Coronavirus: what does the UN summit delay mean for climate change?
The postponement of this year's United Nations climate negotiations isn't a fatal blow to climate action but fossil-fueled Covid-19 economic stimulus plans could derail progress, environmentalists say. On Wednesday, the host country, Britain, announced the COP26 summit, which was set to take place in Scotland in November, will be postponed until 2021 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic . The British government said "an ambitious, inclusive COP26 in November 2020 is no longer possible". New Zealand's Climate Change Minister James Shaw said the postponement was "a real shame" but the right thing to do. Shaw said the Covid-19 outbreak meant critical work in the run up to the conference including pre-meetings and public consultation could not be conducted. "There is certainly a great risk that governments around the world will defer action on climate change due to the Covid-19 emergency, but I don't think the delay in this one conference will be used as an excuse." Shaw hopes his international counterparts will respond financially to the crisis by investing in a low-carbon economy. "Historically, our responses to various crises have tended to lock in high-emissions pathways. We cannot afford to do that this time... the rebuild has to put us on the pathway to a smart, green economy that works for everyone," he said. READ MORE: * Coronavirus: UN climate summit postponed until 2021 * COP25: Disappointment over marathon UN climate talks * Climate change: Countries agree on Paris Accord rules Former climate climate ambassador and Victoria University researcher Dr Adrian Macey said he had seen international crises foster solidarity in international climate negotiations. "The 2015 Paris Agreement meeting was less than a month after the terrorist attacks in Paris," he said. "You really wouldn't want to have a failure when you get together after this crisis has abated. That's a factor that will probably help." Climate negotiators could still work together, which could smooth future talks, he said. "There's a chance of getting some work done under the political radar." Macey said the key decisions on the postponed conference's agenda concerned carbon markets and reporting rules. Although the Covid-19 outbreak would decrease emissions temporarily, Macey thought it would slow the world's switch from fossil fuels to renewables. "It's totally unrealistic to expect huge pledges of greater ambition or financial assistance from countries at a time their treasuries are going into debt," he said. Macey said today's climate action leaders were cities, councils and businesses who have "started taking action independently" without an international agreement forcing emissions cuts on them. But with many businesses struggling to keep their heads above water, priorities would naturally shift, he said. Coal Action Network Aotearoa activist Cindy Baxter said low-carbon solutions were ready and waiting for government investment. "This does present us with an opportunity to do the right thing. We just need to get through this virus crisis together first," she said. "If they just use it to prop up the fossil fuel industry and continue business as usual, then they will have missed a huge opportunity." Baxter said the 2020 conference was about "ratcheting up" climate action in this decade. "2021 will see the sixth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released in a series of reports over the year and this could give COP26 even more impetus, as the scientific evidence only gets stronger and more urgent." The UN climate summit is one of the world's biggest conferences more than 26,000 attendees descended on Madrid in December 2019, just as Covid-19 was starting to spread in China. The body responsible for the negotiations, the German-based UN Climate Change secretariat, switched to virtual meetings in March. Travel restrictions and social distancing could be in place for the 12 to 18 months required to develop and test a vaccine.