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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres gestures during an interview at the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. Guterres says the Paris temperature goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees "is on life support" with climate talks so far not reaching any of the U.N.'s three goals, however "until the last moment hope should be maintained." (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 F) is “on life support” as U.N. climate talks enter their final days, but he added that “until the last moment, hope should be maintained.”
In an exclusive interview Thursday with The Associated Press, Guterres said the negotiations in Glasgow, Scotland, set to end Friday, will “very probably” not yield the carbon-cutting pledges he has said are needed to keep the planet from warming beyond the 1.5-degree threshold.
So far, the talks have not come close to achieving any of the U.N.’s three announced priorities for the annual conference, called COP26. One is cutting carbon emissions by about half by 2030 to reach the goal Guterres alluded to.
The other two are getting rich countries to fulfill a 12-year-old pledge of providing $100 billion a year in financial climate aid to poor nations and ensuring that half of that amount goes to helping developing nations adapt to the worst effects of climate change.
Guterres said the Glasgow talks “are in a crucial moment” and need to accomplish more than securing a weak deal that participating nations agree to support.
“The worst thing would be to reach an agreement at all costs by a minimum common denominator that would not respond to the huge challenges we face,” Guterres said.
That’s because the overarching goal of limiting warming since pre-industrial times to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 F) by the end of the century “is still on reach but on life support,” Guterres said. The world has already warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit), leaving far less than a degree before the threshold is hit.
Less than 36 hours from the scheduled close of the negotiations, Guterres said that if negotiators can’t reach ambitious carbon-cutting goals - “and very probably it will not happen” - then national leaders would need to come up with new pledges next year and in 2023 during high-level meetings.
He said it is “very important” that nations update their goals and send top leaders to the climate talks every year, at this point. However, Guterres would not say at what point he thinks the 1.5-degree goal would have to be abandoned.
“When you are on the verge of the abyss, it’s not important to discuss what will be your fourth or fifth step,” Guterres said. “What’s important to discuss is what will be your first step. Because if your first step is the wrong step, you will not have the chance to do a search to make a second or third one.”
Guterres praised a Wednesday evening agreement between the United States and China to cut emissions this decade as a reason why he still hopes for some semblance of success in Glasgow. He said China promising that its carbon emissions would peak by 2030 represented a key change in the top emitter’s outlook.
The U.N. chief said he hoped that two sticky issues that defied resolution for six years can be solved in Glasgow: creating workable markets for trading carbon credits and transparency that shows that promised pollution-reducing actions are real.
“It is the moment to reach agreement by increasing ambition in all areas: mitigation, adaptation and finance in a balanced way,” Guterres said in the 25-minute AP interview.
Fresh drafts of the documents on regulating international cooperation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including the carbon markets section, were released overnight, as were new proposals containing various options for assessing and tracking financial aid for developing countries.
Poor nations have insisted they will not back any deal that fails to address their need for funds to help cut emissions and adapt to the consequences of global warming, a problem they have contributed least to.
“We’re still at the stage of options,” a European negotiator told The Associated Press on Thursday. “But it’s moving forward. We still need that push though.”
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to be quoted.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday urged fellow world leaders to call their negotiating teams in Glasgow and give them the political backing to clinch an ambitious deal.
Officials and observers have said the bar for success must be a strong affirmation of the goal set in Paris in 2015 of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) — ideally no more than 1.5 C (2.7 F) - backed by credible policies from all nations to get there.
So far, scientists say the world is not on track.
The chair of this year’s U.N. climate meeting called on negotiators from almost 200 countries to engage in “another gear shift” as they try to reach agreement on outstanding issues a day before the talks are scheduled to end.
British official Alok Sharma said Thursday that the drafts released overnight on a number of crunch topics “represent a significant step further toward the comprehensive, ambitious and balanced set of outcomes, which I hope parties will adopt by consensus at the end of tomorrow.”
Sharma said he was “under no illusion” that the texts being considered would wholly satisfy all countries at this stage but thanked negotiators for the “spirit of cooperation and civility” they had shown so far.
“We are not there yet,” he said, adding that he aimed to get a fresh draft of the overarching decision released early Friday.
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 F) is “on life support” as U.N. climate talks enter their final days, but he added that “until the last moment, hope should be maintained.”
In an exclusive interview Thursday with The Associated Press, Guterres said the negotiations in Glasgow, Scotland, set to end Friday, will “very probably” not yield the carbon-cutting pledges he has said are needed to keep the planet from warming beyond the 1.5-degree threshold.
