Good omens hard to find as global climate talks open
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[November 01, 2021]
By Mark John and Katy Daigle
GLASGOW (Reuters) -World leaders began
arriving on Monday at a U.N. conference critical to averting the most
disastrous effects of climate change, their challenge made even more
daunting by the failure of major industrial nations to agree ambitious
new commitments.
The COP26 conference in the Scottish city of Glasgow opens a day after
the G20 economies failed to commit to a 2050 target to halt net carbon
emissions - a deadline widely cited as necessary to prevent the most
extreme global warming.
Instead, their talks in Rome only recognised "the key relevance" of
halting net emissions "by or around mid-century", set no timetable for
phasing out coal at home and watered down promises to cut emissions of
methane, a greenhouse gas many times more powerful than carbon dioxide.
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg asked her millions of supporters to sign
an open letter accusing leaders of betrayal.
"As citizens across the planet, we urge you to face up to the climate
emergency," she tweeted. "Not next year. Not next month. Now."
Many of those leaders take to the stage in Glasgow on Monday to defend
their records and in some cases make new pledges at the start of two
weeks of negotiations that conference host Britain is billing as
make-or-break.
"Humanity has long since run down the clock on climate change. It's one
minute to midnight and we need to act now," British Prime Minister Boris
Johnson will tell the opening ceremony, according to advance excerpts of
his speech.
"If we don't get serious about climate change today, it will be too late
for our children to do so tomorrow."
DISCORD
Discord among some of the world's biggest emitters about how to cut back
on coal, oil and gas, and help poorer countries to adapt to global
warming, will not make the task easier.
At the G20, U.S. President Joe Biden singled out China and Russia,
neither of which is sending its leader to Glasgow, for not bringing
proposals to the table.
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, on board Air Force One
with Biden, said Glasgow could put pressure on those who had not yet
stepped up, but that it would not end the global effort.
"It is also critical for us to recognise that the work is going to have
to continue after everyone goes home," he told reporters.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose country is by far the biggest
emitter of greenhouse gases and ahead of the United States, will address
the conference on Monday in a written statement, according to an
official schedule.
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrives for the UN Climate
Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain, November 1,
2021. REUTERS/Phil Noble/Pool
President Vladimir Putin of Russia, one of the
world's top three oil producers along with the United States and
Saudi Arabia, has dropped plans to participate in any talks live by
video link, the Kremlin said.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will also stay away. Two Turkish
officials said Britain had failed to meet Ankara's demands on
security arrangements and protocol.
PROMISES, PROMISES
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 - a level
scientists say would avoid its most destructive consequences.
To do that, it needs to secure more ambitious pledges to reduce
emissions, lock in billions in climate-related financing for
developing countries, and finish the rules for implementing the 2015
Paris Agreement, signed by nearly 200 countries.
Existing pledges to cut emissions 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 by intensifying storms, exposing more people to
deadly heat and floods, raising sea levels and destroying natural
habitats.
Developed countries confirmed last week that they would be three
years late in meeting a promise made in 2009 to provide $100 billion
a year in climate finance to developing countries by 2020.
"Africa is responsible for only 3% of global emissions, but Africans
are suffering the most violent consequences of the climate crisis,"
Ugandan activist Evelyn Acham told the Italian newspaper La Stampa.
"They are not responsible for the crisis, but they are still paying
the price of colonialism, which exploited Africa's wealth for
centuries," she said. "We have to share responsibilities fairly."
Two days of speeches by world leaders starting Monday will be
followed by technical negotiations. Any deal may not be struck until
close to or even after the event's Nov. 12 finish date.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper and Jeff Mason; writing by Mark John
and Kevin Liffey; editing by Barbara Lewis)
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