Glasgow, Nov 2 (IANS) Forty nations responsible for over 70 per cent of the world’s GDP, including the EU, the US, China, Morocco, India, Bangladesh and Kenya, on Tuesday signed a pledge to accelerate the roll out and affordability of zero-emission solutions in some of the highest-emitting sectors under the “Glasgow Breakthrough Agenda” banner.
The breakthrough — announced during the “Accelerating Clean Technology Innovation and Deployment” event at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) — is an overarching pledge by governments.
As countries move from setting broad economy-wide targets, or NDCs, to implementation, this pledge is designed to scale up roll out of climate policies in key sectors by spurring public-private partnerships and cross-country collaboration in the steel, hydrogen, power, and transport sectors.
It marks the first time hydrogen and the so-called hard to abate sector of steel have taken centrestage at the climate talks.
Under a headline vision for each sector, there are a number of initiatives that countries can then elect to sign up to on top of the domestic legislation that would be required to enact the pledge.
The pledge requests the IEA, IRENA and High-Level Climate Champions to carry out research in each sector showing needs and annual progress made towards the goal, but it has yet to detail how those signing the pledge will be held accountable to it.
The UK government, host to the ongoing COP26, is claiming the four sectors could create 20 million jobs worldwide, add around four per cent in additional global GDP and amount to $16.7 trillion in investment by 2030 across both emerging and advanced economies.
At the launch, the UK government also issued a report – authored by experts from institutions from China, Brazil, India, Italy and the UK, which shows how supportive policies can unlock action in these sectors.