A critical meeting on global climate change later this year in Scotland is in danger of failure thanks to mistrust between developed and developing countries and a scarcity of ambitious goals among some emerging economies, UN chief Antonio Guterres has said.
“I believe that we are in danger of not having a hit in COP26,” Guterres told Reuters press agency on Wednesday.
The UN COP26 conference in Glasgow aims to wring far more ambitious climate action, and therefore the money to travel with it, from participants round the globe.
“There remains A level of mistrust, between north and south, developed and developing countries, that must be overcome. We are on the verge of the abyss and once you are on the verge of the abyss, you would like to be very careful about what subsequent step is. and therefore the next step is COP26 in Glasgow.”
A report published by a variety of UN agencies on Thursday said the pace of global climate change has not been slowed by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, and therefore the world remains behind in its battle to chop carbon emissions.
There is now a 40 percent chance that average global temperature in one among subsequent five years are going to be a minimum of 1.5C (2.7F) warmer than pre-industrial levels, the report said.
On Monday, Guterres and therefore the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson will host a gathering of world leaders on the sidelines of the annual high-level week of the UN General Assembly during a bid to create the probabilities of success at the climate conference, being held from October 31 to November 12.
“My objective and therefore the reason why we are convening a gathering on Monday is strictly to create trust, to permit for everyone to know that we all got to do more,” Guterres said.
“We need the developed countries to try to more, namely in reference to the support to developing countries. and that we need some emerging economies to travel an additional mile and be more ambitious within the reduction of air emissions,” he said.
Monday’s meeting, which can be both virtual and in-person, are going to be closed to permit for “frank and open discussions” on the way to deliver success in Glasgow, said a senior UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
‘Not enough commitment’ from developed nations
“Until now, I even have not seen enough commitment of developed countries to support developing countries … and to offer a meaningful share of that support to the requirements of adaptation,” said Guterres.
Developing countries tend to be the foremost susceptible to costly climate impacts, and therefore the least resourced to affect them.
For years, they need been struggling to secure the funds to assist them steel oneself against climate disruptions that rich nations pledged in 2009 to build up to $100bn annually.
So far, the cash that has arrived has focused on emissions reduction instead of adaptation. Of the $78.9bn in climate finance transferred by rich countries in 2018, only 21 percent was spent on adaptation.
