Accompanied by drastic warnings from the scientific community of an escalating climate crisis, the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) kicked off in the Scottish city of Glasgow on Sunday, following a brief delay.
At the invitation of the United Nations, government representatives from around 200 countries will discuss for a fortnight how humanity can still contain accelerating global warming to a tolerable level.
About 25,000 people are expected to attend, including thousands of journalists and climate protection activists.
The official opening ceremony, delayed by about one hour, began with a minute of silence in honour of the victims of the coronavirus pandemic.
COP26 president Alok Sharma, in his opening marks, underlined the importance of the conference to meet the targets set in the 2015 Paris Agreement, including limiting global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrialization-era levels.
“This COP is our last best hope to keep 1.5 in reach. This international conference must deliver,” Sharma said.
Environmental organizations and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had complained in advance that many countries have not sufficiently tightened their climate plans in the two years since the last UN conference in Madrid, and have delayed the necessary rapid phase-out of coal, oil and gas.
This is because man-made warming of the atmosphere with greenhouse gases is already causing extreme weather to become more frequent. Examples include recent floods in Germany, drought in the Sahel region in Africa and devastating forest fires in California and Russia.
The fight against the climate crisis was also a topic in Rome at the weekend, at the summit of the heads of state and government of the G20 group.
Hopes for a strong signal to the climate summit were dampened, however, with activists seeing no new initiative there on new climate protection pledges.
The Earth has already warmed by about 1.1 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels; in Germany it is already 1.6 degrees.
In Paris six years ago, the international community agreed to limit global warming to a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius, or preferably 1.5 degrees Celsius. So far, however, the plans submitted by the states are far from sufficient.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said early on Sunday that he was hoping for a “spirit of responsibility and ambition” in Glasgow to keep alive the Paris target.
Germany’s acting Environment Minister, Svenja Schulze, stressed that it was vital for the global community to come up with clear guidelines regarding “international cooperation on climate protection” during COP26.
“If this succeeds, Glasgow can usher in a new phase of international climate cooperation,” the minister said.
Schulze stressed that concrete implementation of the climate targets had to become a focus. “This is urgently needed: The world is still far from being on course for 1.5 degrees,” she said.
Other important topics in Glasgow are trade between states with progress in climate protection and the financing of damage and losses caused by global warming, especially in poorer countries.
Thousands of climate activists have arrived in Scotland during the past days, including Swedish activist Greta Thurnberg, who says she hasn’t been officially invited to attend the conference and is scheduled to lead a climate rally in Glasgow.
Thunberg on Sunday defended radical protests for more climate protection, saying they were sometimes necessary to garner attention: “To make clear, as long as no one gets hurt … then I think sometimes you need to anger some people,” she told the BBC.
