Various Events at COP26

The COP conference is divided into Blue Zone and Green Zone. While the Blue Zone is only accessible for accredited participants, the Green Zone is open to the public. Within the Blue Zone, several negotiations and side events are taking place. They’re designated into either open or closed meetings. The closed meetings are not open to the observers, but this group can participate in open meetings with the compliance of the Covid-19 Code of Conduct. On the 1st and 2nd of November, UNFCCC launched a ticket system for NGO badge holders in light of the capacity limit in different negotiation rooms. The ticket collection process was very chaotic and confusing in the beginning, given that no one had experience with this pandemic-specific rule before and the organizers did not communicate instructions adequately. The ticket system was lifted after the World Leaders Summit; however, every negotiation room allows only for one representative from nine different NGO constituencies. The University of Bayreuth belongs to RINGO (Research and Independent NGOs), and it is highly recommended to attend the RINGO coordination meetings every morning for scheduling, as well as added information for any special events that take place and need to adopt the ticket system again.  

Apart from the negotiation and consultation for the technical details in the Agreements, there is a broad range of events organized by the UNFCCC secretariat and different pavilions. Some parties and organizations have their own pavilion, while some share with others. The pavilions provide a space for networking, experience sharing, panel discussions, and open dialogue between participants and experts. It’s very interesting to wander around different pavilions and see various projects and initiatives coming from the bottom-up. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that some of the host organizations are trying to promote certain ideas, so the messages that they deliver can be quite one-sided. On the other hand, the official side events from UNFCCC include different voices from various groups. It was more interesting for us to attend different side events and listen to both affirmative and negative sides.

Achievements in the first week

COP26 was kick-started by the World Leaders Summit on Monday. After the first week of negotiations, four main commitments were made in COP26:

1. 134 countries, covering 91% of the world’s forests, agreed to halt deforestation and land degradation by 2030.
2. 103 countries signed up for the Global Methane Pledge to cut 30% of methane emissions by 2030.
3. 40 countries have signed up for the Glasgow Breakthroughs, aiming to make green technologies affordable, accessible, and attractive globally by 2030. It focuses on five polluted sectors, including power, road transport, steel, hydrogen, and agriculture.
4. Over 450 of the world’s largest banks, insurance companies, pension funds, and many more finance-related institutions have committed to the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ). Signatories have committed to reporting on the annual carbon emissions related to their investments. The alliance does not include requirements to divest from fossil fuels, for example. In total, a sum of $ 130 trillion is covered under GFANZ, an equivalent of 40% of global GDP.

In addition to that, individual countries also ramped up their ambitions and made new commitments to curb carbon emission and mobilize climate finance. For example, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi pledged to net zero by 2070. Additionally, new commitments came from the United Kingdom, Spain, Japan, Australia, Norway, Ireland, and Luxembourg related to climate finance, contributing to closing the gap and probably delivering the promised $100 billion to developing countries every year by 2023.

Making progress but still not enough

We are witnessing progress at COP26. The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted that temperature will rise 1.8 degrees if all the updated targets and pledges on the table are met. Before COP26, the climate action tracker projected that we are on a warming trajectory of  2.7 ℃. From 2.7  ℃ to 1.8  ℃ is great progress, but it’s still not enough. The latest IPCC report clearly stated anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have largely changed the climate system and are directly linked to extreme weather hazards. Each additional degree of warming will no doubt increase and magnify natural disasters and might induce some devasting compound extreme events. It’s the code red for humanity. For many geographically vulnerable and least economically developed countries, 1.5 ℃ does not represent a choice but  a right to survival.

Moreover, most climate finance flows into projects that reduce carbon emissions instead of helping people adapt to the new climate. Adaptation accounts for less than 10 % of the global landscape of climate finance. Wealthy countries favor mitigation projects because success is easier and measurable. Another reason is that mitigation projects can be loan-based and the return is foreseen. If the world leaders can’t fix the disproportionate difference between mitigation and adaptation, it’s clear that climate justice still takes a distant back seat. Another uncertainty we must keep in mind is how the leaders bring their commitments back home and implement them in policies and laws. How to keep countries accountable would rely on the various mechanisms in the Paris Agreement, such as the ratchet mechanism and global stocktake. Much more technical details must be discussed in the second week. Thus, we should not be satisfied with the current outcomes. The more we get comfort from our achievement, the closer we get to failure. 

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The plastic problem

Plastic pollution is one of the most pressing environmental issues that many countries struggle with worldwide. During the last decade, the detrimental effects of plastics on the environment and human health have been extensively researched. Experts all agree that plastic is harmful to humans and it takes over 1000 years to decay, degrading into microplastics and accumulating in ecosystems.

Microplastics are particularly persistent in the environment and hard to capture and recycle. It is important to note that they are not just a result of the breakdown of bigger plastic pieces, but are also produced, for instance, by cosmetic firms to be included in a range of cosmetic products. Hence, after usage of these products the microplastics get washed down the drain, move through the wastewater treatment system, and end up in rivers and oceans. Once released into aquatic ecosystems, the tiny plastic particles are taken up via the food chain and accumulate in the higher trophic levels, in a process known as bioaccumulation. Moreover, microplastics can accrue in the soil, affecting plant growth and soil biota.