So far, the talks have not come close to achieving any of the U.N.’s three announced priorities for the annual conference, called COP26. One is cutting carbon emissions by about half by 2030 to reach the goal Guterres alluded to.
The other two are getting rich countries to fulfill a 12-year-old pledge of providing $100 billion a year in financial climate aid to poor nations and ensuring that half of that amount goes to helping developing nations adapt to the worst effects of climate change.
Guterres said the Glasgow talks “are in a crucial moment” and need to accomplish more than securing a weak deal that participating nations agree to support.
“The worst thing would be to reach an agreement at all costs by a minimum common denominator that would not respond to the huge challenges we face,” Guterres said.
That’s because the overarching goal of limiting warming since pre-industrial times to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 F) by the end of the century “is still on reach but on life support,” Guterres said. The world has already warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit), leaving far less than a degree before the threshold is hit.
Less than 36 hours from the scheduled close of the negotiations, Guterres said that if negotiators can’t reach ambitious carbon-cutting goals - “and very probably it will not happen” - then national leaders would need to come up with new pledges next year and in 2023 during high-level meetings.
He said it is “very important” that nations update their goals and send top leaders to the climate talks every year, at this point. However, Guterres would not say at what point he thinks the 1.5-degree goal would have to be abandoned.
“When you are on the verge of the abyss, it’s not important to discuss what will be your fourth or fifth step,” Guterres said. “What’s important to discuss is what will be your first step. Because if your first step is the wrong step, you will not have the chance to do a search to make a second or third one.”
Guterres praised a Wednesday evening agreement between the United States and China to cut emissions this decade as a reason why he still hopes for some semblance of success in Glasgow. He said China promising that its carbon emissions would peak by 2030 represented a key change in the top emitter’s outlook.
The U.N. chief said he hoped that two sticky issues that defied resolution for six years can be solved in Glasgow: creating workable markets for trading carbon credits and transparency that shows that promised pollution-reducing actions are real.
“It is the moment to reach agreement by increasing ambition in all areas: mitigation, adaptation and finance in a balanced way,” Guterres said in the 25-minute AP interview.
Fresh drafts of the documents on regulating international cooperation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including the carbon markets section, were released overnight, as were new proposals containing various options for assessing and tracking financial aid for developing countries.
Poor nations have insisted they will not back any deal that fails to address their need for funds to help cut emissions and adapt to the consequences of global warming, a problem they have contributed least to.
“We’re still at the stage of options,” a European negotiator told The Associated Press on Thursday. “But it’s moving forward. We still need that push though.”
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to be quoted.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday urged fellow world leaders to call their negotiating teams in Glasgow and give them the political backing to clinch an ambitious deal.
Officials and observers have said the bar for success must be a strong affirmation of the goal set in Paris in 2015 of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) — ideally no more than 1.5 C (2.7 F) - backed by credible policies from all nations to get there.
So far, scientists say the world is not on track.
The chair of this year’s U.N. climate meeting called on negotiators from almost 200 countries to engage in “another gear shift” as they try to reach agreement on outstanding issues a day before the talks are scheduled to end.
British official Alok Sharma said Thursday that the drafts released overnight on a number of crunch topics “represent a significant step further toward the comprehensive, ambitious and balanced set of outcomes, which I hope parties will adopt by consensus at the end of tomorrow.”
Sharma said he was “under no illusion” that the texts being considered would wholly satisfy all countries at this stage but thanked negotiators for the “spirit of cooperation and civility” they had shown so far.
“We are not there yet,” he said, adding that he aimed to get a fresh draft of the overarching decision released early Friday.
Time is running out at Cop26 climate talks
The United Nations climate summit in Glasgow has made “some serious toddler steps” towards cutting emissions but far from the giant leaps needed to limit global warming to internationally-accepted goals, new data and top officials said Tuesday.
Time is running out on the two weeks of Cop26 negotiations.
The president of the climate talks, Alok Sharma, told high-level government ministers at the UN conference they needed to reach out to their capitals and bosses soon to see if they can get more ambitious pledges because “we have only a few days left".
Sharma assured his audience that the conference is "not seeking to reopen the Paris Agreement," adding that the 2015 deal "clearly sets out the temperature goal well below 2 degrees and pursuing efforts to 1.5 degrees". He stressed that "our overarching goal of 'keeping 1.5 degrees within reach' has been our lodestar".
