Hopes to stop climate change are high at COP26 (Photo: NASA)
a COP26United Nations conference Climate change 2021, which begins this week in Glasgow, was heralded as an opportunity for success or failure in the effort to save the planet from the most devastating effects of climate change.
postponed for one year due to global pandemic From COVID-19, COP26 aims to live up to the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels – a limit scientists say would avoid the most disastrous consequences.
“We need to get out of Glasgow saying we have kept 1.5 degrees Celsius alive,” COP26 president Alok Sharma said as some delegations began arriving in the Scottish city on Sunday.
“We are already in a state of global warming at 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels,” he told Sky News. “At 1.5 °C, some countries will be under water, which is why we need to come to an agreement on how we will deal with climate change in the next decade.”
Insufficient action and empty promises to meet the 1.5°C target agreed with much fanfare in Paris in 2015 will require more political will and diplomatic work, which characterizes global climate policy.
The convention also needs to secure more ambitious commitments to further reduce emissions, secure billions in climate finance, and meet the rules for implementing the Paris Agreement unanimously by nearly 200 countries.
But there is much work to be done.
At a summit in Rome, the leaders of the Group of the world’s 20 largest economies agreed on a final statement on Sunday, calling for “important and effective” action to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. , but does offer some solid commitments.
The G20, which includes Brazil, China, India, Germany and the United States, is responsible for about 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
