GLASGOW, SCOTLAND – Hopes that the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow will result in a new agreement on a significant reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions, after China and Russia declined to attend the conference and India’s promises did not live up to expectations .
The summit began on Monday when dozens of world leaders spoke to delegates, defended their achievements in climate action and in some cases presented new emissions targets.
More than 25,000 delegates will attend the two-week conference, including heads of state, ministers, NGOs, official observers and the media.
Hundreds of protesters and members of the public also gather outside the safe “Blue Zone” on the banks of the Glasgow River Clyde. The area has become official UN territory for the duration of the summit.
Researchers have warned that failure to agree to much deeper reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will result in catastrophic and irreversible climate change.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will give a speech at the opening ceremony of the UN Climate Conference COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, on 1 November 2021.
Global warming
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres set a gloomy tone in his speech to world leaders.
“Our dependence on fossil fuels pushes humanity to the limit. We are faced with a strong choice: Either we stop it, or it stops us. And it’s time to say ‘enough.’ Enough of brutalizing biodiversity. Enough of taking “Life of us with coal. Enough of treating nature like a toilet. Enough of burning and drilling and digging deeper. We dig our own graves,” Guterres said.
‘Science is done. We know what to do. First, we must keep the global target of 1.5 degrees Celsius alive, he added, referring to the goal of limiting the average global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.
Get Adobe Flash player Embed Share Hopes already disappear as COP26 Climate Pledges Fall Short Embed Share The code has been copied to your clipboard. width px height px
The URL has been copied to your clipboard
No media source available at this time
0:00 0:02:49 0:00
Will that warning be followed?
India is the world’s third largest polluter. Hopes were high ahead of the summit that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would try to capture the spotlight in presenting ambitious new plans to reduce emissions.
“Between now and 2030, India will reduce its total estimated carbon dioxide emissions by 1 billion tonnes (metric tonnes). … By 2070, India will achieve the goal of net zero emissions,” Modi told delegates, describing the policy as “an unprecedented seen contribution from India to climate action. “
But the target date of 2070 is 20 years later than the UN target of 2050.
In his speech on Monday, US President Joe Biden said “we only have a short window” to fight climate change. Earlier this year, he had promised that by the end of the decade, the United States would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% or more below 2005 levels.
Speaking in Glasgow, Biden told US Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat, that he did not yet fully support the $ 1.75 trillion bill in Congress that included more than $ 550 billion in climate spending.
The White House also released on Monday its plan to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
FILE: Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum at the China National Convention Center in Beijing, May 14, 2017.
No performances
Probably the biggest story of the summit is not what is said on stage but rather who has not appeared at all. Chinese President Xi Jinping, by far the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, is not attending the summit. Xi offered a written statement calling on richer nations to do more to support developing countries in tackling climate change, but he made no significant new promises to reduce emissions.
Xi’s absence is a major setback, said China analyst Martin Thorley at the University of Exeter. “Xi Jinping’s no-show at COP26 is an important reality check for those who expect an enlightened climate policy from the Chinese Communist Party.”
Thorley continued, “While it is argued that authoritarian rule gives leaders more leeway to pursue an ambitious climate policy, it also gives leaders greater capacity to block the pressures of civil society that are driving change in other parts of the world. … Although there is a genuine concern for the climate in some parts of the party, the threat to the CCP’s supremacy through lack of power means that continued dependence on coal will be tolerated “, he wrote in an email to VOA.
“The fact that Xi Jinping only spoke in writing to COP26 will be a great disappointment to both organizers and activists. Until very recently, China was considered a real leader in climate change,” Thorley added.
Others argue that COP26 can make significant progress without Xi.
“(Xi’s absence) may be due to the fact that they do not have much else to offer,” said Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, head of climate and energy at the World Wide Fund for Nature and former president of the COP20 2014 climate summit in Lima, Peru.
“And probably they would prefer to avoid the pressure of being in a COP (climate summit); that may be the reality. But let’s realize that Minister Xie (Xie Zhenhua, China’s special climate envoy), this is probably his tenth COP. He is a “I think that’s a good signal, but I’m missing President Xi,” he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, the world’s fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases, is also absent.
Among the climate activists at COP26, the disappointment is already palpable.
The Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, in the center, participates in a climate protest “Fridays For Future” on the outskirts of the UN climate summit COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland, 1 November 2021.
Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate activist who has inspired youth protests around the world, said at a demonstration outside the summit: “This COP26 is so far just like the previous COPs. Add that it has not led us anywhere. They have not led us somewhere.
“Within the COP, only politicians and those in power pretend to take our future seriously. Pretend to take the present seriously by the people already affected by the climate crisis. Change will not come from within,” she said.
However, COP26 should not be written off so early, said Pulgar-Vidal. “To finally have a collective vision for the world that no one doubts or questions, I think that is good. But now we must have clearer measures, not just goals but clearer measures.”
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks to the media when he arrives at an EU summit in the European Council building in Brussels on 24 May 2021.
Positively
However, not all hope was lost. According to The Associated Press, a coalition moved on Monday to spend $ 1.7 billion on protecting indigenous peoples and tropical forests over the next four years. Involved are the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as 17 private investors including The Ford Foundation, Bezos Earth Fund and Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Amid the gloomy warnings from the speakers at the summit, Max Blain, spokesman for the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said “we see some positive signs so far” that the leaders understand the seriousness of the situation, according to the AP.
“We expect countries to make some more commitments” during the summit, Blain said. “We continue to encourage ambitious, measurable goals that can be achieved, especially in the coming decade.”
Spanish President Pedro Sanchez also promised to halve his country’s climate funding by 2023 as part of a global effort by rich countries to help developing countries fight and adapt to climate change, the AP reported.
World leaders will speak at the summit again on Tuesday, before most return to their home countries, while negotiations continue at ministerial level. COP26 is due to end on 12 November, but it may take longer if it looks as if the talks will succeed in reaching a new climate agreement.
Some information for this report came from the Associated Press.
Source: sn.dk