COP 26:Climate Conference Opens In Glasgow

The British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has told global leaders the planet is in “roughly the same position as James Bond”, strapped to a doomsday device and desperately trying to avoid “a detonation that will end human life as we know.” Speaking in Glasgow, he said;”The clock is ticking to the furious rhythm of hundreds of billions of pistons and furnaces and engines with which we are pumping carbon into the air faster and faster,”

Boris Johnson told the COP26 that it is “one minute to midnight” on that Doomsday device, warning that if the world doesn’t get serious on climate change today, “it will be too late for our children to do so tomorrow”. UN Secretary-General António Guterres then warned in his speech that for vulnerable nations and small island states, failure at the talks is “not an option. Failure is a death sentence”. Mr Guterres said the world faces “a moment of truth” as it approaches “tipping points that will trigger escalating feedback loops of global heating”.

But he said there is “progress to build upon”, adding: “The climate action army – led by young people – is unstoppable.”

The prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, also spoke at the ceremony, whose theme is “Earth to COP”. She said this was “code red to the G7 countries… code red to the G20”.

“Earth to COP: For those who have ears to listen, and for those who have a heart to feel: 1.5 degrees is what we need to survive.”

Echoing Mr Guterres’ statement, she said two degrees of warming above pre-industrial levels would indeed be a death sentence for places like Kenya, Fiji and Barbados.

“We do not want that dreaded death sentence,” Ms Mottley said.The summit also heard from Sir David Attenborough and Prince Charles, while in a recorded video message Professor Brian Cox said: “It’s possible that there’s only one civilisation in the Milky Way Galaxy… there may only ever be one. And that’s us.

“If you’re looking for a hint as to how we should behave politically towards each other, towards our planet, then this idea matters,” the physicist and broadcaster urged.The UK, as host of the talks, wants the aim to be “keeping 1.5C degrees” alive.

Under the Paris Agreement, made at COP21, nations agreed on the need to limit warming to two degrees and ideally 1.5 above pre-industrial levels, come up with their own action plans to achieve this, and review them five years later.

Five COPs later, and this year’s talks will formally review these plans and, many hope, ratchet up targets.

A UN report last week found current plans put the world on a trajectory for 2.7 degrees of warming by the end of this century, though net-zero pledges might shave a little off that.

Among the many world leaders in the audience are US President Joe Biden, outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen who are at COP26 talks in the “last, best chance” to curb devastating climate breakdown.