanes”.

On Twitter, the COP26 also argues that 80% of the inhabitants displaced by climate change are women and children. The unequal involvement of women (compared to men) in decision-making processes and in labor markets “Aggravates inequalities and prevents them from taking their full share” in the fight against global warming, further points the conference.

Finally, the COP26 “Recognizes the importance of equal involvement of women and men in the process, and in the development and application of egalitarian national climate policies”.

Limited impact of states’ commitments on temperature rise

The very new commitments of States on the climate would always lead to a warming of temperatures of 2.7 ° C, at best 2.1 ° C taking into account the promises of carbon neutrality, according to the latest estimate of the Organization of Nations United, published Tuesday. The United Nations Environment Program’s annual benchmark report, released just before the Glasgow climate conference, warned of warming “Catastrophic” 2.7 ° C, or 2.2 ° C.

With the commitments of 33 new countries during COP26 – including Brazil, Argentina, and especially India, which has strengthened its emission reduction targets for 2030 and announced carbon neutrality for 2070 – these forecasts do not change. however only minimally. Current commitments from 152 countries, representing 88% of global greenhouse gas emissions, would reduce emissions by 4.8 gigatonnes (gt) of CO equivalent₂additional by 2030, compared to 0.7 gt in the previous estimate.

“When we look at these new commitments, frankly, it’s the mountain that gave birth to a mouse”United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Executive Director Inger Andersen bitterly reacted. far from the objectives of the Paris agreement to limit warming to well below 2 ° C, if possible to 1.5 ° C compared to the pre-industrial era. By adding the new promises of carbon neutrality, the temperature rise could be limited to 2.1 ° C, or 0.1 ° C better than the previous estimate.

The statement of the day:

“We need climate empathy, maybe it’s a new term, but that’s what it takes, empathy from North to South, and between citizens. And empathy doesn’t mean pity. “

Baomiavotse Vahinala Raharinirina, the Madagascan environment minister, spoke on Tuesday of the suffering of the inhabitants of her country. The southern half of this island in the Indian Ocean is hit by an unprecedented drought for forty years, which has thrown more than 1.3 million Malagasy people into acute malnutrition. Thirty thousand of them are now suffering from a veritable famine, the first caused by climate change due to human activities, the World Food Program recently announced.

Picture of the day:

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Tuvalu Archipelago, Simon Kofe, declaimed his speech at the International Climate Conference COP26 from the water up to the thighs to denounce a “climate change and [une] deadly sea level rise ”, November 9, 2021.“ We are sinking but the rest of the world too, ”he warned, on behalf of the eight islands and 12,000 inhabitants of Tuvalu.

Around the world :

The country, on the fringes of the Arctic, is undergoing a strong warming which leads to an accelerated decline of the glaciers, yet emblematic of this land of ice. Climate change could also increase landslides in the future.

Words to understand COP26:

Adaptation

Even in the event of a drastic reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions, human societies and territories will have to adapt to the inevitable consequences of global warming. Measures to limit their vulnerability affect all areas: protection of coastal areas threatened by submersion, more economical management of water resources, new agricultural practices and forestry, storm warning systems, “sustainable” cities…

Some countries have adopted national climate change adaptation plans. But, in any case, the planet will not avoid major crises and massive flows of climate refugees (from island states affected by rising oceans or regions hit by droughts), especially as the countries of the South, the most threatened and the poorest, are the least well equipped to implement policies of ‘adaptation.

The number :

1 million

This is the number of animal and plant species that risk disappearing from the surface of the Earth and the oceans in the coming years. This alarming observation is based on a report of more than 1,700 pages, the result of three years of work carried out by several hundred experts, on the state of global biodiversity. According to this study, 75% of the earth’s environment is “Severely impaired”. And 66% of the marine environment is affected. In this disaster, the share of responsibility of humans is immense. For Franck Courchamp, ecologist and researcher at the CNRS, all is not lost, however. States must take the necessary measures immediately, and citizens must change their behavior.

Solutions for the planet:

Order a 10-euro T-shirt delivered to your home in twenty-four hours in a three-quarters empty package, and send it back free three days later. So where is the problem? Even aware of climate issues, we do not assess the impact of our orders.

Find all the articles in our special COP26 file here.

The World with AFP