Cop26 Taoiseach arrives at summit as world leaders urged to act on climate crisis
World leaders are facing calls for urgent action to limit dangerous temperature rises as they gather for a summit at the start of a crunch UN climate conference.
British prime minister Boris Johnson, who will welcome leaders to Glasgow for the Cop26 talks, will tell them that humanity has âlong since run down the clock on climate changeâ and must act now to tackle the crisis.
The issue for Cop26 on climate change is âmatching the rhetoric with actionâ, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said.
Mr Martin has arrived at the summit and said earlier that Ireland had a âstrong positionâ and there had to be action over the next number of years.
âThereâs no alternative facing the world but to deal very quickly and urgently with the climate change challenge,â he said.
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe has said that Ireland would be strengthening the contribution it makes to climate financing as part of an EU âglobal unionâ to reduce carbon emissions. He said he is not at Cop26 as he is focused on bringing âbudgetary legislationâ of the Climate Action Plan into the Dáil.
Under pressureAbout 120 heads of state and government are set to attend the world leadersâ summit at the start of the Cop26 talks, where countries are under pressure to increase action in the next decade to tackle dangerous warming.
British prime minister Boris Johnson and UN secretary general Antonio Guterres greet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at Cop26 in Glasgow. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/GettyUS president Joe Biden, European leaders and Indiaâs Narendra Modi are among those attending the talks, although the heads of key major economies including Chinaâs Xi Jinping and Russian president Vladimir Putin will not be there.
Turkeyâs president Tayyip Erdogan has cancelled plans to attend the climate conference after Britain failed to meet Ankaraâs demands on security arrangements, two Turkish officials told Reuters on Monday.
Mr Erdogan returned to Turkey from a G20 summit in Rome instead of travelling to the climate summit in Glasgow, the state-owned Anadolu agency said.
The conference in Glasgow is seen as the moment when countries must deliver on pledges made in the accord agreed in Paris six years ago, to limit temperature rises to well below 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to curb warming to 1.5 degrees â" beyond which the worst impacts will be felt.
There is also pressure on developed countries to deliver a long-promised $100 billion a year in climate finance for poorer countries least responsible for and most vulnerable to climate change, and address loss and damage caused by the impacts of global warming.
And there will be efforts to drive action by countries, regions, and businesses to curb emissions in sectors such as power with efforts to phase out coal, as well as finalise parts of the Paris climate accord agreed in 2015 to make it effective and operational.
At the opening ceremony of the world leadersâ summit on Monday, Mr Johnson will say: âHumanity has long since run down the clock on climate change.
âItâs one minute to midnight and we need to act now.
âIf we donât get serious about climate change today, it will be too late for our children to do so tomorrow.â
The opening ceremony will also hear from naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough, who is the Cop26 peopleâs advocate, and UN secretary general Antonio Guterres.
World leaders will then set out the national action they are taking to tackle the climate crisis, while there will also be announcements on areas such as curbing deforestation and cutting methane during the two-day leadersâ summit at the beginning of the two weeks of talks.
The start of Cop26 comes off the back of the G20 summit in Rome, where the leaders of the major economies â" responsible for 80 per cent of the worldâs emissions â" agreed to reach carbon neutrality âby or around mid-centuryâ.
Politicians in attendance in Italy also pledged to end public financing for coal-fired power generation abroad, but did not commit to phasing out domestic coal consumption.
Following the G20 meeting, Mr Johnson warned that countries had made some progress but the outcome of the talks in Glasgow intended to deliver on the commitments in the Paris climate agreement remained âin the balanceâ.
âIf Glasgow fails, than the whole thing fails. The Paris agreement will have crumpled at the first reckoning,â he warned.
Mr Johnson said that they had âinched forwardâ in the Italian capital but it was ânip and tuck, touch and goâ whether they would make further progress over the next two weeks in Scotland. â" Agencies
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