Polish involvement in COP 26

The 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) takes place on October 31 - November 12. 197 parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), including all EU Member States, arrived in Glasgow. However, there is no representative of China among the participants, one of the largest economies in the world and at the same time the largest emitter of greenhouse gases - China is responsible for 27% of global emissions. Moreover, representatives of Russia, Turkey and Iran were absent.

How had Poland been involved? On November 3, Poland, as one of 40 signatories, once again signed a commitment to abandon the combustion of fossil fuels ... by 2040. Thanks to this, the Climate Action Network International organization awarded Poland with the "Fossil of the day" - "Skamieliny Dnia" award. Polska, as a member of the OECD, i.e. an organization associating the most developed countries in the world, should commit to expelling fossil fuels from the energy mix by 2030. Meanwhile, we have put ourselves in a row with developing countries. However, another declaration of Poland gives us a bit more hope. On November 2, 100 countries, including Poland, signed an agreement aimed at reducing methane emissions by 30% by 2030. This gas is so much more dangerous to the atmosphere, because during the first 20 years of its presence in atmosphere, it binds heat eighty times faster than carbon dioxide. The implementation of this commitment would allow limiting the global temperature increase to the level of 0.3 degrees C. The limitation of methane emissions was also declared by Brazil, the country responsible for a large part of this gas emissions to the atmosphere due to the highly developed cattle breeding sector. However, it should be noted that the pledge was not signed by China, India and Russia.