Business calls for more action after COP26 deal is watered down

Business groups joined climate activists in expressing frustration that national governments were not moving aggressively enough to tackle climate change, after the COP26 agreement was watered down in the final minutes.

Nearly 200 countries at the climate summit in Glasgow reached a deal late on Saturday night, and agreed on the rules for implementing the 2015 Paris climate accord. However, last-minute objections from India and China halted a commitment to end coal use and subsidies for fossil fuels.

The Glasgow deal, reached after two weeks of hard-fought negotiations, included rules for a global carbon market and financial commitments to help countries adapt to climate change. Leading up to the summit many of the world’s biggest emitters, including the US, Russia and India, set targets to reach net zero emissions around the middle of the century.

While global executives broadly welcomed thedeal, many said it did not go far enough. Some complained that companies were showing greater urgency than many governments when it came to global warming.

John Denton, secretary-general of the International Chamber of Commerce, said a “concerted effort” would be needed in coming months to keep alive a target of limiting global warming to 1.5C since preindustrial times. Temperatures have risen 1.1C already.

“We applaud governments for making the tough compromises needed to get a deal over the line in Glasgow . . . but the agreement is, most certainly, not a cause for celebration,” he said.

Mindy Lubber, chief executive of Ceres, a US non-profit with an investor network representing $47tn in assets under management, said: “investors and companies around the world showed that they support the goals of the Paris Agreement.”

“But private sector action alone is not enough,” she said.

Nigel Wilson, chief of insurance and investment group Legal & General, said: “the world is ever more convinced of the imperative on action and delivery”, while Siemens boss Carl Ennis said industries should “focus our efforts on delivering what we can do right here, right now”.

Tony Danker, director-general of the CBI, said “negotiators, activists and businesses will have to keep working” beyond Glasgow to keep the 1.5C target in sight.

“Pressure will surely fall on negotiators to come back to the table [at the next meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in 2022],” he said.

The Glasgow summit had a significant business presence, something that is unusual at the climate meetings. “I’ve seen more CEOs here in the last eight days, than I have at the previous eight years of COPs,” said Jules Kortenhurst, chief executive of RMI, a Colorado-based think-tank.

The agreement, reached late on Saturday night, drew sharp criticism from those seeking a promise to end the use of coal power altogether, including many smaller, island nations.

Jennifer Morgan, head of Greenpeace International, said the outcome of COP26 was “meek” and “weak” but still sent a signal about ending the era of coal.

“Glasgow was meant to deliver on firmly closing the gap to 1.5C and that didn’t happen,” she said.

Boris Johnson, UK prime minister, acknowledged his “delight” at reaching a new deal but added that the result was “tinged with disappointment” after the language on coal was altered late on.

“Sadly that is the nature of diplomacy . . . we cannot cajole sovereign nations to do what they don’t want to do,” he said. However, he insisted that the agreement marked a “decisive shift” in the global fight against climate change.

“It is beyond question that Glasgow has sounded the death knell for coal power”, he said at a press conference on Sunday. “For all the disappointment, the world is undeniably heading in the right direction.”

Johnson tried to brush aside the fact that the text agreed to “phase down” rather than “phase out” unabated use of fossil fuels, adding that the “direction of travel is pretty much the same”.