{"id":14597,"date":"2021-11-29T12:35:44","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T12:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gnhre.org\/?p=14597"},"modified":"2023-08-15T19:46:54","modified_gmt":"2023-08-15T18:46:54","slug":"gnhre-blog-series-human-rights-at-cop26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gnhre.org\/?p=14597","title":{"rendered":"GNHRE Blog Series: Human Rights at COP26"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Annalisa Savaresi<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recently concluded 26th Conference of the Parties<\/a> (aka COP26) to the climate treaties held between 31 October and 13 November 2021 in Glasgow was the first such meeting to be held in the aftermath of the COVID 19 pandemic. It was also the largest COP ever, with nearly 40,000 registered delegates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conference took place amidst pressing calls for more ambitious climate action, on the back of the dramatic picture of the current state of the climate, painted by the first part of the Sixth Assessment Report<\/a> of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change<\/a> (IPCC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conference was faced with challenging technical and political questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the technical level, parties were expected to put the final touches to the so-called rulebook<\/a> for the operationalisation and implementation of the Paris Agreement<\/a>. The rulebook was meant to be finished in 2018, but negotiations on contentious matters, such as carbon markets, dragged on. COP26 managed to bring this work to completion, attracting some criticism from civil society over the integrity of agreed arrangements and their potential impacts \u2013 see for example CIEL<\/a>\u2019s reaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the political level, COP26 was expected to narrow the gap<\/a> between current emissions and the goal to limit global warming to 1.5\u00b0C <\/a>above pre-industrial levels. Parties were also expected to bolster financial support for developing countries, vis-\u00e0-vis the pledge to provide USD 100 billion of mitigation and adaption finance<\/a> per year by 2020. On both issues, progress at COP26 was incremental at best (see for example the analysis provided by the Earth Negotiations Bulletin<\/a>), dismal at worst (see for example the assessment of the Climate Action Tracker<\/a> of emission reduction activities announced in Glasgow).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human rights concerns featured prominently at COP26, and were discussed in some technical negotiations, for example on the social and environmental safeguards for financial support schemes \u2013 see the summary published by CIEL<\/a>. Furthermore, human rights concerns were discussed at numerous official side events<\/a> on diverse matters, such as loss and damage<\/a> and climate litigation – the videos are available via a dedicated channel<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In keeping with its aims and objectives, the Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment<\/a> blog commissioned a series of posts, looking at COP26 through a human rights lens. You can find links to these posts here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n