The actual achievements of COP26

It is well known that COP26, which was forced to postpone one year under the influence of COVID-19, overcame twists and turns, adopted an agreement document on 13 November, and concluded successfully. Eventually, the agreement was amended to “gradual reduction” from  “gradual abolition”  of coal-fired power, which was considered the root of all the evils of CO2 emissions. However, I think it can also be said that there was an agreement to fundamentally review the policy of using coal as an energy source. If you look at the COP agreements so far, it is no exaggeration to say that this is the first time a climate warming prevention conference has achieved such results. China, a major developing country that did not comply with any of the COP agreements, stuck to the word (phrase)  until the end, and the expression they reached the end with was “reduction”.That’s because China is surrounded politically and economically by other countries, and it has experienced first-hand the repercussions of simply reneging on promises, as it has done in the past.

Rising energy prices and the decarbonisation of impermanence

However, in the months leading up to COP26, the natural gas market, particularly towards the winter months, experienced a surge in LNG prices, especially in the EU, as shown in the figure below. This spike in natural gas prices has prompted EU countries to signal their intention to return to coal-fired power, and the French government to announce that it will reconsider building nuclear power.

What can we suggest by the phenomenon has happened just before the COP26 event? The central theme of the COP, decarbonisation, might be a kind of “the decarbonisation of impermanence”, so to say the creation of SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). In which there is the message, as “we should spare no effort to overcome the unforeseen risks” that have arisen in the process of carving a long history, even in various difficult situations that may occur in the future.