The problem with bioaccumulation of plastics are specific properties that have been proven to affect the endocrine system of mammals. By binding to hormone receptors, ingested plastic will result in a downstream cellular effect, leading to developmental changes. Fish have been known to feminize, resulting in detrimental effects on the ecosystem and harming multiple relationship chains established throughout the systems.

Humans ingest plastics through food, handling receipts and drinking from plastic water bottles. This problem has been analysed by researchers at the University of Bayreuth, who in a recent study have detected various types of microplastics in mussels obtained from supermarkets. With microplastics present in food obtained from the supermarket, it seems impossible for us to avoid it in our daily lives. This illustrates how careless actions stemming from short-term convenience not only devastate long-established ecosystem dynamics, but also end up affecting us humans for decades to come.     

Besides the effects of microplastic, the plastic litter in form of bigger pieces, called macroplastic, has a wide range of implications on the environment and ecosystems as well. These include entanglement, ingestion, and suffocation for organisms in marine and terrestrial environments.

Plastic usage in times of the Covid-19 pandemic

As the plastic pollution problem has been reported more and more in the media, the resulting rise in awareness of the effects of plastic usage on the environment greatly impacted governmental decision-making. New laws and specific legislation concerning plastic production and consumption were established. Several countries, including the EU and some U.S. States, started banning or were planning to ban single-use plastics, such as straws, cups and shopping bags, as well as the production of microbeads, which are commonly used in cosmetic products such as face scrubs and soaps. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has drastically affected the global efforts of tackling the plastic problem.

The pandemic has led to an arms race for personal protective equipment (PPE) all over the world. With an increase in both medical equipment such as facemasks, gloves and other protective clothing, as well as single-use plastics from food packaging, home-delivery services and e-commerce, the production and consumption of plastic immensely rose. Commitment to wear a mask has drastically increased the production of one-off masks and the resulting littering. It is estimated that there is a monthly need for 129 billion face masks and 65 billion gloves to contain the spread of the virus on a global scale. A large part of these can now be found as rubbish on the pavement or at the side of the road. In combination with other medical equipment, the resulting waste in the medical sector alone has increased to up to 370%.  

Social trends amplifying this problem include a growth in the throw away culture and online shopping, as well as the increased demand for food delivery and take-away packaging. This is a direct result of the fear-driven perceptions of hygienic and recycled products, as well as the Covid-19 associated sanitary concerns. Estimations predict a 14% increase in plastic and corrugated grocery packaging in the U.S., while reports from a Spanish plastic packaging company show a sales increase of 40%. Additionally, the low oil prices caused by the crisis have reduced the competitiveness of recycled plastics, leading to an increased usage of virgin plastics.

Due to the growing demand for plastic, there has been a temporary relaxation on the policies banning or reducing single-use plastics in many places around the world, including several U.S. States. This reversal or delay of policies relevant for the reduction in global plastic use will result in plastic industry lobbyists taking advantage of the situation, making future implementation of similar guidelines and laws very difficult. It is therefore important to address the fear-driven perceptions against the hygiene of reused and recycled products now, during as well as after the pandemic. It is important to increase people’s trust in packaging-free products and sustainable alternatives to prevent a lasting return of the throwaway culture and thus a resurgence in the use of single-use plastic. An overarching message here is the importance of continuing to move forward with a total system overhaul to make using reusables a safe and convenient option despite the pandemic.  

Waste management in times of the Covid-19 pandemic

Coming back to the example of our campus: The university was quick to respond to the littering problem by putting up more bins, specifically for plastic recycling. However, the increasing plastic waste remains an issue and the pandemic has negatively impacted the recycling sector as well.

In some countries, like Portugal, the government recommended not to recycle any possibly contaminated household waste and in Italy infected people were asked not to sort their waste at all. In the U.S. the recycling capacity was significantly lowered by recycling companies closing due to decreased demand from the industry, low oil prices favouring the use of virgin plastic over recycled plastic and fear of spreading the virus via recycled materials. In other countries, like the Netherlands, there was a backlog of recycling waste due to disruption in logistics.

Therefore, the motioned changes in the usage of plastics have implications for global waste management. The fact that already before the pandemic over two billion people lacked access to waste collection and over three billion people lacked access to waste disposal amplifies the current situation during the crisis.

As the failure to properly manage the waste generated from health facilities and households may escalate the spread of Covid-19 via secondary transmission, the virus creates additional challenges in waste management, including waste management practices and both environmental and global issues. These effects, including future solutions, are illustrated in the infographic shown here:

Conclusion

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a severe increase in the usage and disposal of single use plastic products. Some countries waste management facilities can not cope with the resulting amounts of waste, which consequently means an improper treatment of the surplus plastic waste. In combination with littering of PPE and other single use plastic products this will result in an increased plastic pollution in the environment, where it will persist for decades and negatively impact ecosystems. Since the pandemic has been going on for over a year and an end is not in sight yet, it is important to take notice of this issue and find ways to reduce our plastic consumption whilst keeping to current hygiene regulations.

References:

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