World leaders have not done enough to deliver on COP26 commitments: UK's Sharma

Global leaders have not done enough to deliver on the commitments made at the UN Climate Change Conference held in Glasgow in November 2021, COP26 President Alok Sharma said May 16.

He called for concrete action to accelerate progress in low-carbon steel and hydrogen, as well as for progress in exiting fossil fuels.

In a speech to mark six months since the conference, Sharma noted good progress in several areas pledged at Glasgow, but said "frankly we need to up the pace."

"Leaders have not done enough to deliver on their Glasgow commitments, and that must change," he said.

Sharma called for countries to outline clear steps to accelerate clean technologies in sectors such as steelmaking and hydrogen.

He said more commitments were needed to end coal-fired power generation and stop financing fossil fuel projects, accelerating a shift to renewables.

More should also be done to end the sale of polluting vehicles, he added.

The agreement to double adaptation finance by 2025 also needed to show progress on delivery, he said.

Sharma said the COP presidency would use high profile intergovernmental meetings to urge action across these areas.

Positive signals

Positive progress had been made on work to provide technical assistance to mitigate loss and damage from climate change, and five trial finance projects had been launched, Sharma said.

In addition, around 2,000 global companies have joined the UN's Race to Zero campaign since COP26, which commits them to reach net-zero by 2050 at the latest, bringing the total to over 7,000.

And government representatives from over 40 countries met in Copenhagen earlier in May, to discuss how they would reach their climate goals, with a strong degree of consensus, Sharma said. He noted "positive signals" on how they could strengthen sectoral targets in their 2030 nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

Sharma indicated the COP presidency was working on other just energy transition deals similar to the one agreed with South Africa at COP26 to support decarbonization efforts. Further partnerships could be announced by COP27, he said.

World watching

Government and business leaders are to meet again in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for COP27 in November, to update their climate commitments and review progress.

"The world will look to see whether they were right to put their doubts aside, and to cautiously place their confidence in the multilateral system, whether they were right to take leaders at their word," Sharma said. "We must show them that they were. And that means moving much faster over the next six months than we have over the last six."

Countries must deliver revised NDCs to align with the Glasgow climate pact by Sept. 23, the deadline for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change's synthesis report.

"The major emitters must lead from the front, particularly those G20 countries with little or no increase in ambition since Paris," Sharma said. "We need them to submit more ambitious NDCs, where they are not currently aligned with the Paris Agreement."