Earth to COP
There were tough words for, and by, world leaders on why the world needs urgent climate action as the COP26 World Leaders’ Summit got underway. “We face a moment of truth,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres pointedly told the 120 leaders who came to Glasgow. “We are fast approaching tipping points that will trigger escalating feedback loops of global heating.”
Recent climate action announcements might give the impression that we are on track to turn things around, he said, but “this is an illusion”. Read the speech.
Frustration at the slow pace of climate action was a common theme.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, which is hosting the conference, said, “I was there in Paris six years ago when we agreed to net zero and to try to restrain the rise in the temperature of the planet to 1.5 degrees, and all those promises will be nothing but blah blah blah – to coin a phrase – and the anger and impatience of the world will be uncontainable unless we make this COP26 in Glasgow the moment when we get real about climate change – and we can.”
Many leaders said Glasgow represents a last chance to make a difference. Many said it needed to be a pivotal moment to set the world on a sustainable trend. But others questioned whether the political will was there. Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley pointedly asked, “When will leaders lead?”
What’s the problem?
If every leader agrees that climate change is a critical concern, and that urgent action is needed to keep global temperature to no more than 1.5°颁, why is it so hard to move forward, faster? The problem is no longer that countries disagree that there is a problem. They just still disagree on who needs to do more, or pay more, or take what types of action.
Everyone agrees, for example, that developed countries should honor their commit to provide $100 billion a year to developing countries in climate finance. Developed countries, as a group, are $20 billion a year short.
Many developing countries said quite bluntly that the G20 countries, which are responsible for 80 per cent of emissions, need to do far more to reduce these. Some countries, like Australia, put a premium on new technologies. Others, like the Czech Republic, fear that the abrupt curtailment of fossil fuels would drive impoverishment and social unrest.
Loss and damage
Who should pay for the damage caused by climate change? According to the Prime Ministers of Antigua and Barbuda and Tuvalu, the polluter should pay. That is why they are launching a commission on climate change and international law to address loss and damage questions.
Prime Minister Gaston Alfonso Browne of Antigua and Barbuda said the issue was consistently pushed to the margins. “The use of fossil fuels is a tort against all of humanity,” he said. As we are unlikely to attain 1.5°颁 on the course we are on, “there will be more and more damages.” The commission would use legal processes to help reduce fossil fuel use.
Watch this number
Sir David Attenborough, speaking at the opening of the leaders’ event, said the key number to focus on is the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — now 414 parts per million. This is unprecedented in history and about 50 per cent higher than in the pre-industrial era. “It comes down to this,” he said. “The people alive now or the generation to come will look at this conference and consider one thing – did that number stop rising and start to drop as a result of commitments made here.”
From Game of Thrones to climate interviewer
Actor and environmentalist Maisie Williams, famed for her role on the US television series Game of Thrones, took on the role of interviewer on the sidelines of COP26 today. She put youth activists Archana Soreng from India and Julieta Marino Tartaglino from Argentina in the hot seat. During a UN Instagram Live discussion, Williams asked them about the role of youth in acting against climate change.
“We are advocating for our life, our future. Young people are facing the impacts of the climate crisis right now. That’s why it’s really important for us to speak up,” said Soreng, a member of the indigenous Kharia Tribe who sits on the Secretary-General's Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change.