Global Climate Leadership in the aftermaths of COP26

The two-day conference united Chinese, European and US speakers from academia, administrations and governments to take stock of the results of the COP 26 Glasgow Summit and the further way forward in climate protection efforts.

In regard of evaluating the summit, Mr. Xu from China’s National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation and Mr. Sach from Germany’s Ministry for the Environment pointed out its importance in fleshing out further details on how the goals of the Paris Agreement can be achieved. Nevertheless, both agreed that further work is necessary to ensure that economic recovery programmes are designed in a climate-friendly way. Mr. Sach put forward the idea of a “climate club”, consisting of frontrunners and leadership countries but open for all to accelerate the achievement of objectives.

The importance of setting ambitious climate targets in order to achieve a clean energy transition was pointed out by Mr. Pan from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Paolo Caridi from the Directorate General for Climate Action of the European Commission made clear that an efficient carbon-pricing mechanism played a crucial role therein and elaborated on the EU’s successful decoupling of growth and emissions. Kevin Tu (Agora Energiewende) and the other panellists agreed that energy transition is an opportunity and that its implementation requires trust and cooperation.

The importance for a just energy transition that does not leave developing countries behind and takes into account their development needs was highlighted by Leslie Maasdorp, Vice President of the New Development Bank. He, Ms Chao Qingchen, Director General at China’s National Climate Centre, and Thomas Hirsch, Climate Development Advice, stressed therefore the significance of international cooperation, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.