The UN Climate Change Conference has just wrapped up, and the world has agreed to a global plan to fight climate change. The conference was held in Katowice, Poland this year. Leaders from all over the world attended COP26 to discuss creating a framework for green technology that will help reduce emissions of greenhouse gases while also combating poverty.
The framework will be the Green Climate Fund. The GCF fund will receive $100 billion by 2020. Member states are expected to meet every four years to implement new measures to reduce emissions. Poland has pledged to reduce their carbon-dioxide output by 20 percent before 2030. They’ve also proposed that companies help them do this.
Other member states weren’t as ambitious as Poland. Some countries, like Japan and Saudi Arabia, proposed a new reduction goal of 27 percent. Other member states were open to discussing the plan and added that they deserve more time to analyze it before signing off on it. Countries like China said they couldn’t sign because there was nothing binding about the agreement. The European Union, Norway, and Mexico agreed to the terms of the GCF fund as well as other member states.
The UN Climate Change Conference was attended by many world leaders. At the conference’s opening ceremony, Polish President Andrzej Duda announced that Poland had been given a role in leading climate change efforts and that he would sign the agreement.
The United States didn’t participate in any of the UN Climate Change Conference talks, and neither did Brazil. Their absence was met with disappointment from other member states that were hoping to reach a binding deal for greenhouse gas emissions. The United States said they needed more time to review the agreement before signing it.
Brazil’s President-elect Jair Bolsonaro stated that Brazil would not be signing the agreement.
The lack of participation from the US and Brazil was ironic, as both countries were key players in fighting climate change back in 2015 when 195 countries made a global commitment to reducing emissions at COP21 in Paris. The non-participation by these two large countries has led some to doubt the importance of the agreement since their influence was pivotal in previous negotiations.
Each member state will have to take steps toward reducing emissions on a national level. The enforcement of these regulations will vary depending on the country’s size and needs, but there are guidelines countries can follow when creating their own plans.