Starting on 31 October, the COP26 will bring together in Glasgow world leaders to further boost global climate actions. The focus of the COP26 will be to “secure global net zero by mid-century and keep 1.5 degrees within reach”, “adapt to protect communities and natural habitats”, “mobilise finance” and “work together to deliver”.
Ahead of the start of COP26 on Sunday 31 October, SGI Europe issues the following recommendations to leaders to demonstrate their commitment to accelerating climate action:
- The latest report of the IPCC “Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis” published in August 2021 highlighted unequivocally the increasing impact of human influence on climate change and weather and climate extremes such as heatwaves, heavy precipitation, droughts, and tropical cyclones. Decisive actions and commitments are urgently needed to accelerate climate action.
- Essential in both the mitigation and the adaptation processes, services of general interest are at the heart of this climate transition by the nature of their services, energy, transport, housing, waste management, water, environment, and telecommunications. SGIs also connect citizens to decision-makers by bringing government actions to life. Their contributions to the climate transition should be central in order to deliver a sustainable transition balancing the economic, social and environmental dimensions.
- SGI Europe calls for ambition and for strong binding commitments undertaken by all parties. Building up on the commitments of the EU Green Deal and the goal to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, EU leaders should play a central role in leading the way.
- Climate change policies cannot ignore the investment challenge. There is a strong economic case for investing in climate action as this will create the sustainable growth and jobs Europe needs. In order to unleash the full potential of investments in climate-friendly solutions, private investment needs to be underpinned by public investment.
- The social dimension must not be ignored. The issue of “burden sharing” will be crucial, as climate policies cannot be deployed in a context of growing inequality. The implementation of the commitments will have to integrate this dimension at its core to foster their acceptability for all.
