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Part 1: Economic Outlook 2021 - 2023
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Box 1-7: Glasgow Climate Charter
In the August 2021 report by the United Nations (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) authored by Jeff Tolfson, it cautioned that the Earth’s global surface temperature has
already increased by around 1.1 °C compared with the average from 1850–1900—a level that
hasn’t been witnessed since before the last ice age, some 125,000 years ago.
And given that the temperature at this level has led to the occurrence of unprecedented droughts,
wildfires and floods devastating communities worldwide, what would the planet be like if
temperatures rise by the predicted 2.7 degrees Celsius under business-as-usual scenarios?
Therefore, the report suggests that the future of the planet depends heavily on choices decided by
mankind at the present time, and this rise in temperature is fully attributable to the emission of
greenhouse gases due to humanity’s dependence on economic models that are not
environmentally friendly.
According to International Energy Agency IEA (2020), World Energy Outlook 2020, Paris
https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-outlook-2020
, the positive aspects of the measures to
contain Covid-19 are the reduction of global energy demand by 5%,
energy-related CO2 emissions
by 7%, energy investment by 18%, oil consumption by 8%, and coal use by 7%, which created a
general consensus that human activities are indeed behind global warming, and which contributed
to pushing the delegates of the world’s countries participating in the Climate Conference No. (26)
held during the first half of November 2021, to propose bigger reductions pledges: advanced
economies commit to cut emissions from 21% by 2030 under the Paris Agreement to 43% in
Glasgow, emerging economies from 3% to 12%, and low-income countries from 4% to 6%. The
agreement also reinforced the Paris Agreement with a dynamic approach of continuing the pledge
to reduce emissions to net zero by mid-century. But while it should take into account that such a
charter is not legally binding, the Glasgow COP has set the global agenda on climate change for
the next decade, among which actions are:
1. Countries will meet again (COP2) in 2022 in Egypt to pledge further cuts to emissions of carbon
dioxide (CO2) - a greenhouse gas which causes climate change because current pledges will
only limit global warming to about 2.4C while it remains critical to reduce it to 1.5C.
2. This is the first time at the COP that one of the goals has been to reduce coal use - which causes
40% of annual carbon dioxide emissions - but the agreed commitment is to seek only a "phasing
down" rather than the necessary "phasing out".
3. Similarly, more than 100 countries agreed upon a plan to cut 30% of methane emissions by 2030
given that it is responsible for a third of human-caused warming. However, major gas emitters
such as China, Russia, and India have not joined - but it is hoped that they will later.
4. It agreed to increase the allocation of funds to help poor countries cope with the effects of climate
change and switch to clean energy from $100 billion to $1 trillion, but this is still subject to further
discussion.
5. It also agreed to eliminate subsidies that make coal, oil or natural gas cheap, but no specific date
has been set when the subsidies will be discontinued.
6. One of the highlights of the conference is the agreement between the United States and China
to cooperate more closely over the next decade in areas including methane emissions and the
transition to clean energy.
7. Leaders from more than 100 countries - with about 85% of the world's forests - have promised
to halt deforestation by 2030, and this is vital, as trees can absorb huge amounts of carbon
dioxide, but notably such previous initiatives have not worked, However, it is germane that the
new initiative will be better funded, although it is not clear how fund pledge will be implemented.
8. Financial organizations that control $130 trillion have agreed to support "clean" technology, such
as renewable energy, and direct funding away from fossil-fuel-burning industries.
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