Glasgow Climate Pact

The Glasgow Climate Pact is the cover decision adopted by consensus on 13 November 2021 at the conclusion of 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 notable as the first COP decision to explicitly reference fossil fuels. The text calls on parties to accelerate "efforts towards the phasedown of unabated coal power and phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies." The original draft language used "phase-out" for coal; it was changed to "phasedown" in the final plenary at the insistence of India, with support from China, prompting a visible apology from COP President Sharma.

Key elements of the Pact include:

• A request that parties revisit and strengthen their 2030 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by the end of 2022, rather than waiting for the standard five-year cycle, to align with a 1.5°C pathway.
• Recognition that limiting warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels requires global greenhouse gas emissions to be cut by roughly 45% by 2030 relative to 2010 levels, and to net zero around mid-century.
• A call on developed countries to at least double their collective provision of adaptation finance to developing countries from 2019 levels by 2025.
• An expression of "deep regret" that the $100 billion per year climate finance goal, originally promised by developed countries by 2020, had not been met.
• Establishment of a work programme on the Global Goal on Adaptation and a dialogue on loss and damage finance (the "Glasgow Dialogue").

The Pact was accompanied by finalisation of the Paris Rulebook, including rules for Article 6 (carbon markets) and common transparency reporting timeframes. Critics, including small island states and many NGOs, argued the Pact fell short of what 1.5°C requires, while supporters described it as keeping 1.5°C "alive."