Question Period Note: The 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26)

The 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26)

• Five years after the Paris Agreement came into force, COP26 was a key opportunity for signatories to the Paris Agreement to come together and chart the course for the next decade of climate action, including through raised ambition and tangible action towards keeping 1.5oC in reach and achieving net zero by 2050.
• Canada went to COP26 having already made several important commitments in support of ambition, including enhancing its 2030 emissions reduction target, legislating a 2050 net-zero target, and a doubling of its international climate finance pledge for developing countries.
• At COP26, Canada announced a number of additional commitments and concrete actions at home and abroad to enhance climate action and support developing countries. Throughout the Conference, Canada demonstrated strong climate leadership through its active and constructive engagement and ambitious announcements.
• Canada will continue to work with international partners to ensure delivery of the commitments made at COP26 and advance ambitious climate action.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
• The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the primary forum for addressing climate change at the global level and has near-universal membership, with 197 countries having ratified its Convention. These countries (known as “Parties”) meet each year at the Conference of the Parties (COP) to advance the implementation of the Convention’s objective: to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.
• At COP21 in December 2015, the international community adopted the Paris Agreement, which committed all countries to take action on climate change. Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2°C, preferably to 1.5°C, compared to pre-industrial levels. To achieve this long-term temperature goal, the Paris Agreement requires Parties to increase their ambition every five years.
• The most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that at the current rate, global warming will exceed 1.5°C and 2°C this century unless unprecedented action is taken in the coming decades.
• In response to the urgency highlighted by the science, COP26 was billed as the most important climate conference since the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015. In the two-years leading up to the conference, the UK COP26 Presidency led a strong diplomatic effort to push all countries to come forward with enhanced climate targets known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), mid-century net-zero targets and associated implementation strategies, and new climate finance commitments to support developing countries. COP26 represented an opportunity to capture this progress and continue to build momentum through various political declarations.
COP26 Outcomes
• The theme of COP26 was to enhance global climate ambition, through enhanced commitments on mitigation, adaptation, finance and collaboration.
• The Conference delivered on a number of these goals, including enhanced emissions reduction targets from some major emitters and a commitment from all countries to revisit and strengthen their targets to align with the Paris Agreement temperature goal by 2022 (Canada already meets this requirement).
• On adaptation, the Glasgow Climate Pact urges developed country Parties to at least double their collective provision of climate finance for adaptation from 2019 levels by 2025 (Canada already meets this requirement).
• On Finance, several countries increased their climate finance pledges, including Canada, and Parties welcomed the Climate Finance Delivery Plan: Meeting the US$100 Billion Goal, which Canada co-led with Germany.
• On collaboration, Parties were able to finalize the outstanding elements of the Paris Rulebook, a comprehensive package of decisions that will facilitate the effective implementation of the Paris Agreement. This included a robust outcome on Article 6 (international carbon markets) and on the Paris Agreement’s transparency framework.
• For its part, Canada announced a number of commitments and concrete actions at COP26, including capping and reducing pollution from the oil and gas sector; ending exports of thermal coal no later than 2030; joining the Global Methane Pledge to reduce total methane emissions by at least 30 percent by 2030; committing up to $1 billion of Canada’s international climate finance to help developing countries transition from coal-fired electricity to clean power; and several other commitments to enhance adaptation and resilience and support nature.
• Canada was able to demonstrate strong climate leadership at COP26 on the basis of its active and constructive engagement and announcements, including the ambitious climate commitments it made in the lead-up to the conference.

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