COP26 - Why we all have to take action

Since 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), every country on Earth is treaty-bound to “avoid dangerous climate change”, and find ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally in an equitable way.

During all of these years some important agreements were reached, the Kyoto Protocol (approved in 1997, and worked as of 2005) or the Paris Agreement (2015). These agreements became a roadmap to reduce emissions and to fight climate change.

In a way, bringing countries, organizations, activists and experts to the same table can already be considered a success, but we have to say that the implementation of these agreements has been disappointing.

These days COP26 is held in Glasgow, with a gathering of more than 120 world leaders and a total of 25,000 people expected to attend to keep up with the negotiations after the world leaders have left.

With the current national targets (NDC's) the situation would result in a 16% increase in emissions, far from the 45% cut needed. That's why the negotiations of these days are so important to remain under the 1,5ºC increase that experts point as the security limit.

Seeing as the IPCC report marks this decade as the key to getting on the right path in terms of reducing emissions and fighting climate change, it is dramatic to see how the discussion continues at a point similar to 2015. It's sad to see some countries are proposing actions for 2025 or even 2050 or 2060, when the issue cannot wait any longer. With agreements on the reduction of emissions in force, they have continued to increase during these years and will continue to do so if strong measures are not taken.

Obviously this is not going to be easy or pleasant, but suffering the consequences of global warming that the IPCC report tells us about will certainly be much worse. Some advocates of the business-as-usual have not realized that paying for the consequences of climate change is going to be much more expensive than acting now, so this is probably the best investment that anyone can do at the moment. Fortunately, other major players are beginning to react, but they are not enough.

As citizens, and also as a company that participates in the production system, we have no choice but to demand agreements, and that these agreements become immediate actions.