World leaders warned of the severe consequences of nations failing to strike deals to limit global warming to 1.5C since pre-industrial times at the opening session of the Glasgow COP26 UN climate conference.
UK prime minister Boris Johnson, the host of the summit, used a James Bond analogy to drive home the urgency of action needed to combat climate change.
“Bond is strapped to a doomsday device as a red digital clock ticks down remorselessly to a destination that will end human life as we know it,” he told delegates. “We are in the same position as James Bond today. Humanity has long since run down the clock on climate change.”
Johnson admitted that climate conferences alone had so far failed to prevent climate change occurring, adopting climate activist Greta Thunberg’s “blah, blah, blah” criticism. But he warned that the anger and impatience of the world would be “uncontainable” if world leaders failed to take decisive action.
In a sign of a growing focus on the actions of the business world, the head of the UN also announced at the opening ceremony that he would establish an expert group to develop a standard for measuring and analysing corporate net zero pledges.
“There is a deficit of credibility and a surplus of confusion over emissions reductions and net zero targets, with different meanings and different metrics,” UN secretary-general António Guterres said.
Some country commitments were also lacking, he said, without naming specific nations. But he said there were “serious questions” about whether some recent promises were “clear and credible”.
Mia Mottley, prime minister of Barbados, pointed out that central banks had delivered $25 trillion of quantitative easing in recent years, including $9tn in the past 18 months to battle Covid-19. Mottley asked why that could not be done again to fight climate change around the world.
Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, also drew parallels with the effort made to combat Covid-19. He told the gathered world leaders that the crisis had demonstrated just how devastating cross-border threats could be.
“Climate change and biodiversity loss are no different; in fact they pose an even greater existential threat,” he said. “We need to be put on what might be called a warlike footing.”
He also took a stand against coal-fired power and backed the push for a price to be set for carbon, which would penalise heavy emitters.
“We have to reduce emissions urgently and take action to tackle the carbon already in the atmosphere including from coal-fired power stations,” he added. “Putting a value on carbon, thus making carbon-capture solutions more economical, is absolutely critical.”
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