No more financing for fossil fuels
Twenty countries have decided to reduce carbon emissions by restricting the use of Fossil fuels. New initiatives were discussed on how the private sector will finance.
Following the exit of world leaders from the Climate Summit, discussions about reducing carbon emissions have focused on financing to achieve the Net Zero goal. Twenty countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, and international financial institutions will no longer invest in developing fossil fuels in other countries from next year.
However, China and Japan, currently the major investors in the energy sector, including coal, did not participate in the agreement. In addition, new initiatives got announced on how the private sector will finance to achieve Net Zero and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Four hundred and fifty companies, which control 40 percent of the world’s financial resources, have pledged to work towards achieving the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celcius by the end of this century. The amount of assets under their control is 130 trillion dollars.
According to the announcement, “The goal of Net Zero in the stadium would be set by 2040, and for that purpose, the greenhouse would halve gas emissions by 2030.”
However, outside the conference venue, protesters in various parts of Glasgow staged protests demanding an end to the destruction of nature due to the profiteering of banks and other multinational corporations.
People from smaller ethnic groups carry festoons outside the convention site, blaming colonialism for the climate crisis. According to them, compensating for carbon emissions instead of stopping them is tearing their society apart. Entrepreneurs in mineral extraction, commercial agriculture, and hydropower projects are consuming their land.
Market forces, an organization working on financing for the climate crisis, are also vocal. They have put up posters on the walls of branches of the British bank in Glasgow to shame Barclays, the largest investor in the polluting fossil fuel sector, in 2021.
Environmentalists have long complained that various business organizations are trying to cover up their past pollution or greenwashing with investments in renewable energy and technology and some eco-friendly advertising. Many of these companies got targeted by protesters in this year’s protests.
“A new international organization will establish to monitor if any organization financing against the environment by claiming their work as eco-friendly. They will alert about any type of Greenwashing, “announced during UNFCCC COP 26.
The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) will report its first survey in 2022, highlighting the environmental role of large investment institutions, such as banks and insurance companies. According to the COP26 president’s office, 36 countries have welcomed the initiative to form the ISSB.
The United States, the United Kingdom, and other industrialized nations have adopted a policy to encourage companies to invest in renewable energy and technologies instead of fossil fuels and high-rate greenhouse gas emissions and environmentally hazardous projects.
Following this, Oishee Sunak, the British Finance Minister has announced that he wants that London will adopt Net Zero policies as a money market.
Financial service providers, including banks, insurance, and investment, will now have to unveil their updated activities to balance their carbon emissions by 2023. However, this instruction will not be binding.
As Oishi Sunak went to the conference room to present his plans, a group of young people from an environmental group called GBD Rising asked him why Britain was still subsidizing energy companies.
Sunak denied the subsidy, saying “The subsidy had been stopped”. He was further asked “Why tax rebates are then given to energy companies – he went on stage without answering this question.
Greenpeace, one of the environmental groups, said that “While the initiative is good, it could only prove to be advertising. Because there is a gap in the plan so that the companies can continue to do business the way they are doing.”
Christian Aid, a non-governmental organization, said “The announcement would not deviate much from the multimillion-dollar investment in fossil fuels, which has a devastating effect on developing countries. They demand that investment in fossil fuels must stop now.”
Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of UN also said that any new exploration and extraction of fossil fuels should stop, during an interview with BBC Scotland.
Regarding the goal of achieving net-zero in Stadium, Patricia Espinoza, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said that “ The Sports for Climate Action Framework got launched four years before the Paris Agreement was achieved, and 260 sports organizations around the world have now pledged to work towards that goal. ”