Limited progress
Sharma listed several breakthroughs, notably:
30 countries have agreed to work together to make zero emission vehicles "the new normal" by 2030 or sooner;
Launch of a new World Bank trust fund that will mobilise $200 million over the next 10 years to decarbonise road transport in poor countries;
Nineteen governments have stated their intent to support the establishment of ‘green shipping corridors’.
He added that the UK intends to end sales of polluting diesel trucks by 2040.
But critics say the pledges are far from enough. A UN Environment Programme analysis of the promises found they wouldn't bring down global warming sufficiently.
"Emissions gap"
All they did was slightly diminish the “emissions gap” which defines how much carbon pollution can be sustained without the global climate hitting dangerous warming levels, according to the review released Tuesday.
The data showed that by 2030, the world will be emitting 51.5 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, 1.5 billion tonnes less than before the latest pledges.
To achieve the limit first set in the 2015 Paris climate accord, which came out of a similar summit, the world can emit a maximum of 12.5 billion metric tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2030.
"Don't kill us"
Outside the cavernous halls of the climate change conference, hundreds of climate activists gather every day. Some chant lists of how pollution affects their neighbourhoods. One group carries a banner that reads "don't kill us".
Others carry a grim slogan with the stylised, encircled hourglass symbol of the radical group Extinction Rebellion saying "fossil fuels = mass murder".
There is a strong police presence along the road leading to the venues. Protesting could heat up during these last two days if the delegates don't manage to hammer out a document providing clear solutions to the problem of the planet's rapidly deteriorating environment.
The United Nations climate summit in Glasgow has made “some serious toddler steps” towards cutting emissions but far from the giant leaps needed to limit global warming to internationally-accepted goals, new data and top officials said Tuesday.
Time is running out on the two weeks of Cop26 negotiations.
The president of the climate talks, Alok Sharma, told high-level government ministers at the UN conference they needed to reach out to their capitals and bosses soon to see if they can get more ambitious pledges because “we have only a few days left".
Sharma assured his audience that the conference is "not seeking to reopen the Paris Agreement," adding that the 2015 deal "clearly sets out the temperature goal well below 2 degrees and pursuing efforts to 1.5 degrees". He stressed that "our overarching goal of 'keeping 1.5 degrees within reach' has been our lodestar".
Limited progress
Sharma listed several breakthroughs, notably:
30 countries have agreed to work together to make zero emission vehicles "the new normal" by 2030 or sooner;
Launch of a new World Bank trust fund that will mobilise $200 million over the next 10 years to decarbonise road transport in poor countries;
Nineteen governments have stated their intent to support the establishment of ‘green shipping corridors’.
He added that the UK intends to end sales of polluting diesel trucks by 2040.
But critics say the pledges are far from enough. A UN Environment Programme analysis of the promises found they wouldn't bring down global warming sufficiently.
"Emissions gap"
All they did was slightly diminish the “emissions gap” which defines how much carbon pollution can be sustained without the global climate hitting dangerous warming levels, according to the review released Tuesday.
The data showed that by 2030, the world will be emitting 51.5 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, 1.5 billion tonnes less than before the latest pledges.
To achieve the limit first set in the 2015 Paris climate accord, which came out of a similar summit, the world can emit a maximum of 12.5 billion metric tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2030.
"Don't kill us"
Outside the cavernous halls of the climate change conference, hundreds of climate activists gather every day. Some chant lists of how pollution affects their neighbourhoods. One group carries a banner that reads "don't kill us".
Others carry a grim slogan with the stylised, encircled hourglass symbol of the radical group Extinction Rebellion saying "fossil fuels = mass murder".
There is a strong police presence along the road leading to the venues. Protesting could heat up during these last two days if the delegates don't manage to hammer out a document providing clear solutions to the problem of the planet's rapidly deteriorating environment.
Saudi Arabia denies playing climate saboteur at Glasgow
Saudi Arabia's Minster of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud speaks at the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit, in Glasgow, Scotland, Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. The U.N. climate summit in Glasgow has entered its second week as leaders from around the world, are gathering in Scotland's biggest city, to lay out their vision for addressing the common challenge of global warming.
Saudi Arabia's Minster of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud speaks at the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit, in Glasgow, Scotland, Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. The U.N. climate summit in Glasgow has entered its second week as leaders from around the world, are gathering in Scotland's biggest city, to lay out their vision for addressing the common challenge of global warming.
