FAQs on the Glasgow Climate Pact
40,000 people descend on Scotland to save the planet — what could go wrong?
Was the Glasgow Climate Pact a success?
Yes! During an ongoing pandemic, nearly 40,000 people gathered to talk about how to save the planet from humans. Sorry, I meant for humans!
So negotiators are going to save our planet by cutting global emissions by roughly half in the next decade?
Almost! Instead of cutting emissions, countries agreed to increase them by approximately 14% over the next nine years, but we did serve meatless hamburgers.
Back up just a sec. You mean that even though individual country targets are voluntary and non-binding, the 200+ countries attending couldn’t even pretend to try and save the planet?
Countries don’t like making commitments they can’t keep, which is why almost none of the signatories from the climate agreement six years ago that would limit global warming to 1.5 -2 degrees Celsius are on track to meet those targets. Did you pick up one of our free, COP 26 branded coasters?
Won’t we see mass habitat loss, species extinction, rising sea levels, and potential wars over water at that point?
A lot of the negotiators are — how do we say this nicely — elderly. So they probably won’t see any of that stuff, but some attendees made day trips out to the Scottish Highlands to check out some Mountain Hares before they die from climate extinction.
Wasn’t the whole point of COP to get an agreement that, not to sound too dramatic, but would literally “save the world”?
That seems a little unfair. We also had art exhibits.
Some have claimed that China and India threw a wrench in the process by saying they wanted changes to the language over coal at the last minute. Could this have been anticipated?
China uses roughly half the world’s coal while India gets 70% of its power from coal, so this was a plot twist akin to the kid seeing dead people in the Sixth Sense.
Instead of phasing out coal — as written in some drafts of the agreement — countries agreed to phase down coal. What does phase down mean, exactly?
You can use the phrase like this: Instead of phasing out Covid, we’ll just phase it down by inviting hordes of climate nerds (and representatives from the fossil fuel industry) to gather in a convention hall to talk about the future of the planet.
News media is reporting that this agreement is the first time that COP used the words coal and fossil fuels in the agreement. Seriously, what’s going on there?
International negotiations are always tough. And we need everyone at the table to get a deal that makes sense, even when some of the people at the table represent the very thing we’re fighting. So we’re proud of the progress we made by including those three, dirty little words in our agreement. We also think the font we chose really highlights our commitment to saving the planet while still burning fossil fuels because honestly, they are really hard to give up!
What happens now?
We’ve asked delegates to set more ambitious targets for next year. And hopefully they didn’t forget to pick up a cool, COP 26 branded reusable tote bag (packed in plastic).
