Britain’s COP26 chief Alok Sharma said Saturday (23) that it would be “more difficult” to reach a global agreement at the end of the climate summit, which begins next week in Glasgow (Scotland), than it was during the 2015 Paris meeting.
After the opening of COP26, on the 31st, the British government will hold two-week meetings to persuade nearly 200 countries to do more to reduce carbon emissions, with the aim of containing Global Warming below 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era, an ambitious target set in 2015 in the Paris Agreement.
“What we’re trying to do here in Glasgow is really very complex, and it’s definitely more difficult than Paris on many levels,” Sharma told the Guardian.
“What they did in Paris was amazing, it was a milestone, [mas] A lot of the detailed rules are left for the future,” he added.
“It’s as if we have reached the end of the test and only the most difficult questions remain. Time is running out, and the test ends after half an hour.”
Negotiations will be complicated by the evolving geopolitical context, as relations between the UK and the US are more tense than before with China and Russia, whose presidents will probably not attend COP26.
Since the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015, the transition to a cleaner and energy economy has progressed, but very slowly to limit temperature rise to 2°C, or 1.5°C, compared to the end of the 19th century.
In August, the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned of the danger of reaching the 1.5°C limit in 2030, ten years ahead of schedule, which could threaten humanity with unprecedented natural disasters.
“But what is in our best interest now is that we know we have to face this climate crisis,” Sharma said. He insisted that “the IPCC report, while deeply troubling, was useful enough to open minds.”
