be a part of some of the historic agreements that are being reached at the conference, many observers are expressing scepticism over the outcomes of the summit. Swedish Climate activist Greta Thunberg on Wednesday (3 November), stormed out of an event at the COP26, where business leaders and other officials were discussing the role of finance in protecting forests and supporting the rights of Indigenous communities. As a moderator thanked her for attending the session, the 18-year-old responded saying “Thanks for greenwashing”, as she left the venue.
Meanwhile, a Carbon Market CEO from Australia has hit back on claims that the UN climate summit has fallen short of expectations, as he insisted that the global community is making material progress in tackling the climate crisis.
According to John Connor, the head of Australia’s Carbon Market Institute and a representative of some of the nation’s biggest climate change investors, any suggestion that talks in Glasgow are a failure would suggest that we are ignoring some of the major commitments made by countries and financiers in expanding their emissions reduction targets and strengthening a global energy transformation.
“The Paris Agreement, with its ‘bottom up’ nationally determined contribution and regular ‘ratchet’ political moments of transparency, is a grinding normative not decisive punitive framework,” he noted, adding that global capital markets have put up “more than enough money for the transition – that’s a historic moment”.
A recent study conducted by Melbourne-based scientific consulting company Climate Resource, found that if the new commitments made by countries at the summit are fulfilled, that would enable the international community to limit global warming to 1.9°C. Prior to the Glasgow Conference this week, the company projected warming of about 2.2°C, while other climate experts had put the figure at 2.7°C.
