2021, the year that revived environmental ambition

The year that is now coming to an end has allowed the initiative to recover to formalise new environmental agreements, most of them crystallised at COP26, which was held in Glasgow in November, after a half-hearted 2020 due to the restrictions generated by COVID-19.

In fact, the climate summit was delayed for a year because of the international alarm over the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus which, by the way, has allowed the link between the health of the planet and that of human beings to be shown for the first time in a very graphic way.

Several studies published in recent months have insisted on this link, describing how environmental problems such as the destruction of ecosystems or the poor industrial exploitation of all kinds of species, with the consequent increase in zoonotic diseases, capable of jumping from animals to humans and vice versa, have helped the virus to spread.

This is why the commitment to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030 is considered a success, in a document sealed during COP26 - the climate summit held in Glasgow during the first half of November - by the governments of a hundred countries in whose territory 85% of the planet's forests are concentrated.

Among them was Brazil, whose Minister of the Environment, Joaquim Leite, also pledged that his country would eliminate illegal deforestation by 2028, a problem that affects the world's largest forest reserve, the Amazonia.

At the same summit, 45 other countries agreed to take measures to move towards more sustainable agriculture and land management, while several financial institutions and agribusiness companies announced investments in livestock and soy production programmes to prevent deforestation in South America.

Despite the delay in the convening and development of COP26, only eight countries - including Spain - of the almost 200 participants arrived with their "homework done", that is, with their climate objectives set down in law.

However, Glasgow was the scene of interesting initiatives, including the commitment of the US - which has returned to the "environmental arena" with Joe Biden in the White House - and China, two of the most polluting countries in the world, to "strengthen climate action" and achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement over the current decade.

This joint declaration by Washington and Beijing was received with satisfaction, but their real intentions of collaboration have been called into question at the first sign of change, following the announcement in early December of the US diplomatic boycott of the Winter Games organised by China, within the atmosphere of a "cold war" that seems to have settled in between the two capitals.

Beyond the final COP26 agreement, decaffeinated at the last minute by India's surprising intervention which, with a single word, changed its final meaning - "reduction" instead of "elimination" of coal as an energy source - the sectoral agreements were signed by groups of countries and regions, not globally.

Most seek to curb the use of fossil fuels by supporting renewables instead, although it remains to be seen how many are implemented and to what extent, given the track record of previous agreements.

These include an end to the granting of new licences to exploit oil and gas in territories under the signatories' jurisdiction, the elimination of combustion vehicles by 2035, the creation of electric public bus fleets in Latin American countries, and a reduction of up to 30% in methane emissions, a gas with a major impact on the greenhouse effect, although less well known than CO2.

As for the rest, the EU is consolidating its position as one of the main environmental leaders, with a European Commission that wants to dedicate a large part of the so-called Next Generation funds - to alleviate the economic damage caused by the coronavirus - to the ecological transition, including 30 per cent to the fight against climate change.

One of the great unresolved issues continues to be the raising of sufficient financial capital to support the ecological transition of developing countries, which, according to calculations made since COP21 in Paris, should amount to some 100 billion dollars a year (some 88.5 billion euros), a figure that is still far off, despite the progress made in this regard.

What did emerge in 2021 is the growing interest of the financial sector in everything related to the environment, materialised in the signing of up to 450 entities from 45 countries to invest 130 billion dollars (112 billion euros) in the transition to a decarbonised economy by 2050.

In addition, this year has given new impetus to the "green wave" in the economic sector, where large multinationals and SMEs have presented proposals and public plans to improve their environmental impact and carbon footprint, competing to obtain certificates from both governments and private entities in a process that, according to environmental organisations, has more to do with "greenwashing" than with a real commitment.

2022 will be a decisive year to know whether the facts corroborate the intentions and the good wishes come true or the real problems are submerged again, taking advantage of the fact that the next COP27 will be held in the Egyptian town of Sharm el Sheikh, a well-known seaside resort and recreational diver's paradise.