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A comment from Professor Michael Grubb as we enter the final stages of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
Prof Michael Grubb, Professor of Energy and Climate Change & Deputy Director of the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, UCL, said:
“COP26 is revealing the paradox at the heart of the Paris Agreement. It established ambitious global goals based on science, but implementation based on sovereignty and a lack of specific, negotiated or binding national commitments. The resistance to unambiguous statements on phasing out coal or ending fossil fuel subsidies underlines some national political realities, and the offered Nationally Determined Contribution are clearly inconsistent with the global goals.
“The risk now is that pressure to come back next year with stronger offers may reduce the ‘ambition gap’ by increasing the gap between stated national ambition and implemented policy – particularly if the international financing falls short.”
Declared interests
None received.