Glasgow Climate Pact

The Glasgow Climate Pact is the outcome decision adopted by consensus on 13 November 2021 at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held in Glasgow, Scotland under the UK presidency of Alok Sharma. It is not a stand-alone treaty but a decision text that operationalises and reinforces the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Key elements of the pact include:

• 1.5°C focus: Parties reaffirmed the long-term temperature goal of holding warming well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, and recognised that this requires global greenhouse gas emissions cuts of about 45% by 2030 relative to 2010 levels.
• Coal and fossil fuel subsidies: For the first time in a COP decision, parties agreed to accelerate efforts towards the "phasedown of unabated coal power and phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies." The original draft used "phase-out" for coal; this was changed to "phasedown" after a last-minute intervention by India, supported by China.
• NDC ratchet: Countries were requested to revisit and strengthen their 2030 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by the end of 2022, rather than waiting the usual five-year cycle.
• Finance: The pact urged developed countries to at least double collective adaptation finance to developing countries from 2019 levels by 2025, and noted with "deep regret" the failure to meet the prior US$100 billion per year goal.
• Loss and damage: It established the Glasgow Dialogue on funding arrangements for loss and damage, a precursor to the loss and damage fund agreed at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh.
• Article 6 rulebook: Parties finalised long-pending rules on international carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

The pact was widely characterised as incremental progress that kept 1.5°C "alive" but did not, on its own, close the emissions gap.