Renewable Revolution

by Tibi Puiu, November 7, 2021 1:13 PM
4.1-minute read

It's been a week since the COP26 summit in Glasgow kicked off. World leaders are focusing on climate change and while there's been some progress, decisive ambition to tackle the climate emergency is lacking. This disappointment has been voiced by tens of thousands of protesters 👍 who took to the streets of Glasgow and other cities in a Climate March. Here's the executive summary.


“Code red,” declared the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, right before this year's COP kicked off in Glasgow. With this statement, Guterres wished to sound the 🚨 alarm ahead of expected intense negotiations, hoping to galvanize policymakers for more ambitious action. This is our "last best chance" to keep global heating under 1.5 degrees Celsius, everyone seems to agree.

The UN climate conference kicked off on the first day with speeches from world leaders, who one after the other took the podium and called for action. With a few exceptions, these speeches were as bland and cliché as one might expect from a politician. Everyone's eyes were on President Joe Biden anyway, who came to build back everything that Trump had destroyed in his four years in office. After Biden took office, he immediately took steps to bring back the US into the Paris Agreement. At Glasgow, he told delegates that the US wants to become a net-zero emissions economy no later than 2050, saying the government will soon introduce a long-term decarbonization strategy. He also touted his legislative plans, still awaiting approval by his fellow Democrats in Congress, to allocate $500 billion to address climate change.

“I guess I shouldn’t apologize, but I do apologize  for the fact that the United States — the last administration pulled out of the Paris accord,” Biden told the delegates at COP26.

The first tangible outcome out of COP26 was Tuesday's resolution, signed by a group of more than 100 countries representing 85% of the world’s forests, which committed to stopping all deforestation in just nine years . The declaration comes alongside $19 billion of new funding to tackle forest loss, provided by developed countries and companies.

No more deforestation in less than a decade? That sounds fantastic. However, the declaration lacks any teeth. There are no terms on how the goal will actually be met or how progress will be monitored. Plus, the goal is not binding — so there’s good reason not to get your hopes up just yet. 

The following day, delegates turned their attention to methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas. Over 100 countries have signed a commitment to reduce their methane emissions by 30% between 2020 and 2030 . The initiative is spearheaded by the United States and the European Union and it covers two-thirds of the global economy and half of the main 30 methane emitters countries. China, Russia and India haven’t joined it 🤦‍♂️, however.

So far, so good.   If the deforestation and methane reduction pledges are actually followed through, global warming could be kept at 2 degrees Celsius , by one estimate. All hopes hinge on all of these countries actually delivering on their promises though.

More than 40 countries also agreed to phase out coal-fired power, including Canada, South Korea, Ukraine, Indonesia and Vietnam, who vowed to stop using coal sometime between 2030 and 2040. Even Poland signed up, which was very surprising, considering the nation's residential and industrial sectors are 90% dependent on coal.

Civil society was kept up to speed with all of these developments -- but they didn't buy them. On Friday, the streets of Glasgow were flooded by thousands of protesters 👍, with several high-profile activists already labeling this COP as a failure.

“Many are starting to ask themselves, what will it take for the people in power to wake up?" said climate activitist Greta Thunberg ✨.

“But let’s be clear, they are already awake. They know exactly what they are doing – they know exactly what priceless values they are sacrificing to maintain business as usual.”

On this note, a group of artists  launched the “Cartoon Gallery” at the COP, showing 60 cartoons that illustrate everyone’s frustration with the lack of climate ambition.

The 🦕🦖 Hydrocarbon 👹 Hellspawn Fossil Fuelers DID THE Clean Energy Inventions suppressing, Climate Trashing, Government corrupting, human health depleting CRIME. Since they have ALWAYS BEEN liars and conscience free crooks, they are trying to AVOID DOING THE TIME or PAYING THE FINE!  Don't let them get away with it! Pass it on!