12 November 2021

The Green Party has highlighted five key tests the COP26 agreement must pass to be considered a success, as the global climate conference nears its close. 

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said: 

“The latest draft of the agreement we’ve seen just doesn’t match up with the level of ambition needed to tackle the climate crisis. [1]

“Our five tests are in the spirit of the global communities that are in Glasgow to demand that leaders protect our future, and that’s why we’ve laid out these tests – so that we can clearly see whether the final version goes far enough.

“There is still time and we’re urging negotiators to use the final hours to push for the necessary action the world is crying out for.”

The Green Party’s 5 tests for the COP26 agreement are:

1. Offsetting should be outlawed as part of the measurement of net zero reporting from governments and industries. It should not be possible to offload the heavy lifting of CO2 reductions onto other countries or to gain ‘carbon credit’ via initiatives like tree planting as an alternative to real cuts in emissions. [2]
2. Loss and damage must be front and centre of any agreement with increases in aid to countries on the frontline of climate crisis impact, and cash transfers in the form of grants rather than loans for countries that are already over-burdened with debt.
3. The core demand to accelerate the phase out of fossil fuels must remain in the agreement and the language around this must be clear and unambiguous, relating to all forms of fossil fuel, not just coal. Vague text around abatement and efficiency must be replaced with clear commitments to rapidly eliminate fossil fuels.
4. Each country should commit to a system of carbon pricing to ensure the most polluting industries not only pay for the impact of their emissions, but are also incentivised to find efficient means of reducing them. [3]
5. The weak progress achieved at this COP means that we must intensify future progress checking on nationally determined contributions. All countries must produce scientifically verifiable plans every year in order to show their progress in reaching the targets they have set themselves to achieve the global aim of keeping warming to 1.5 degrees.

ENDS

Notes

1

https://unfccc.int/documents/310983

2

https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/opinion/emissions-net-zero-cop26-climate-crisis-b1955749.html

3

https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2021/10/13/greens-call-on-government-to-bring-in-carbon-tax-at-cop26/

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10 November 2021

• Carla Denyer: “During the months when the climate deal should have been the top priority the Conservative government was distracted by Brexit wrangling and more recently they have lost focus due to sleaze within their own party”

The Green party has expressed alarm that the draft agreement shows the climate talks in Glasgow are wildly off track. [1]

Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said:

“It’s clear from the draft final agreement that world leaders are failing to achieve the diplomatic breakthrough we need to prevent catastrophic climate change.

“The draft agreement clearly fails to keep 1.5 alive – it has the world on track for warming well above 2 degrees and instead of making essential commitments now, it proposes kicking the can down the road with more discussions through the 2020s. 

“During the months when the climate deal should have been the top priority the Conservative government was distracted by Brexit wrangling and more recently they have lost focus due to sleaze within their own party. 

“But as WWF said today [2], three days is a long time in climate diplomacy. The people who share this planet demand that in these last few days the UK presidency moves heaven and earth to keep 1.5 alive.

“The UK government could show leadership on both fossil fuels and climate finance that could help take us towards the stronger agreement the climate needs. We need action now and time is short to avoid COP26 turning into a historic failure.”

ENDS

Notes

1

https://unfccc.int/documents/309006

2

https://twitter.com/natalieben/status/1458394862970101761

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9 November 2021

Responding to today’s Climate Action Tracker (CAT) report which warns the world is heading for a 2.4C temperature rise by the end of this century, with devastating impacts across the globe [1], Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said:  

“Today was the day the sugar coating fell off the COP26 talks to reveal the bitter pill that world leaders are going to force us to swallow if they don’t take much stronger action.

“This report shows that action in the next ten years is vital. Long term targets, promises and non-existent technofixes, with no actual policies to get us there, are worth nothing. It shows that most global leaders have been asleep at the wheel. This is their wake-up call.

“We need a carbon tax, a Green New Deal and billions transferred from the world’s richest countries to the world’s poorest to help them adapt to the impacts of the climate crisis and build a clean green economy for the future.”  

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/09/cop26-sets-course-for-disastrous-heating-of-more-than-24c-says-key-report

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3 November 2021

• Molly Scott Cato: “Offsetting is a disgraceful attempt to avoid genuine emissions reductions”

The Green Party has criticised the idea of “voluntary carbon market” [1] as “the very opposite of climate justice” ahead of a speech by Mark Carney, UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, at COP26 this afternoon [Wednesday 3 November].

