Glasgow Summit is the ‘Last Chance to Get Runaway Climate Change Under Control’

The new IPCC report predicts that extreme heat exposure and extreme weather events will increase in frequency and intensity as the world warms.

 

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The 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) is expected to be a pivotal moment in the fight against climate change, bringing leaders together in Glasgow to accelerate progress on global climate action.

The event is “the world’s best last chance to get runaway climate change under control,” said the COP26 organisers in the wake of the “Red Alert” report issued on Monday by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The report sounds the alarm on the state of the climate crisis, including changing weather patterns, intensifying water cycles, rising sea levels, ocean acidification, thawing permafrost, and increasing exposure to extreme heat.

Addressing climate change is urgent and insufficient progress has been made, as “nations still haven’t implemented the Paris Agreement, they’re still far from its 1.5°C goal, and levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continue to rise,” said Ovais Sarmad, UN Climate Change Deputy Executive Secretary, in late June at a Chatham House virtual conference ‘Climate Change 2021.’

Tough decisions will need to be made to advance the world towards the goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

“What we need are political decisions to be made. There are opportunities for these decisions and this leadership in the next few months leading up to COP26,” said Sarmad.

The four main goals of the summit are to:

• Secure global net zero emissions by 2050 and keep global warming of no more than 1.5°C within reach;
• Enable and encourage countries affected by climate change to protect and restore ecosystems and build resilience infrastructure and agriculture to avoid the loss of livelihoods and lives;
• Follow through with the promise to mobilize US$100 billion in climate financing per year by 2020;
• Finalise the “Paris Rulebook” to make the 2015 Paris Agreement operational.

“I feel there is a new enthusiasm and a new momentum around international climate action that we haven’t experienced since the adoption of the Paris Agreement. There is a renewed appetite for progress,” said Sarmad.

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