UN secretary general: “We’re digging our own grave”
From CNN’s Amy Cassidy in Glasgow
At the opening of the World Leader Summit at COP26 in Glasgow, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres told world leaders, “we’re digging our own grave” and that the world must take immediate action at this climate conference to avert it.
While he cited stark examples of the rapidly changing planet due to “our addiction to fossil fuels,” which he said is pushing humanity to the brink, he also highlighted what can be accomplished to this keep the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal alive.
As countries make progress, Guterres said the private sector must add to it.
“I will establish a group of experts to propose clear standards to measure and analyze net zero commitments from non-state actors,” which will go beyond mechanisms already established in the Paris Agreement, Guterres said Monday.
“We face a stark choice: Either we stop it or it stops us,” he said. “It’s time to say, ‘enough.’ Enough of brutalizing biodiversity. Enough of killing ourselves with carbon. Enough of treating nature like a toilet. Enough of burning and drilling and mining our way deeper. We are digging our own graves,” he said at the opening ceremony. “We need maximum ambition from all countries on all fronts to make Glasgow a success.”
James Bond, a Doomsday device and “blah blah blah”: Highlights from Boris Johnson’s speech
From CNN’s Eliza Mackintosh
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson kicked off COP26, welcoming delegates to Glasgow in his classic jocular fashion. Here are some highlights:
- Johnson drew an analogy between fictional British spy James Bond defusing a ticking bomb in a film and world leaders attempting to solve the climate crisis: “The Doomsday device is real, and the clock is ticking to the furious rhythm of hundreds of billions of turbines and systems … covering the Earth in a suffocating blanket of CO2.”
- He emphasized the risk that inaction poses to future generations: “If we don’t get serious about climate change today, it will be too late for our children to do so tomorrow.”
- Speaking about his experiences at previous COPs in Copenhagen and Paris, he said: “All those promises will be nothing but ‘blah blah blah,’ to coin a phrase,” a reference to a comment that youth climate activist Greta Thunberg made a few months ago.
- Johnson underlined the relevance of Glasgow to the current crisis, saying it was in the city that James Watt developed the steam engine that started the industrial revolution: “We brought you to the very place that the Doomsday machine began to tick.”
- He spoke about harnessing private sector money, and described the UK as “the Saudi Arabia of wind.”
- The average age of the conclave of world leaders, he said, is over 60 — something that he said may dismay young activists: “The children who will judge us are not yet born, and their children.”
Boris Johnson invokes James Bond, urging world leaders to defuse ticking time “bomb”
From CNN’s Eliza Mackintosh
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson invoked the fictional British secret agent James Bond when he urged global leaders to turn the tide on the climate crisis, drawing an analogy between “defusing” a ticking time bomb and the climate crisis the world is facing.
“We may not feel much like James Bond, not all of us necessarily look like James Bond, but we have the opportunity and we have the duty to make this summit the moment when humanity finally began, began to defuse that bomb,” he said.
Boris Johnson: “Humanity has long since run down the clock on climate change”
From CNN’s Angela Dewan and Eliza Mackintosh in London
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose government is hosting the COP26 talks, warned Monday that humanity has run down the clock on climate change.
“Humanity has long since run down the clock on climate change. It’s one minute to midnight and we need to act now,” Johnson told delegates, speaking at the opening ceremony of the World Leaders Summit.
“If we don’t get serious about climate change today, it will be too late for our children to do so tomorrow,” Johnson said.
“We have to move from talk and debate and discussion to concerted, real-world action on coal, cars, cash and trees.”
British PM Boris Johnson channels Greta Thunberg’s “blah, blah, blah” remarks in speech
From CNN’s Aditi Sangal
UN Climate Change Conference Monday.” src=”https://dynaimage.cdn.cnn.com/cnn/digital-images/org/78a61dd1-ebb3-4725-8470-94ed2b1f3590.jpg”>
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson channeled teen climate activist Greta Thunberg in his address at the COP26, saying if the world leaders don’t get serious about their actions against climate change, then the promises to achieve net zero emissions will be “nothing but blah, blah, blah, to coin a phrase.”
“The anger and the impatience of the world will be uncontainable unless we make this COP26 in Glasgow the moment when we get real about climate change. And we can. We can get real on coal, cars cash and trees,” he added.
Thunberg made a speech at the recent Youth for Climate conference in which she mocked Johnson, as well as US President Joe Biden and French leader Emmanuel Macron, suggesting their climate talk amounted to “blah, blah, blah.”
COP26 opening ceremony about to begin
From CNN’s Eliza Mackintosh
The lights have been dimmed in the plenary hall and the Opening Ceremony, hosted by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, welcoming delegates to the World Leaders Summit of COP26 is about to get underway.
Chaotic scenes at entrance to room where Boris Johnson is about to open the Leaders’ Summit
From CNN’s Eliza Mackintosh in London
World leaders and politicians are currently milling around the plenary hall, greeting each other ahead of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s speech welcoming them to COP26.
CNN’s Ivana Kottasová is at the world leaders summit, where she captured chaotic scenes as delegates struggled to get through the entrance.
Boris Johnson expected to announce an additional £1 billion in aid for climate finance by 2025
From CNN’s Angela Dewan in London and Sugam Pokharel in Atlanta
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to announce the United Kingdom will commit an additional £1 billion – or $1.368 billion USD – in aid for climate finance by 2025, if Britain’s economy grows as forecast.
The Prime Minister is expected to tell leaders meeting at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow on Monday that the world must move from aspiration to action to limit rising global temperatures, according to a government statement released late Sunday forecasting his remarks.
“It’s one minute to midnight and we need to act now,” Johnson is expected to say in his Monday address at the World Leaders Summit Opening Ceremony.
He will urge world leaders to take concrete steps on phasing out coal, accelerating the transition to electric vehicles, and halting deforestation, as well as supporting developing nations on the frontline of the climate crisis with climate finance, the statement said.
The actions will make the biggest difference in reducing emissions this decade on the world’s path to net zero and keeping alive the global aim of limiting rising temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius under the Paris Agreement, according to the statement.
“If we don’t get serious about climate change today, it will be too late for our children to do so tomorrow,” Johnson is expected to say.
Putin will not address COP26 live via videoconference, but has recorded a message
From CNN’s Anna Chernova in Moscow
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be speaking live via video link at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, but has recorded a video message for participants of one of the conferences, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.
“Unfortunately, Putin will not be speaking at the climate conference because Glasgow does not offer the possibility of participating by videoconference,” Peskov told journalists during a conference call.
“However, within the framework of the Climate Change Summit in Glasgow, there will be a conference on forestry and land use. The President has already recorded a video message to the participants of this conference,” Peskov said.
Putin expressed Russia’s position on climate change issues at the G20 summit, Peskov added.
“In many respects, the themes of Glasgow and the climate issue at the G20 overlapped,” Peskov said. “Therefore, speaking at the G20, President [Putin] already… outlined the approaches of the Russian side [on climate change] in sufficient detail.”
On Sunday, President Biden expressed “disappointment” that Russia, as well as China, didn’t show up with climate pledges and the countries’ leaders did not attend the G20 summit in person.