Molly Scott Cato, Green Party Finance and Economy speaker and former MEP, said: 

“The number one rule for climate policy should be taking responsibility, which means no fancy accounting and no offsets. 

“The idea of voluntary carbon markets breaks both those rules, offloading the heavy lifting onto other countries and purchasing carbon offsets from countries that have protected their carbon sinks better than we have. The sort of offsetting proposed by Carney is a disgraceful attempt to avoid genuine emissions reductions.

“Because the carbon-rich environments tend to be in countries with less financial power, such schemes will mean financial companies in  wealthy nations creating ‘financial products’, based on the land of poorer countries that are already suffering worse effects from the climate crisis. It will give financially powerful countries and corporations power over the land and resources of countries in the Global South, thus creating a financialised version of colonisation.

“The ‘carbon credits’ that are traded will enable financiers to control the environments of other countries and profit from them without the citizens of those countries seeing any benefit. Communities who live from the land may be displaced to make space for the planting of trees to absorb the CO2 Bill Gates produces from his private jet. The very opposite of climate justice.”

Notes 

1

Voluntary carbon markets are markets for global offsetting on a massive scale. This means buying up land to absorb your CO2 emissions (usually overseas) rather than reducing your emissions. Governments are focusing on this activity as an alternative to reducing domestic emissions. The product being traded is called a ‘carbon credit’ but it is actually a licence to pollute to an extent equivalent to a piece of land that can absorb the emissions.

https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/news/lord-stern-responds-to-announcement-of-a-new-uk-working-group-on-voluntary-carbon-markets/

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• Cop26 must provide compensation for historic greenhouse gas emissions from richer countries

• £50bn in Climate Finance a year by 2030 needed to help Global South respond to the climate crisis

• As a former colonial power, UK must take special responsibility for ‘reparations’ 

Greens have warned that Boris Johnson’s calls for a Climate Finance package [1] are misguided, nowhere near ambitious enough and ring hollow given government cuts to the international aid budget [2]. 

At their autumn conference, Green Party members agreed a new policy to increase Climate Finance to £50bn per year by 2030 to help Global South countries respond to the climate crisis [3]. Greens believe a key priority of Cop26 must include assistance from countries responsible for climate damage to the lower income countries that are experiencing its worst impacts. They also call for this finance to be in the form of grants rather than loans.  

Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said:

“It seems to be dawning on global leaders that without a generous climate finance plan to help low-income countries experiencing the worst impacts of the climate crisis, the Cop26 climate talks will end in failure.   

“It is also alarming that the prime minister’s apparent conversion to global climate action is being presented as another opportunity for the UK finance sector. It is essential that climate finance is paid in the form of grants rather than becoming another opportunity to exploit the countries of the Global South.”

“So Boris Johnson’s pledge doesn’t go far enough, and worse still, rings hollow given the huge cut his government recently made to the international aid budget [4].”

Azzees Minott, Chair of the Greens of Colour group, added:

“Western countries that have benefited from exploitation and extraction of natural resources, people and land from global south countries should acknowledge the harm caused and compensate them. These countries that are currently experiencing the worst effects of the climate crisis deserve climate justice.  

“Britain has a special responsibility to the world for historic emissions that are causing loss and damage across the Global South. For a period of 100 years, through the industrial revolution and beyond, the UK was the world’s third largest emitter of CO2 [5]. And this doesn’t include overseas emissions under colonial rule. 

“The new All Party Parliamentary Group on African Reparations and continued local community education and action will go some way to address planet repairs but we also need further leadership at Cop26.”

Denyer concluded:

“If the prime minister was serious about helping low-income countries, then he would immediately reinstate 0.7% of gross national income for international aid – which was a clear Conservative manifesto pledge. Instead, we see the chancellor using accounting wizardry to cut overseas aid still further [6]. 

“The Green Party believes that real leadership and responsibility means pledging £50bn a year by 2030 – in grants, not loans – to support low-income countries adapt to the impacts of the climate crisis and help them transition to a clean green future. Climate Justice must be a key priority of COP26.” 

Notes

Climate Repairs: Making Reparation for a History of Colonialism and Enslavement – a paper from the Green party exploring in greater depth the idea of climate justice based on the idea of climate reparations.  

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