Category: Environment

The comments made by Alok Sharma, the COP26 President, on 26 July 2021.

Over the past two days, Ministers from more than 50 countries have gathered in London, as well as online.

We have discussed the critical issues in the COP26 negotiations.

As we have done so, heavy rains and flash floods have swept London.

A sobering reminder of the urgency of our task.

This was the first face-to-face meeting of this kind involving Ministers for more than eighteen months.

It was a hugely refreshing experience, to be sitting across the table from one another.

In person, there was a very positive atmosphere in every session.

There was a sense of common endeavour and a shared desire to address the climate crisis before us.

It was wonderful to see colleagues renew existing relationships, and build new ones.

To sit around the table and have a discussion.

And we all heard, loud and clear, the message from Ministers from climate vulnerable countries on the need for renewed urgency to tackle the climate crisis. And their lived experience of extreme climate change.

We made progress over these two days. And there was a clear spirit of cooperation.

However, the issues we have discussed are complex.

There are still significant differences that persist.

We have moved closer together. But still, on these vital issues we are not yet close enough.

There is much more work to be done ahead of COP26 and in Glasgow itself.

And we have agreed ways to keep the conversations going and drive action forward in the 97 days that remain to COP26.

Over the past two days, we have reached a common understanding that COP26 needs to keep 1.5C within reach.

This was also agreed by the G20 agreed to do last week.

There was also a shared understanding from many that coal power and financing are not compatible with a 1.5 degree future.

And so the UK Presidency will take forward work on how the Glasgow outcome will respond to any gap in ambition to keep 1.5C within reach.

On adaptation, and adaptation finance particularly, we agreed we need a clear way forward

And together, we have emphasised the need for COP26 to accelerate progress on the Global Goal on Adaptation.

On finance, I have recently called for developed countries to publish a clear plan for how, together, we are going to deliver the $100 billion a year in international climate finance, which has been promised since 2009, between 2020 and 2025.

I am delighted that Minister Flasbarth of Germany and Minister Wilkinson of Canada have agreed to lead this process. This will bring much needed transparency and predictability to developing countries and also reinforce the trust that needs to be maintained.

On Article 6, I am grateful that Minister Fu of Singapore and Minister Rotevatn of Norway have agreed to continue their informal ministerial consultations.

Additionally, Minister Mujawamariya of Rwanda, and Minister Sommaruga of Switzerland, will take forward my invitation to consult with ministers on Common Time Frames for NDCs.

We will be initiating other ministerial consultations, including on transparency at the appropriate time, in the coming weeks.

Of course our experts and negotiators will also continue their discussions.

I hope that all this work will allow us to arrive in Glasgow in the best possible position to reach agreement.

It is incumbent on every country to give their all to this process.

There will be nowhere to hide at COP.

Each of us will be in the spotlight.

And we will only deliver by working together.

I have said all along how important it is to have real in-person discussions on these difficult issues.

We have gone to great lengths to make this Ministerial meeting happen and I’m grateful to everyone who joined us here and online.

Now we must deliver.

It is essential that, six years on from Paris, we agree these final elements of the Rulebook, that we forge a way forward on finance, adaptation and other critical issues.

Ultimately, our response must reflect the urgency of the crisis we face.

Between now and COP, we must, and we will, make every single day count.

The speech made by Alok Sharma, the President of the COP26, in Naples, Italy on 23 July 2021.

Thank you to all our Italian colleagues for hosting us at this crucial G20 meeting.

Friends, we are 100 days from COP26 where the global community expects world leaders to come together, and with one voice, demonstrate that we are living up to the expectations of the Paris Agreement, that we are doing all we can to limit global temperature rises to well below 2 degrees and closer to 1.5 degrees.

This G20 ministerial is a vital step on the road to Glasgow.

Countries in this room represent almost 80 percent of global emissions. And 85 percent of the global economy.

And what we do, what we decide, and the level of ambition we demonstrate, matters.

We hold in our hands the keys to our children’s future.

And the choices we make, literally today, the choices we make, can unlock a healthier, safer, cleaner future, or they can drive the Paris Agreement goals further out of reach.

And I think as friends we have to be frank: our decisions to date have harmed our children’s future.

Since the Paris Agreement was put in place, global emissions have gone up, not down.

Globally a million species face extinction because of human activity, because of our treatment of the planet.

So my friends, be in no doubt, that what we decide today really matters.

And the eyes of the world, the eyes of our children, are on us.

Each of us need only look to our own doorsteps to recognise why, every fraction of a degree in global temperature rises makes a difference.

Extreme weather is on the march across the world.

Wildfires are raging across North America.

Floods in China and across Europe, are leaving a trail of devastation in their wake.

In the past few years, South Africa has faced municipal water supplies running dry.

Super Cyclone Amphan unleashed destruction in Bangladesh and India.

Last year Jakarta experienced the biggest rainfall since records began, causing 100,000 people to evacuate their homes.

In Brazil we have seen forests on fire.

Permafrost is melting in Russia.

Dust storms, caused by desertification are costing Saudi Arabia some billions of dollars a year.

And in the last few weeks alone, Turkey has recorded its highest ever temperature.

Friends, people are dying now because we are losing control of climate change.

People are losing their livelihoods, their homes.

And their communities are being destroyed.

So we have to ask ourselves, how did it come to this?

We cannot say that we were not warned.

We cannot say that scientists had not raised the red flag.

We knew this was coming, and we know that without change, the situation will get far worse.

Climate change is not a distant threat, one that we can try and fix in 2 years, 5 years or 10 years.

We must collectively and decisively deal with this foe now, before it overwhelms us.

Sadly, it is already starting to overwhelm the most climate vulnerable nations on earth.

Small island developing states.

Countries which have done the least to cause the impacts they are experiencing.

Countries like Antigua and Barbuda, where I have seen the destructive power of hurricanes like Irma, which are increasing in ferocity and frequency.

And which has scarred the country, causing death, which can never be overcome, and damage which, 4 years on, has not been repaired.

Or mountain states like Nepal, where I have spoken to communities driven out of their villages, due to a combination of droughts and flooding from melting glaciers.

Or countries in Africa, like Ethiopia, where crops have been destroyed because of plagues of locusts, spawned by a changing climate.

Friends, these people are scared for their futures.

Communities that have, through no action of their own, had their livelihoods and their basic sources of food stolen from them.

So what do we need to do to play our part in defeating this threat?

As the Paris Agreement, which we have all signed, says, we need to limit temperature rises to well below 2 degrees, closer to 1.5 degrees.

This is the only way to protect our people and our economies.

We can and must deliver on the 100 billion dollar commitment and increase action on adaptation.

Together we need to make clear our commitment to keeping 1.5 alive, to take the steps required to decarbonise our economies, agreeing to a net zero world by the middle of this century, and enhancing our 2030 commitments to get us on this track.

Friends, we all need to make these commitments.

And we have to show that this isn’t just about our words, it’s about our actions.

We know that unabated coal power is incompatible with a future that keeps 1.5 alive.

So let us tell the world today, we will seek to end unabated coal both at home and overseas.

We need to agree on these steps and make that clear through our statements today.

Because we have a choice, we can open the door to a healthier, cleaner and safer future for our children, or we can miss our chance.

Friends, I say to you, we must show the world that the G20 were not missing in action when it mattered most.

That confronted with the greatest threat to our planet, we stood tall and we acted.

That we took the decisions to secure our future and that of our children.

So we can look them in the eye and say: today, when it mattered most, we picked the planet.