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COP 26 at Glasgow, is a failure in flow?

Published : Tuesday, 14 December, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 899
Chinmay Prasun Biswas
With a view to find out a solution to the problem of carbon emission in the world the COP 26 summit was held in Glasgow, Scotland from October 31 to November 12. This conference was considered to be the most important after the Paris Agreement to combat climate change. Some have called it the final hope of saving the world. Ahead of one week of the beginning of the conference Glasgow's Prestwick Airport and Edinburgh's Edinburgh Airport remained very busy. The number of commercial aircrafts increased for arrival of 30,000 delegates from around 200 countries of the world. Apart from commercial flights the airports were overburdened with numerous private aircrafts of heads of states/governments

Though purpose of the conference was certainly good for mankind the reverse matter happened there. World leaders themselves have spread carbon which is the main factor behind climate crisis. Heads of states/governments from around 200 countries attended the climate conference. Many of them came in their private jets. Each of these private aircraft is simply a carbon-dioxide plant. More than 400 aircrafts have released about 13,000 tons of carbon in just two days.  Scotland's 6 million people will require at least one year to emit this amount of carbon. The leaders have faced criticism and controversy for multiplying the present disaster. Critics have not hesitated to call such action as extreme hypocrisy.

Not only large cargo aircrafts, there were many VIP jets. For example, after the G20 summit in Rome, Italy, US President Joe Biden's private jet Air Force One landed in Glasgow with a huge fleet of 75 vehicles. Although the conference was held in his home country British Prime Minister Boris Johnson boarded an Airbus A-321. French President Emmanuel Macron came with the French quota 001. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was carried by the Canadian Air Force VIP.

Angela Merkel, German Chancellor came with her Conrad Adenauer. Japanese Air Force One, Air India One of India, Shark One of Australia and Wing of Zion of Israel landed with their respective heads of government. At the end of the first week of the around 14-day conference the leaders returned to their respective countries on private planes. According to a report in the local media Sunday Mail, at least 400 private jets were used to transport about 1,000 leaders and delegates.

In just a few days thousands of tons of carbon have been released into the atmosphere of Scotland, the host of the conference. According to analysts, the movement of aircraft produces a large amount of greenhouse gas, especially carbon dioxide because these planes run on fuel oil. High levels of carbon emission is gradually increasing global warming. Air transport is several times more harmful than any other type of transport system in terms of carbon emission that depend mainly on size and efficiency of engine of the aircraft.

It is known from a study by the University of Land that private jets emit nearly 40 times more carbon than commercial aircrafts. In an interview with the Sunday Mail, Matt Finch of Transport and Environment, an environmental movement group, said, "A private jet emits an average of 2 tons of carbon per hour during operation. So, it is beyond saying how bad these jet planes are. It is the worst mode of transport. According to one of our studies, the leaders and delegates who joined COP-26 could be easily transported by commercial aircrafts."

The luxury of using private aircrafts by leaders to attend important climate conference has been widely criticised. Nigel Farage, a former leader of Britain's Independence Party, told leaders in a Twitter post that, "everyone who has used a jet to join COP 26 is a hypocrite". Environmentalists say that world leaders are talking about climate emergency whereas they boarding private jets. It's really a betrayal of climate.

Similar situation happened at COP in Madrid. However, apart from this hypocritical behaviour of world leaders they have tried to do something for the world. Kathryn Harrison, a professor at University of British Columbia who was present at the conference, said that according to the agreement reached global temperature will likely rise by more than 1.5 c possibly even as high as 2.4 c.

Lots of announcements have been delivered at COP 26 on forestry, methane, reducing the use of fossil fuel etc that includes a plan to end deforestation by 2030 but the main target was coal. In many countries it is used to generate electricity. In fact, around 40% of the world's electricity is generated from coal. At present 80 (against 66 in 2000) countries are using coal power. Another 13 countries including Egypt and the United Arab Emirates are planning to join the group.

The World Health Organisation does not recommend household use of coal but due to easy availability it is widely used for cooking mainly in China and India. As coal is a fossil fuel and very harmful to health and environment most of the countries attending the COP-26 have agreed to phase out coal but India insisted the language be changed as phase down. "India has abundant reserve of coal and an extremely poor population. So, for them to commit to phase out coal without additional support from wealthy countries is not possible," said Harrison.  

Another COP will be held in Egypt in next year, countries will fix more ambitious goals but they will have to show what they have attained and what more they plan to reduce carbon emission. Time is still early to comment whether COP 26 is a failure to save the world.  Though COP-26 failed to attain its major goal some people still believe that hopes are still alive. Following Wordsworth we can also expect that world leaders have many things yet to do.
The writer is a former Commissioner of Taxes








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