COP26: No countries have delivered on promise to improve climate plans.
COP26: No countries have delivered on promise to improve climate plans. In
Glasgow, 196 countries promised to “revisit and strengthen” their plans for
curbing emissions, but there is little sign of this happening before the
next talks in November.
Sebastian Mernild’s presentation pulled no
punches. As more than 40 countries met in Copenhagen last week to discuss
progress since 2021’s COP26 climate summit, the University of Southern
Denmark glaciologist greeted ministers with jagged red lines showing rising
global temperatures. He reminded them that emissions are still growing.
And he told them their goal of holding temperature rises to 1.5°C needs
nothing less than “rapid, deep and sustained” emissions cuts. “They
all know what we are facing scientifically regarding 1.5°C,” says
Mernild. Whether they are acting on that knowledge is another question.
Half a year on from a deal at COP26 in Glasgow, it is far from clear if
countries are delivering on the commitments they made. COP26 president Alok
Sharma said today that failure by world leaders to deliver on their pledges
would be a “monstrous act of self-harm”. Speaking in Glasgow, he said
he could understand why action to cut emissions had been pushed out of the
spotlight by the war in Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis, but reminded
his audience that “climate change is a chronic danger” the world
couldn’t ignore.
New Scientist 16th May 2022
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