GLASGOW: World leaders must act to "save humanity", UN chief Antonio Guterres said Monday as they met for the historic COP26 climate summit that observers said got underway with more talk than action.
More than 120 heads of state and government are gathering in Glasgow for a two-day summit at the start of the UN´s COP26 conference, being billed as vital for the continued viability of the Paris Agreement, which countries signed in 2015 by promising to limit global temperature rises to "well below" two degrees Celsius, and to work for a safer 1.5C cap. With a little over 1C of warming since the Industrial Revolution, Earth is being battered by ever more extreme heatwaves, flooding and tropical storms supercharged by rising seas. Observers however were unimpressed with Monday´s announcements.
"More is needed to turn words into action," said Thomas Damassa, Oxfam America's associate director for Climate Change. "The US must work with other countries to secure a strong outcome that ratchets up emission reductions by major economies."
Guterres told the conference that "our addiction to fossil fuels is pushing humanity to the brink". Guterres said either we stop it or it stops us. And it's time to say, enough. Enough of killing ourselves with carbon. Enough of treating nature like a toilet. Enough of burning and drilling and mining our way deeper. We are digging our own graves."
Most nations have already submitted their renewed emissions cutting plans -- known as "nationally determined contributions", or NDCs -- in advance of COP26. But even these current commitments -- if followed -- would still lead to a "catastrophic" warming of 2.7 Celsius, said the UN.
President Joe Biden said he was releasing the US long-term climate strategy: a vision of achieving net zero by 2050. His speech was short on details but he outlined a couple of things of note. He announced the first ever US contribution to the Adaptation Fund, designed to help developing countries cope with the impacts of climate change. No dollar amount was given.
Only China emits more carbon dioxide than the US. Data for 2019 shows the US emitted 5,107 megatonnes of CO2 -- 15.5 tonnes per head of population. And no country in the world has been responsible for more emissions than the United States over the course of history. Since 1750, the US has emitted 410.2 bn tonnes of CO2. That's almost twice as much as China, which comes second This is a decisive decade in which we have an opportunity to prove ourselves, US President Joe Biden said in his address. Climate change is not hypothetical but is destroying people's lives and doing so every day, he said. The president said the US has experienced the problems brought by climate change in recent years and "none of us can escape the worst of what's yet to come if we fail to seize this moment".
Another pressing issue is the failure of rich countries to deliver $100 billion annually to help climate-vulnerable nations adapt to climate change. The goal -- meant to be delivered last year -- has been postponed to 2023, exacerbating tensions between richer nations, responsible for global warming, and those poorer countries who are the victims of its effects.
In his impassioned speech, broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough said it's either stability... or a brutal world. He said when global temperatures fluctuated, it was a "brutal an unpredictable world" in which our ancestors could only exist in tiny numbers at times. He said then it stabilised and the climate became benign, not varying by more than plus or minus one degree. "Everything we’ve achieved in the last 10,000 years was enabled by the stability in this time," he said.
The burning of fossil fuels and other industrial activities jeopardises all this, he said. "We are already in trouble, the stability we all depend on is breaking," Sir David said. "This story is one of inequality as well as instability. Those who’ve done the least to cause this problem are being the hardest hit."
Attenborough told world leaders that the future of young people should provide impetus to "turn tragedy into triumph" on climate change. He said carbon emissions must be halved this decade to keep warming limited to 1.5C by the end of the century.
Earlier, China's President Xi Jinping released a letter to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson reaffirming China's aim for emissions to peak in the country before 2030, and for carbon neutrality to be achieved by 2060. But he has not said how China will achieve this. Jinping hasn't been attending the conference.
British PM Boris Johnson called countries for to end the use of coal, phase out petrol-powered cars, and reverse deforestation. Under present targets we are on track for warming of 2.7C by 2100 - which the UN said would result in climate catastrophe. Johnson warned of the "uncontainable" public anger if the conference fell flat. If the leaders "fluff our lines or miss our cue", generations as-yet unborn "will not forgive us", the prime minister said.
However, Monday's most hotly anticipated address, from India's Narendra Modi, tempered the hype somewhat: the third largest emitter will only achieve net-zero by 2070. Modi made five major commitments - "elixirs". It is a pledge to achieve the target of net zero emissions by 2070. But many will see the date of 2070 as a major disappointment because one of the key goals of this summit is for all countries to commit to net zero by 2050. India is the world's fourth biggest emitter of carbon dioxide after China, the US and the EU.
Earlier, thousands of delegates queued around the block to get into the summit, negotiating airport-style security in the locked-down city centre.
On nearby streets, protesters began lively demonstrations to keep up the pressure. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was among dozens of protesters who gathered in a park across the river from the conference centre carrying banners with slogans like "We are watching". They then marched across to directly opposite the venue chanting "We are unstoppable, another world is possible!"