The Failure at COP26

The birth of the modern environmental movement occurred in Santa Barbara on January 28, 1969. On that day, a Union Oil drilling rig blew out, spewing 4.2 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean and onto beaches up and down the Central Coast. That spill shocked the nation and spawned an effective national environmental movement. It created a 20th-century model for environmental activism — “Think Globally, Act Locally.” After what seems to be failure at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, it’s time to rethink the model turning it into “Think Locally, Act Globally.”

World leaders gathered in Scotland were tasked with ensuring that the world reduce global warming before the planet reaches the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) tipping point, after which our world will experience more severe droughts, wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, sea level rise, human displacement, and deaths. Despite more than 100 countries, including the U.S., pledging to cut methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030 and promising to reforest, what is being accomplished will not avoid the coming 1.5C tipping point. This because COP26 is refusing to deal with coal.

Coal is the dirtiest and most destructive emitter of greenhouse gases (GHGs). While more than 40 countries pledged to phase out coal, China and India, which burn roughly two-thirds of the world’s coal, made no coal reduction commitments. China did not attend the summit. India, despite its pledge to cut GHG emission to net zero by 2070 (instead of 2050) plans to expand its coal mining. Australia, the world’s 11th largest burner of coal did not announce plans to transition away from it. And, the United States which generates about one-fifth of our electricity from coal did not sign the coal reduction pledge.