COP26: World leaders address UN climate summit in Glasgow
Joe Biden declares the US is ‘back at the table’, while Boris Johnson warns leaders are like James Bond, grappling with a ‘doomsday device’ that could wipe out humanity.
Chinese president Xi Jinping has told world leaders at the United Nations Climate Conference COP26 to “govern by reality” and provide more support for developing countries - of which China is one.
This comes as US president Joe Biden has declared his country - one of the world’s biggest carbon emitters - was “back at the table” of combating climate change, promising to reduce emissions by 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.
Mr Biden told the COP26 in Glasgow that global warming was not a hypothetical threat. “It is destroying people’s lives and livelihoods, and doing it every single day,” he said.
Mr Xi, who submitted a video message to the conference, acknowledged adverse effects of climate change are increasingly apparent, but did not make any new commitments beyond recent statements of bringing the country’s peak emissions - which makes up more than a quarter of the globe’s total carbon output - before 2030 and then achieving net zero by 2060.
He said countries should take a pragmatic approach “in accordance with national conditions”, adding “developed countries must not only do more themselves, but also provide support for developing countries to do better’’.
Mr Xi stressed that China was pursuing ecological priority and a green and low carbon economic system and would “vigorously develop” renewable energy. He said China “resolutely curbs blindly high energy-consuming and high-emission projects’.
Meanwhile Mr Biden said his administration would commit to reduce emissions by 50 to 52 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 to “demonstrate to the world that the US is not only back at the table but will hopefully lead by the power of our example”.
Mr Biden, who at one point in the summit, appeared to briefly nod off, said: “I know it hasn’t been the case and that’s why my administration is working overtime to show that our climate commitment is action and not words.”
More than 80 per cent of the US energy comes from fossil fuels but the Biden administration is looking increasingly to renewables, wanting half of new vehicles to be electric by 2030.
Later on the sidelines of the summit Mr Biden said: “I guess I shouldn’t apologise, but I do apologise for the fact that the United States - the last administration pulled out of the Paris accord. It put us sort of behind the eight ball a little bit.”
The US is to also issue a joint statement with the European Union to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030.
British Prime Minister and host of COP26 Boris Johnson appealed to the egos of more than 120 world leaders and representatives of 191 countries that they were like the Britain’s fictional son, the spy James Bond, grappling with a “doomsday device’’ that could wipe out humanity.
But the United Nations leader Antonio Gutteres was the most strident speaker warning that the world is “digging our own graves” and “treating nature like a toilet”.
Mr Guterres said: “It’s time to say: ‘enough’’’.
In hours of speeches at this United Nations Climate Conference there was pleading and earnestness, mixed with doses of financial begging, and existential worries.
Mia Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados, quickly addressed the elephant in the room: that “much needed” leaders like China President Xi Jinping or Russia President Vladimir Putin were absent.
“Simply put, when will leaders lead?” she said. “We are watching and we will take note.”
Fiji Prime Minister Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama was hugely critical of leaders who either try and “spin the science’’ about what constitutes carbon emissions, or those seeking a policy of appeasement.
“All high emitting countries must halve carbon emissions by 2030,’’ he said, criticising G20 nations which he didn’t name, but is believed to refer to China and India and possibly Australia.
“We Pacific nations haven’t travelled to the other end of the world watch our future sacrificed at the altar of appeasement of the world’s worst emitters. The existence of low lying islands is not on the negotiating table.”
India Prime Minister Narendra Modi said as part of his “five elixirs”, renewables would make up 50 per cent of his country’s energy supply by 2030 and in the same time the country would reduce carbon intensity by 45 per cent, although it won’t achieve net zero emissions until 2070. But Mr Modi shocked the room by demanding a huge increase in climate financing from the current target of $100bn a year to $1 trillion a year, sourced from developed nations.
Early in the summit the environmentalist and broadcaster David Attenborough, now 95, was powerfully captivating, telling the audience “we are already in trouble.”
He questioned: “Is this how our story is due to end - a tale of the smartest species doomed by that all too human characteristic of failing to see the bigger picture in pursuit of short-term goals?”
Prince Charles said the world had to be on a war-like footing and he called on the private sector to step up through a “vast military style campaign” to overcome the problem that many countries simply can’t afford to go green. He urged industry and business leaders to galvanise the “trillions, not billions’ needed to achieve fundamental economic transition.
Later, alongside French president Emmanuel Macron in a speech addressing issues in Africa, Prince Charles said global agricultural giants had to revise their operations. He said making the land sector, agriculture and bioenergy more sustainable could contribute an estimated 30 per cent of global mitigation needed.
“Regenerative agriculture, organic farming to restore soil fertility and innovative agroforestry systems could enable agriculture to become a net carbon sink,’’he said.
During the speeches, several countries announced new carbon reduction targets of which at least one raised eyebrows. Brazil’s environment minister Joaquim Pereira Leite said Brazil would now cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent by 2030, while green activists highlighted how the Jair Bolsanoro government had been destroying large swathes of the Amazon rainforest.
Vietnam said it would accelerate its net zero target.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wanted to raise more taxes. Mr Trudeau said: “Just as globally we’ve agreed to a minimum corporate tax, we must work together to ensure it is no longer free to pollute anywhere in the world. That means establishing a shared minimum standard for pricing pollution.”
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