Going into the 5th day of COP26 we look back at yesterday’s highlights from COP26 - Wednesday 3rd November 2021. 

Finance Ministers from around the globe gathered in Glasgow yesterday for day 4 of COP26 with discussions centred around funding for rapid, large scale climate action as part of the work towards limiting global temperature rises to 1.5 °C.  

New finance commitments made on Wednesday have led to significant progress towards the $100 (£73) billion goal per year set for developed countries, with 95% of the top 20 developed countries now having made pledges beyond 2020. An updated compilation of the 2021-2025 climate finance commitments can be found here. 

Over 450 banks, insurers and investors also pledged on Wednesday to put combating climate change at the centre of a collective $130 (£95) trillion at their disposal. This will be achieved through efforts to put green investing, science-based net zero targets and near term milestones, through the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ). The financial pledge through GFANZ is aimed at all assets managed by the institutions involved having net zero emissions by 2050. 

This change in private sector financial institutions was praised by the COP26 President Alok Sharma;  "What we have seen over the last few years is a big move in the private sector and financial services sector to go green ... in the 1990s, clearly (then) climate finance, investing in green, was not mainstream. I do believe it is now mainstream."

Not everyone was as positive though, Sam Alvis, head of economy at the Green Alliance thinktank, said: “It is definite progress that the chancellor has got the Treasury on the pitch at COP26. But trillions of dollars are still flowing to fossil fuels every day and voluntary measures have not got us far enough. To keep the 1.5 °C target alive, governments will need to regulate companies not just to publish transition plans but have strict criteria with legal bite on their credibility and pace.”

How NWUPC Ltd Members are contributing and supporting COP26 

UKUPC founding member NWUPC Ltd have 24 full members, of these 12 are on the COP26 Universities Network and we’d like to highlight their work and that of other  NWUPC members with some of the projects and events that they are working on in areas of sustainability and the environment as part of COP26.

Find out more about NWUPC members' dedicated COP26 pages and events as well as links to their university sustainability pages.