Leaders dial up doomsday warning to kick-start climate talks

World leaders turned up the heat and resorted to end-of-the-world rhetoric on Monday in an attempt to bring new urgency to sputtering international climate negotiations.

The metaphors were dramatic and mixed at the start of the talks, known as COP26. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson described global warming as “a doomsday device” strapped to humanity. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told his colleagues that humans are “digging our own graves”. And Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, speaking for vulnerable island nations, added moral thunder, warning leaders not to “allow the path of greed and selfishness to sow the seeds of our common destruction”.

Amid the speeches, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that his coal-dependent country will aim to stop adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere by 2070 – two decades after the United States and at least 10 years later than China. Modi said the goal of reaching ‘net zero’ by 2070 was one of five measures India planned to undertake to meet its commitments under the Paris climate accord.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Angela Merkel avoided soaring rhetoric and delved into policy.

“There’s no more time to sit back,” Biden said in a more measured warning that also apologised for his predecessor’s decision to temporarily pull the US out of the historic 2015 Paris agreement, something he said put the country behind in its efforts. “Every day we delay, the cost of inaction increases.”

One of the United Nations’ biggest concerns is that some countries are more focused on amorphous long-term net-zero goals instead of seeking cuts this decade that could prevent temperature increases that would exceed the Paris goal.

Modi also outlined shorter-term goals for the world’s third-biggest carbon emitter: raising its goal for non-fossil energy production, meeting half of its energy needs with renewable sources, cutting carbon emissions by one billion tons compared with previous targets, and reducing the carbon intensity of its economy by 45 per cent – all by 2030.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen touted already announced efforts to make Europe “the first net-zero continent” in the long term and cut emissions 55 per cent in this decade. She pushed for other rich countries to aid poorer nations as much as Europe does.

Bolivia President Luis Arce said rich nations need to face their historic responsibilities for causing the warming problem and not fix it by forcing rules on poor countries. The real solution, he said, “is an alternative to capitalism” and “unfettered consumerism”.

The conference aims to get governments to commit to curbing carbon emissions fast enough to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. The world has already warmed 1.1ºC (2ºF). Current projections based on planned emissions cuts over the next decade are for it to hit 2.7ºC (4.9ºF) by the year 2100.

Increased warming over coming decades would melt much of the planet’s ice, raise global sea levels, and greatly increase the likelihood and intensity of extreme weather, scientists say. With every tenth of a degree of warming, the dangers soar faster, they say.

The other goals for the meeting are for rich nations to give poor nations US$100 billion a year in climate aid and to reach an agreement to spend half of the money to adapt to worsening climate impacts.

But Mottley, of Barbados, warned that negotiators are falling short.

“This is immoral and it is unjust,” Mottley said. “Are we so blinded and hardened that we can no longer appreciate the cries of humanity?”

The speeches will continue through to today, Tuesday, then the leaders will leave.

Xi Jinping, president of top carbon-polluting nation China, is not in Glasgow. UN Climate Secretary Christiana Figueres said his absence was not that significant because Xi isn’t leaving the country during the pandemic and his climate envoy is a veteran negotiator.

In addition, the heads of several major emerging economies are also skipping Scotland, including those from Russia, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, and South Africa.

Before the UN climate summit, the G-20 leaders offered vague climate pledges instead of commitments of firm action, saying they would seek carbon neutrality “by or around mid-century”. The countries also agreed to end public financing for coal-fired power generation abroad but set no target for phasing out coal domestically – a clear nod to China and India.

AP