4 November 2021 02:02 am Views - 209
Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson greets US President Joe Biden at the COP26 Climate Summit (AFP)
A crucial United Nations conference heard calls on its first day for the world’s major economies to keep their promises of financial help to address the climate crisis, while big polluters India and Brazil made new commitments to cut emissions.
World leaders, environmental experts and activists all pleaded for decisive action to halt the global warming which threatens the future of the planet at the start of the two-week COP26 summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow on Monday.
The task facing negotiators was made even more daunting by the failure of the Group of 20 major industrial nations to agree ambitious new commitments at the weekend.
|
The G20 is responsible for around 80% of global greenhouse gases and a similar proportion of carbon dioxide, the gas produced by burning fossil fuels that is the main cause of the rise in global temperatures which are triggering an increasing intensity of heatwaves, droughts, floods and storms.
“The animals are disappearing, the rivers are dying and our plants don’t flower like they did before. The Earth is speaking. She tells us that we have no more time,” Txai Surui, a 24-year-old indigenous youth leader from the Amazon rain forest, told the opening ceremony in Glasgow.
Delayed by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, COP26 aims to keep alive a target of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
To do that, it needs to secure more ambitious pledges to reduce emissions, lock in billions in climate financing for developing countries, and finish the rules for implementing the 2015 Paris Agreement, which was signed by nearly 200 countries.
The pledges made so far would allow the planet’s average surface temperature to rise 2.7C this century, which the United Nations says would supercharge the destruction that climate change is already causing.
More than 100 global leaders late on Monday pledged to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by the end of the decade, underpinned by $19 billion in public and private funds to invest in protecting and restoring forests. read more
|
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reminded delegates that the six hottest years on record have occurred since 2015.
Other speakers, including activists from the poorer countries hardest hit by climate change, had a defiant message.
“Pacific youth have rallied behind the cry ‘We are not drowning, we are fighting’,” said Brianna Fruean from the Polynesian island state of Samoa, which is at risk from rising sea levels. “This is our warrior cry to the world.”
In 2009, the developed countries most responsible for global warming pledged to provide $100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing nations deal with its consequences.
The commitment has still not been met, generating mistrust and a reluctance among some developing nations to accelerate their emissions reductions.
Leaders of countries such as Kenya, Bangladesh, Barbados and Malawi called rich nations to task for failing to deliver.
“The money pledge to least developed nations by developed nations ... is not a donation, but a cleaning fee,” Malawi’s President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera said.
“Neither Africa in general, nor Malawi in particular, will take ‘no’ for an answer. Not any more.”
President Xi Jinping of China, by far the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, said in a written statement that developed countries should not only do more but also support developing countries to do better.
Xi’s absence, along with that of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, president of one of the world’s top three oil producers together with the United States and Saudi Arabia, may hinder progress.
Activist Greta Thunberg appealed to her millions of supporters to sign an open letter accusing leaders of betrayal.
“This is not a drill. It’s code red for the Earth,” it read.
“Millions will suffer as our planet is devastated -- a terrifying future that will be created, or avoided, by the decisions you make. You have the power to decide.”
Meanwhile, India and Brazil, two of the largest polluters, both used the platform to provide new emission cutting pledges.
“We will act responsibly and search for real solutions for an urgent transition,” Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has presided over more than two years of deforestation, said.
Brazil said it would cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030, compared with a previous pledge of 43% in that period.
However, the cuts are calculated against emissions levels in 2005, a baseline which was retroactively revised last year, making it easier for Brazil’s targets to be met.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi set 2070 as a target for India to reach net-zero carbon emissions, much later than those set by other polluters and twenty years beyond the U.N.’s global recommendation. read more
The G20 failed to commit to the 2050 target to halt net carbon emissions, undermining one of COP26’s main aims, at a weekend meeting in Rome.
DEFORESTATION
More than 100 global leaders pledged to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by the end of the decade, a promise underpinned by $19 billion in public and private funds to invest in protecting and restoring forests.
The joint statement was backed by leaders of countries including Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia, which collectively account for 85% of the world’s forests.
Forests absorb roughly 30% of carbon dioxide emissions, according to the nonprofit World Resources Institute.
However, forest degradation and loss has been aggravated by fires that in some places are being fuelled by the conditions of climate change.
Those seeking to conserve forests also have to deal with the massive commercial incentives to fell trees.
Under the far-right government of President Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, illegal loggers have become emboldened in the Amazon, the world’s largest tropical rainforest.
Indigenous people from the region have sent 40 envoys to the COP26 talks to highlight the need to protect their territories.
METHANE
About 100 countries have joined an effort led by the United States and the European Union to cut emissions of the climate-warming gas methane by 30% by 2030, compared with 2020 levels.
Methane has a shorter life in the atmosphere than the biggest greenhouse gas CO2, but has around 80 times more planet-warming potency. That means quickly reducing methane emissions from the fossil fuel industry and agriculture could have a big impact in the short term.
But big methane emitters Russia, China and India have not yet signed up, while Australia has rejected the idea of joining.
NET-ZERO EMISSIONS GOAL
COP26 aims to keep alive a target of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels to avert the most dire climate change impacts.
So far, the world is far off track. A U.N. report released days before the Glasgow talks said current pledges to cut climate-warming emissions put the planet on course for a 2.7C temperature rise this century.
Scientists say the world must halve emissions by 2030, and reach net-zero by 2050, to avert the worst impacts of global warming.
India’s prime minister on Monday said the country, one of the world’s biggest carbon emitters, after China and the United States, aimed to reach net zero by 2070.
(Reuters)