On Sunday, the G-20 leaders agreed to stop funding coal-fired power plants in poor nations and made a mild commitment to seek carbon neutrality by or across mid-century as they closed a Rome summit before the major climate conference of the United Nations in Glasgow, Scotland. The President of France Emmanuel Macron and the Prime Minister of Italy Mario Draghi described the Group of Twenty summit as a success, but Britain’s leader, the chief of the United Nations, and the climate activists expressed disappointment about the outcome.
Britain is hosting a fifteen-day Glasgow conference and aimed more striving targets to come out of Rome. Boris Johnson, the U.K. Prime Minister, called the commitments of the G-20 some drops in an instantly warming ocean. Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, agreed that the outcome of the summit was not enough. He also tweeted that he was leaving Rome with his unachieved hopes but not empty. The G-20 nations represent over three-quarters of the greenhouse gas emissions of the world, and the U.K. had hoped for a G-20 bounce going into the Glasgow COP26 summit.
While I welcome the #G20‘s recommitment to global solutions, I leave Rome with my hopes unfulfilled — but at least they are not buried. Onwards to #COP26 in Glasgow to keep the goal of 1.5 degrees alive and to implement promises on finance and adaptation for people & planet. pic.twitter.com/c1nhIDbA8m
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) October 31, 2021
Deadline for Reaching Net-Zero Emissions
Scientists and environmentalists described the recent conference of the U.N. as the last best hope of the world for obeying commitments to limit the rise in temperature globally to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average. In addition, the United Kingdom encouraged a commitment to achieve net-zero emissions or climate neutrality, meaning a balance between greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere and removed from it by 2050. The European Union and the United States set 2050 as their own deadline for achieving net-zero emissions, while Saudi Arabia, Russia, and China target 2060. Unfortunately, the leaders of these three nations did not come to Rome for the summit.
Annual Main Land and Ocean temperature Above or Below Average, 1850 to 2020
Source: University of California Berkeley
Biden Criticism on China
Before taking off for his country, the United States President Joe Biden called it disappointing that two G-20 members China and Russia did not come up with commitments to combat the curse of climate change in front of the United Nations climate conference. As a result, Xi Jinping, the President of China, and Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, are not expected to attend the meeting in Glasgow, though they are sending their senior officials to the global talks of COP26.
Climate activists expressed their disappointment for the outcomes of the summit and felt that it was not tough enough. However, a United States officials told CNN that the G20 was about helping build momentum before the leaders of the world’s strongest economies head to Glasgow, while French President Emmanuel Macron told the newspaper Journal du Dimanche that nothing is written ever before a COP.
On 20th October, the first day of the two-day climate conference, the focus was on coronavirus pandemic and the global economy, with a pact reached on an international tax rate which will observe the profits of giant businesses taxed at least fifteen percent. However, it follows concerns that multinational firms are re-routing their profits through low tax authorities. In addition, after some years of discussion, the Earth is now at least 1.1 centigrade hotter than the pre-industrial level. Whereas climate scientists want global warming restricted to 1.5 centigrade to combat climate disasters.
Source: Web
The Basics of COP26 Climate Conference
- International climate change is one of the most pressing issues of the world. Governments worldwide must pledge more declines in warming gases if the world wants to prevent greater international temperature rises.
- Summit needs to watch for the pledges of the biggest polluters of the world, such as China and the United States, and whether poorer nations are getting the support they need.
- Decisions of the summit will change the lives of human beings globally and could impact international jobs, what people eat and how they travel.
Read Also: The U.S. President to Call for Summit on Global Vaccine Supplies
