Climate and Environment Minister Espen Barth-Eide (Labor Party) travels to Glasgow today.
– I look forward to getting started, says Barth Eide to VG.
When VG talks to him, he is out for a walk in the autumn sun with his wife before he flies to Glasgow later today.
In Scotland’s largest city, world leaders will gather for the UN climate summit in just two weeks.
The Norwegian delegation will be led by Barth Eide. And there are three things in particular he wants to get out of this meeting:
1. Agreement on the 1.5 degree goal
– We must do what we can to prevent the globe from warming up more than 1.5 degrees.
In previous international climate negotiations, the countries have agreed to limit the temperature rise to a maximum of 2 degrees.
– But I think we have to stop at 1.5 degrees. This requires that it be clarified in the declaration from the summit, and that the countries then take the consequences of this.
Earlier Sunday, it became clear that The G20 countries now agree to try to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.
– This is very good and well done by those who were there. This strengthens the possibility of reaching a joint decision from Glasgow. It can also help to create movement in other fields, says Barth Eide to VG.
He points out that “although there were a couple of leaders who were unfortunately not present at the G20 summit in Rome” and mentions both Putin and Xi Jinping.
– The most important thing is what the big and industrialized countries say. After all, they are the ones who are responsible for the biggest emissions.
2. Escalation of climate financing
– I hope we get the best out of this with climate financing. The world rich countries must now fulfill their old promise to developing countries to contribute $ 100 billion annually so that they have the opportunity to adjust to a climate-friendly future. In the past, it has not been possible to reach a total level of global climate financing of more than 80 billion, says Barth Eide.
The quota systems must be changed for the better
– They must become more real, and we must avoid pitfalls and cheating when countries trade in emission quotas.
The world has many different quota systems, he emphasizes:
– The important thing is that we must bring forward common standards. It would have been best if the other quota systems in the world could be more similar to the European standard. A quota must represent an actual emission. Once the quota has been used up, we will not be able to use it again. Such double reporting must be avoided, he says.
Starting today
The UN climate summit COP26 has been formally opened in Glasgow. The meeting will last from 31 October to 12 November, and almost 200 countries will participate.
The meeting was supposed to have been held last year, but was postponed due to the corona pandemic.
Barth Eide emphasizes that he has good experience in negotiations and hopes it will have a positive effect on the negotiations they are now going through.
– It helps to have conducted global negotiations before.
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