Johnson calls on world leaders to close deal in final hours of Cop26 as talks appear to stall
Boris Johnson has called on world leaders to “pick up the phone” to their negotiators at the Cop26 summit and push for a deal on stricter global climate change targets as he admits talks are “getting tough”.
Johnson said during a press conference today that negotiations “hang in the balance”, while adding that momentum from the first week of the Glasgow conference has stalled.
There is just 48 hours left at Cop26, however the Prime Minister said talks could drag into the weekend as has happened in many previous iterations of the annual summit.
It comes as The Times reported yesterday that Saudi Arabia and China in particular were holding back negotiations.
The draft text of the Cop26 deal published this morning noted “with serious concern” that existing global agreements are insufficient to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees as countries agreed in the Paris Climate Accord in 2015.
The draft, which sets out what negotiators hope will be the outcome of Cop26, asks countries to “revisit and strengthen the 2030 targets in their nationally determined contributions, as necessary to align with the Paris Agreement temperature goal by the end of 2022”.
It also calls on countries to “accelerate the phasing-out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels” – a clause that may rankle countries such as China, India and Russia who rely heavily on coal.
The Prime Minister urged “world leaders back in their capitals to pick up the phone to their teams here and given them the negotiating margin, give them the space in which they need to manouevre and get this done”.
“With just a few days left there is still a huge amount to do,” Johnson said.
“We have to bridge the gap between where we are and where we need to be if we’re going to cut global emissions in half by 2030 and we need pull out all the stops if we’re going to do what we came here to do and that’s keep 1.5 alive.
“Here in Glasgow the world is closer than it has ever been to signalling the beginning of the end end to anthropogenic climate change and it’s the greatest gift we can possibly bestow on our children and our grandchildren and generations unborn.”
The first week of the summit saw several major deals agreed, including to end deforestation in much of the world over the next decade.
However, analysis of the pledges made so far found they would still put the world on track for 2.4 degrees of warming – well above what experts consider the danger zone.
Responding to Johnson’s plea, Greenpeace UK’s head of climate Kate Blagojevic said: “The Prime Minister has continually failed to grasp that success at COP26 requires real climate action and real leadership from the host.
“To show solidarity with those most affected by the climate crisis, he’d have publicly signed a cheque helping to meet the needs from developing nations for significant sums of new money to allow them to prepare for and repair the damage from flooding, fires and food shortages.”