Jorge Pina, Endesa's Head of Environment, took stock of COP26: "The result of these two weeks in Glasgow is a step in the right direction."

The Pact reflects the importance of restricting the increase in temperature to 1.5°C and recognises the inadequacy of the climate commitments presented to date. In this way, the commitment to the Paris Agreement was reaffirmed and an urgent call was made to update commitments for 2030 before COP27 in 2022.

While the initial draft published included a call to eliminate the use of coal and for fossil fuel subsidies to be discontinued, the final text was restricted to a call to reduce the use of coal without capture technology and to eliminate ineffective fossil fuel subsidies. Despite this dilution of aims, which many called a failure, this was the first time that a text for international negotiations on climate change included a direct reference to the use of coal, and fossil fuel subsidies.

Adaptation also played a leading role in the Glasgow results, the Pact noted with serious concern the conclusions from the latest report of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) regarding the increase in the adverse effects of climate change, highlighted a need for further action and agreed on a two-year work programme for the establishment of a global goal in matters of adaptation.

The forum also recognised the growing need of developing countries, especially with regard to the growing impact of climate change and underlined the need to mobilise climate finance amounting to more than 100,000 million dollars a year, as well as urging developed countries to double their collective contribution by 2025 compared to 2019 levels. In this regard, in his speech at the opening session, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced that from 2025 Spain would allocate 1,350 million to financing international climate.

Outside the negotiating table, whose decisions required unanimity and this made them difficult to reach, the great number of international initiatives and alliances approved was striking. These included one that we really did not expect: The United States and China made a joint statement pledging to work together to reduce emissions in this decade. Other notable initiatives were a commitment to reduce methane emissions, a declaration on the transition from coal to renewable energy, the acceleration of the transition of road transport to zero emissions, a declaration on clean shipping and the Glasgow declaration on forests and land use, through which more than 100 countries made a commitment to stop deforestation by 2030.

To conclude and taking into account the difficulty of the process, which required the unanimous agreement of more than 190 countries, the result of these two weeks in Glasgow should be seen as a step in the right direction and an important call to urgent action on a large scale as the only possibility for restricting the increase in temperature and avoiding a catastrophic impact as a result of global warming.