(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — The tightest of smiles on his face and the fabric of his traditional thobe swirling about him as he strides through a hallway at U.N. climate talks, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister expresses shock at repeated complaints that the world’s largest oil producer is working behind the scenes to sabotage negotiations.
“What you have been hearing is a false allegation and a cheat and a lie,” Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman al Saud said this week at the talks in Glasgow, Scotland. He was responding to journalists pressing for a response to claims that Saudi Arabia’s negotiators have been working to block climate measures that would threaten demand for oil.
“We have been working well” with the head of the U.N. climate talks and others, Prince Abdulaziz said.
Negotiators from about 200 countries are coming up against a weekend deadline to find consensus on next steps to cut the world’s fossil fuel emissions and otherwise combat climate change.
Saudi Arabia’s participation in climate talks itself can seem incongruous — a kingdom that has become wealthy and powerful because of oil involved in negotiations where a core issue is reducing consumption of oil and other fossil fuels. While pledging to join emission-cutting efforts at home, Saudi leaders have made clear they intend to pump and sell their oil as long as demand lasts.
Saudi Arabia’s team in Glasgow has introduced proposals ranging from a call to quit negotiations — they often stretch into early morning hours — at 6 p.m. every day to what climate negotiation veterans allege are complex efforts to play country factions against one another with the aim of blocking agreement on tough steps to wrench the world away from coal, gas and oil.
That is the “Saudis’ proposal, by the way. They’re like, ‘Let’s just not work at nights and just accept that this is not going to be ambitious’” when it comes to fast cuts in fossil fuel pollution that is wrecking the climate, said Jennifer Tollmann, an analyst at E3G, a European climate think tank.
And then “if other countries want to agree with Saudi, they can blame Saudi Arabia,” Tollmann said.
Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and head of a group of senior political leaders on climate, choked up as she told Sky News that Saudi Arabia was playing “dirty games” and seeking to gut crucial, consensus-building parts of draft agreements out of the talks.
Saudi Arabia long has been accused of playing a spoiler in the climate talks, and this year it is the main country singled out so far by negotiators, speaking privately, and observers, speaking publicly. Russia and Australia are also lumped in with Saudi Arabia at the talks as countries that see their futures as dependent on coal, natural gas or oil and as working for a Glasgow climate deal that doesn’t threaten that.
Despite efforts to diversify the economy, oil accounts for more than half of Saudi Arabia’s revenue, keeping the kingdom and royal family afloat and stable. About half of Saudi employees still work for the public sector, their salary paid in large part by oil.
And there’s China, whose dependence on coal makes it the world’s current biggest climate polluter. It argues it can’t switch to cleaner energy as fast as the West says it must, although the United States and China did jointly pledge to speed up their efforts to cut emissions.
A core issue in the talks: Scientists and the United Nations say the world has less than a decade to cut its fossil fuel and agricultural emissions roughly in half if it wants to avoid more catastrophic scenarios of global warming.
Not surprisingly, island nations that would disappear under the rising oceans at a higher level of warming are the bloc at Glasgow pushing hardest for the most stringent deal out of this summit.
Meanwhile, climate advocates accuse the United States and European Union of so far failing to throw their weight behind the demands of the island nations, although the U.S. and the E.U. often wait until the last few days of climate talks to take hard stands on debated points.
The United States — the world’s worst climate polluter historically and a major oil and gas producer — gets plenty of criticism in its own right. The Climate Action Network dishonored the Biden administration with its “Fossil of the Day” award to President Joe Biden for coming to Glasgow last week with ambitious climate talk but failing to join a pledge to wean his nation off coal or to rein in U.S. oil production.
Jennifer Morgan, executive director of the Greenpeace environmental group, said other governments need “to isolate the Saudi delegation” if they want the climate conference to succeed..
Saudi Arabia was fine with joining in governments’ climate-pledge fever before the talks. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced in the runup to Glasgow that the kingdom would zero out its carbon emissions by 2060.
But Saudi leaders for years have vowed to pump the last molecule of oil from their kingdom before world demand ends — an objective that a fast global switch from fossil fuels would frustrate.
“Naked and cynical,” says Alden Meyer, a senior associate at the E3G climate research group, of Saudi Arabia’s role in global climate discussions.
