COP26 Glasgow climate summit: Scott Morrison outlines path to net zero in Indo-Pacific
Scott Morrison has defended the G20 outcome to reduce emissions as Boris Johnson channelled James Bond, but it wasn’t enough to keep Joe Biden awake.
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Prince Charles and Sir David Attenborough opened the Glasgow climate summit with an urgent call to action on Monday night as Boris Johnson warned COP26 loomed as a disastrous failure.
The UK Prime Minister, who is hosting the critical talks, said the emissions reduction pledges of world leaders were “drops in a rapidly warming ocean”.
After some of the world’s biggest emitters including China and Russia torpedoed plans for an ambitious G20 climate declaration, Mr Johnson blasted those not doing their “fair share”.
“If Glasgow fails, then the whole thing fails,” he said.
Prince Charles told more than 100 world leaders they needed to be on a “war-like footing”.
Sir David Attenborough also demanded action, declaring: “There is no negotiating with nature, no way to greenwash physics, no moment more precious and important than now.”
Scott Morrison, who was due to deliver Australia’s statement to Glasgow, defended the G20 outcome and said it was “naive” to expect all countries would take the same path to net zero.
Having rejected a commitment to phase out coal-fired power, the Prime Minister said there “will be progress” from COP26.
“The pace of that and the way that journey is travelled by countries will be different,” he said.
The Australia Institute’s climate program director Richie Merzian, a former Australian COP representative, said Mr Morrison’s protection of coal meant he would “rightly share the blame” if Glasgow failed to deliver.
US President Joe Biden said it was “disappointing” Russia and China “basically didn’t show up” at the G20 in Rome, as pressure mounted on him to help land a global deal.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he left Rome with his hopes for Glasgow “unfulfilled” but “not buried yet”, while COP26 president Alok Sharma said the summit was “our last best hope” to keep global warming within 1.5C this century.
Landmarks including the town halls in Melbourne and Sydney were lit up in green to mark the start of the summit, in what UK High Commissioner to Australia Vicki Treadell said was “a projection of hope”.
Meanwhile, the Queen made a rare comment about her mortality as she delivered an emotionally charged message to world leaders via video at the Glasgow climate summit.
AUSTRALIA BACKS TECH FOR DEVELOPING WORLD
In Mr Morrison’s statement to COP26, he confirmed that even though Australia was maintaining its target of a 26-28 per cent emissions reduction on 2005 levels by 2030, the country was on track to deliver a 35 per cent cut.
He pushed his “technology not taxes” approach, declaring that raising the cost of energy would otherwise harm “those who can least afford it”.
“Cleaner technology solutions must outcompete existing technologies if they are to be successful everywhere, especially in developing economies,” Mr Morrison said.
“This needs to work not just in the developed economies of the North Atlantic, but in the developing economies of the Indo Pacific as well.”
He said the world’s remarkable success in developing coronavirus vaccines was “cause for optimism”, and that the challenge of climate changes “will be met in the same way”.
“It will be met by those who frankly are largely not in this room. It will be our scientists, technologists, engineers, entrepreneurs, industrialists and financiers that actually will chart this path to net zero,” Mr Morrison said.
“It is up to us as leaders of governments to back them in.”
AUSTRALIA PROMISES PACIFIC CASH BOOST
With a key goal of the summit to deliver a $100bn climate finance fund for developing countries, Mr Morrison announced Australia would lift its $1.5bn commitment over the next five years to $2bn.
He unveiled the promise after a meeting with Pacific Island leaders from Fiji, Tuvalu and Palau, saying Australia wanted to cut out red tape and help countries most exposed to global warming “in our backyard”.
“Australia’s assistance will support Pacific and Southeast Asian countries to enhance climate resilience for future infrastructure investments, including roads, schools and bridges,” he said.
“It will also drive private sector-led climate solutions that support clean technology, jobs and growth across our region.”
“Australia stands with our Pacific family in our joint commitment to scale up mitigation and ensure adaptation support.”
Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama commended Mr Morrison’s 2050 net zero commitment but urged him to develop a “concrete plan to halve emissions by 2030”.
Mr Morrison also welcomed Fiji as Australia’s first partner in its new Indo-Pacific carbon offsets scheme.
BORIS’S BOND CHALLENGE TO LEADERS
In his opening speech, Mr Johnson drew on the Scottish heritage of James Bond, saying climate change was a ticking time bomb which world leaders had to defuse like 007.
“It’s one minute to midnight on that doomsday clock, and we need to act now,” he said.
“The longer we fail to act, the worst it gets.”
The UK Prime Minister also referenced climate activist Greta Thunberg’s criticism of leaders offering “blah, blah, blah” instead of real action, saying COP26 had to be “the moment we get real about climate change”.
“We have the technology, and we can find the finance … The question for us today is whether we have the will,” he said.
Mr Johnson said future generations of children would “not forgive us” if COP26 was the “historic turning point where history failed to turn”.
He urged more than 100 world leaders gathered in Glasgow to build “a lifeboat for humanity” and to give it “a mighty shove into the water”.
AMERICA’S BACK BUT BIDEN NODS OFF
Mr Biden used his national statement to urge leaders to “answer history’s call here in Glasgow”, shortly after he was captured on camera appearing to fall asleep during the summit’s opening speeches.
Biden appears to fall asleep during COP26 opening speeches pic.twitter.com/az8NZTWanI
— Zach Purser Brown (@zachjourno) November 1, 2021
An aide came over to the US President within moments of him closing his eyes.
In his speech, Mr Biden apologised to the world for his predecessor Donald Trump removing the US from the Paris climate accord, saying that “put us sort of behind the eight ball”.
As he sought to restore America’s climate credibility, Mr Biden said it was “the challenge of our collective lifetimes”.
“Every day we delay, the cost of inaction increases,” he said.
“Let this be the start of a decade of transformative action that preserves our planet and raises the quality of life for people everywhere.”
“We’re standing at an inflection point in world history … We have the ability to invest in ourselves and build an equitable clean energy future, and in the process create millions of good-paying jobs and opportunities around the world.”
“This is the decade that will determine the answer. This decade.”
ATTENBOROUGH PLEADS FOR CLIMATE RECOVERY
In a powerful speech, Sir David said that everything the world had achieved in the past 10,000 years was due to the stability in the climate, as global temperatures did not move up or down by more than 1C – until now.
He said carbon emissions were increasing at an “unprecedented pace and scale”, causing widespread “destruction of nature”.
“We are already in trouble,” the natural historian said.
“This stability we all depend upon is breaking.”
Sir David said this generation were “the greatest problem solvers to have ever existed on earth” but would be doomed without focusing on the future.
The 95-year-old said that while he had witnessed a “terrible decline” during his lifetime, the world deserved to see a “wonderful recovery”.
ROYAL WANTS TO RALLY TRILLIONS
Prince Charles, who stumbled as he walked on stage at COP26, said climate change posed “an even greater existential threat” than the Covid pandemic.
“Time has quite literally run out,” he said.
“We know what we must do … We have to reduce emissions urgently and take action to tackle the carbon already in the atmosphere.”
Prince Charles said trillions of dollars were required to realise the solutions, and that governments needed to co-ordinate with the private sector to make that happen.
“The scale and scope of the threat we face call for a global systems-level solution based on radically transforming our fossil fuel-based economy to one that is genuinely renewable and sustainable,” he said.
“The private sector is ready to play its part and to work with governments to find a way forward.”
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