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COP26 Reflections: The good, the bad and the future
Emilio Godoy is a Mexico-based journalist who covers various environmental topics, human rights and sustainable development. He has written for a range of media outlets in Central America and Europe and is 威力彩玩法 ambassador for Mexico and Latin America.
The main issues Emilio focused on during COP26 were 鈥渇inancing, carbon markets, transparency and new ambitions.鈥� He鈥檚 also written about the discussions around the presence of indigenous people. 鈥淢any indigenous people were present in Glasgow, which is great,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey put pressure on the world leaders present. It鈥檚 important to take them seriously and not just invite them for a nice photo opportunity.鈥�
According to Emilio, one underreported topic in climate coverage is transparency. 鈥淚t is essential to critically review nationally determined contributions made by countries. Most of them lack a clear road map to comply with their own goals,鈥� he says. 鈥淛ournalists should look into the methodologies used to calculate reductions and whether governments are openly communicating these methodologies.鈥� He also believes it鈥檚 important is to look at whether political leaders are keeping their promises: 鈥淏efore COP27 journalists should revise the agreements made prior and see if their governments complied.鈥�
Lina Yassin is a Sudanese climate journalist and activist. She has five years鈥� experience covering the global United Nations climate change negotiations and writes for several Arabic and international publications. Lina was part of the Sudanese delegation at COP26.
Her advice for journalists covering environmental beats is to make good use of the existing networks and media institutions. 鈥淭he 威力彩玩法 network, the Climate Tracker network 鈥� we also have so many good media institutions that are actually delivering information,鈥� she explains. 鈥淐arbon Brief, 威力彩玩法 and Climate Home are delivering great analyses. As a new journalist you can use these as your guide, you can see what's going on and then you can find a story angle and just start writing.鈥�
And which stories should journalists focus on now that COP26 is over? 鈥淲e have so many pledges. When are they going to happen? How are they going to happen? We should do a lot of following up, especially on the pledges that happened recently,鈥� Lina says.聽鈥淭he U.S. and China released a big statement during the second week of COP but with no clear policy plans.鈥� She says that in the run-up to COP27, journalists 鈥渟hould try and hold those people accountable and see whether they actually came up with implementation plans and milestones.鈥�
Another focus point for journalists should be the discrepancy between the interests of developed and developing countries. 鈥淚n the negotiations we saw that the views of developed and developing countries are very different and it was almost impossible to reach a common ground on some of the agenda items,鈥� she reflects. 鈥淲e are full of talk about collective action. And I absolutely agree, but it doesn麓t mean the burden should be equally divided between developed and developing countries. I don麓t think that麓s how it works. I think that could only make it even worse for a lot聽of countries like Sudan,鈥� she concludes, adding that she would 鈥渓ove to see more reporting on this.鈥�
Sibi Arasu is a freelance journalist from India. He has been covering environmental issues for over a decade now and focuses primarily on climate change, science and innovation, human rights issues, fisheries, public health, conservation and wildlife trafficking. Sibi was one of 20 fellows awarded a Climate Change Media Partnership to attend COP26.
He says the biggest themes for India at this COP were 鈥渓ong term adaptation finance, reducing emissions and shifting to sustainable energy sources in an equitable and just manner.鈥� Now he鈥檚 back home, his next focus will be 鈥渓ooking at how tenable it is for India to meet its ambitious mitigation and adaptation targets. I will also be looking at global climate change funding systems and the role they play in enabling 鈥� or obstructing 鈥� climate action.鈥�
Sibi鈥檚 biggest surprise at the COP was 鈥渢he incredible pressure by civil society groups that enabled the recognition of loss and damage as a key theme in Glasgow. Of course, the concerted push for this issue by the Alliance of Small Island States and the G77 plus the China bloc also enabled getting much needed recognition for the issue.鈥� But at the same time, he also feels that 鈥渢he issue of loss and damage is not being covered in a holistic perspective by global media.鈥� While issues such as Net Zero goals and other mitigation-related issues have gotten a lot of media attention, Sibi describes the fact that there is no global corpus being set up to deal with those hit by the climate crisis today as 鈥渁 story that surely deserves more attention. Loss and damage financing and long-term climate finance are keys to any sustained shift away from fossil fuels.鈥