___
Associated Press writers Frank Jordans and Annirudha Ghosal contributed to this report.
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — The tightest of smiles on his face and the fabric of his traditional thobe swirling about him as he strides through a hallway at U.N. climate talks, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister expresses shock at repeated complaints that the world’s largest oil producer is working behind the scenes to sabotage negotiations.
“What you have been hearing is a false allegation and a cheat and a lie,” Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman al Saud said this week at the talks in Glasgow, Scotland. He was responding to journalists pressing for a response to claims that Saudi Arabia’s negotiators have been working to block climate measures that would threaten demand for oil.
“We have been working well” with the head of the U.N. climate talks and others, Prince Abdulaziz said.
Negotiators from about 200 countries are coming up against a weekend deadline to find consensus on next steps to cut the world’s fossil fuel emissions and otherwise combat climate change.
Saudi Arabia’s participation in climate talks itself can seem incongruous — a kingdom that has become wealthy and powerful because of oil involved in negotiations where a core issue is reducing consumption of oil and other fossil fuels. While pledging to join emission-cutting efforts at home, Saudi leaders have made clear they intend to pump and sell their oil as long as demand lasts.
Saudi Arabia’s team in Glasgow has introduced proposals ranging from a call to quit negotiations — they often stretch into early morning hours — at 6 p.m. every day to what climate negotiation veterans allege are complex efforts to play country factions against one another with the aim of blocking agreement on tough steps to wrench the world away from coal, gas and oil.
That is the “Saudis’ proposal, by the way. They’re like, ‘Let’s just not work at nights and just accept that this is not going to be ambitious’” when it comes to fast cuts in fossil fuel pollution that is wrecking the climate, said Jennifer Tollmann, an analyst at E3G, a European climate think tank.
And then “if other countries want to agree with Saudi, they can blame Saudi Arabia,” Tollmann said.
Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and head of a group of senior political leaders on climate, choked up as she told Sky News that Saudi Arabia was playing “dirty games” and seeking to gut crucial, consensus-building parts of draft agreements out of the talks.
Saudi Arabia long has been accused of playing a spoiler in the climate talks, and this year it is the main country singled out so far by negotiators, speaking privately, and observers, speaking publicly. Russia and Australia are also lumped in with Saudi Arabia at the talks as countries that see their futures as dependent on coal, natural gas or oil and as working for a Glasgow climate deal that doesn’t threaten that.
Despite efforts to diversify the economy, oil accounts for more than half of Saudi Arabia’s revenue, keeping the kingdom and royal family afloat and stable. About half of Saudi employees still work for the public sector, their salary paid in large part by oil.
And there’s China, whose dependence on coal makes it the world’s current biggest climate polluter. It argues it can’t switch to cleaner energy as fast as the West says it must, although the United States and China did jointly pledge to speed up their efforts to cut emissions.
A core issue in the talks: Scientists and the United Nations say the world has less than a decade to cut its fossil fuel and agricultural emissions roughly in half if it wants to avoid more catastrophic scenarios of global warming.
Not surprisingly, island nations that would disappear under the rising oceans at a higher level of warming are the bloc at Glasgow pushing hardest for the most stringent deal out of this summit.
Meanwhile, climate advocates accuse the United States and European Union of so far failing to throw their weight behind the demands of the island nations, although the U.S. and the E.U. often wait until the last few days of climate talks to take hard stands on debated points.
The United States — the world’s worst climate polluter historically and a major oil and gas producer — gets plenty of criticism in its own right. The Climate Action Network dishonored the Biden administration with its “Fossil of the Day” award to President Joe Biden for coming to Glasgow last week with ambitious climate talk but failing to join a pledge to wean his nation off coal or to rein in U.S. oil production.
Jennifer Morgan, executive director of the Greenpeace environmental group, said other governments need “to isolate the Saudi delegation” if they want the climate conference to succeed..
Saudi Arabia was fine with joining in governments’ climate-pledge fever before the talks. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced in the runup to Glasgow that the kingdom would zero out its carbon emissions by 2060.
But Saudi leaders for years have vowed to pump the last molecule of oil from their kingdom before world demand ends — an objective that a fast global switch from fossil fuels would frustrate.
“Naked and cynical,” says Alden Meyer, a senior associate at the E3G climate research group, of Saudi Arabia’s role in global climate discussions.
___
Associated Press writers Frank Jordans and Annirudha Ghosal contributed to this report.
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