COP26

The US and China strike their own climate deal

The world’s two biggest emitters, the United States and China, agreed to step up their efforts over the next decade to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius—including a new commitment from China to tackle methane.

“The surprise declaration was a boost to talks that are still teetering on the edge of failure to reach an agreement,” the Washington Post reports.

A draft deal is out. But does it demand enough?

A seven-page rough cut of the COP26 pact calls on participating countries to lay out long-term net-zero strategies, boost their emissions-cutting, and speed up their shift away from coal and fossil fuel subsidies, the BBC reports.

Although that seems like a good plan on paper, activists aren’t over the moon about it: Greenpeace International chief Jennifer Morga has called it “a polite request that countries maybe, possibly, do more next year.”

Jennifer T. Gordon, managing editor and senior fellow at the Council’s Global Energy Center, reflects on why the recently announced US Nuclear Futures Initiative matters:

The US Department of State’s announcement of the $25 million Nuclear Futures Package—aimed at helping a wide array of countries acquire nuclear energy technologies—at COP26 last week was a major milestone, and an implicit argument for the role of nuclear energy as a necessary tool in the fight against climate change. The coordination on this issue of several US government entities—including State and the Departments of Commerce and Energy, among others—also shows the importance of a whole-of-government approach to civil nuclear exports.

That the Nuclear Futures Package was announced by Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, demonstrates the intrinsic relationship between US civil nuclear export leadership and global safety and nonproliferation. Countries interested in purchasing nuclear energy technologies from the United States must adhere to the highest standards of safety and nonproliferation.

The funding is intended to build capacity for nuclear energy programs around the world, but not the reactors themselves. It will cover areas such as equipment, feasibility studies, and technical collaboration. While the eventual reactors will almost certainly carry much larger price tags, financing questions can be solved as long as the foundations of civil nuclear cooperation are built—which is exactly what this new initiative will do.

During a Global Environment Facility panel on adaptation innovation on Monday, Jorge Gastelumendi, director of global policy for the Council’s Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, weighed in on the critical role of women in boosting climate resilience:

“Women and children are way more affected than men by climate change, and we need women working in [climate] finance and micro-finance. We need them—not because it’s a nice thing to have, but without social resilience, without social justice, it’s impossible to have climate resilience and climate justice.”