COP26: Day 9 update
Innovation day means plenty of events and talks on the role of tech in enabling decarbonisation. There was a great panel with UK Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance (of coronavirus fame) crediting science and technology as having the biggest role in cutting emissions and measuring the impacts of climate change. He labelled science and tech as the diagnosis for climate change and challenged innovators to be the cure, a view reflected at techUK.
The biggest tech announcement has been around “Mission Innovation”, a global initiative signed up to by 22 countries plus the EU, aiming to accelerate tech and innovation led decarbonisation across cities and industry. Mission Innovation has been hailed by John Kerry, among others and was highlighted as a key part of the recent Net Zero Review published by the UK Government. This is something we’re big fans of and we look forward to connecting members with the team to showcase how digital tech can play a massive role. From a UK perspective we’ve seen NHSX cite how tech can help the health service meet net zero, as well as investors saying they will direct more attention to clean tech.
On the negotiations themselves, analysis from the Climate Action Tracker shows that short term policy commitments see us on track for 2.7 degrees warming, somewhat shooting down the optimistic long-term assumptions that we’d meet 1.8-9 degrees (with more announcements expected that would help the UK gov claim 1.5 remains in reach). There are major disagreements on transparency on meeting targets, standardised carbon offsetting and how firmly the 1.5 or 2-degree commitment is worded.
COP26 President Alok Sharma MP has said we’re not making enough progress and there is a real possibility that COP26 could run for longer than anticipated. Presumably, those delegates with open returns and who over packed are feeling happier at this prospect.
Our own Teodora Kaneva will be there this week, speaking on all things transport and energy (including a stint in the Blue Zone inner sanctum) so if you want to say hi, get in touch!