COP26: 'Failure is a death sentence' warning as climate change summit opens in Glasgow
Prince Charles, Sir David Attenborough and UN Secretary-General Ant贸nio Guterres gave a series of emotive speeches at the COP26 opening ceremony, before world leaders set out their own plans and demands for tackling climate change.
Monday 1 November 2021 22:45, UK
The prime minister has told global leaders the planet is in "roughly the same position as James Bond", strapped to a doomsday device and desperately trying to avoid "a detonation that will end human life as we know".
"The clock is ticking to the furious rhythm of hundreds of billions of pistons and furnaces and engines with which we are pumping carbon into the air faster and faster," Boris Johnson told the COP26 opening ceremony in Glasgow.
Mr Johnson said it is "one minute to midnight" on that Doomsday device, warning that if the world doesn't get serious on climate change today "it will be too late for our children to do so tomorrow".
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World leaders in the audience including US President Joe Biden, outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau listened to a series of stark speeches at the opening ceremony of COP26, regarded as the "last, best chance" to curb devastating climate breakdown.
One of the most notable speeches came from India's prime minister, Narendra Modi.
He committed India to net zero by 2070 - 10 years later than the like of Russia and China and 20 years later than the key 2050 date.
"Instead of mindless and destructive consumption we need mindful and deliberate utilisation," Mr Modi said.
"These choices, made by billions of people, can take the fight against climate change one step further."
Some praised Mr Modi for his commitment - saying it was a start, and that other nations getting to net zero before 2050 would offset India's longer time-frame - while others said more needed to be done sooner.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres then warned in his statement that for vulnerable nations and small island states, failure at the talks is "not an option. Failure is a death sentence".
Mr Guterres said the world faces "a moment of truth" as it approaches "tipping points that will trigger escalating feedback loops of global heating".
But he said there is "progress to build upon", adding: "The climate action army - led by young people - is unstoppable."
The prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, also spoke at the ceremony, which has the theme "Earth to COP". She said this was "code red to the G7 countries... code red to the G20".
"Earth to COP: For those who have ears to listen, and for those who have a heart to feel: 1.5 degrees is what we need to survive."
Echoing Mr Guterres' statement, she said two degrees of warming above pre-industrial levels would indeed be a death sentence for places like Kenya, Fiji and Barbados.
"We do not want that dreaded death sentence," Ms Mottley said.
The summit also heard from Sir David Attenborough and Prince Charles, while in a recorded video message Professor Brian Cox said: "It's possible that there's only one civilisation in the Milky Way Galaxy... there may only ever be one. And that's us.
"If you're looking for a hint as to how we should behave politically towards each other, towards our planet, then this idea matters," the physicist and broadcaster urged.
The UK, as host of the talks, wants the aim to be "keeping 1.5C degrees" alive.
Under the Paris Agreement, made at COP21, nations agreed on the need to limit warming to two degrees and ideally 1.5 above pre-industrial levels, come up with their own action plans to achieve this, and review them five years later.
Five COPs later, and this year's talks will formally review these plans and, many hope, ratchet up targets.
A UN report last week found current plans put the world on a trajectory for 2.7 degrees of warming by the end of this century, though net-zero pledges might shave a little off that.
Mr Guterres told countries in his opening address that if commitments still fall short by the end of COP26, they must revisit their pledges, saying there was a current deficit of credibility.
After the opening ceremony, leaders will take turns to deliver national statements to tout their climate plans, possibly ramp up targets, or set out expectations and demands for the talks.
These statements will continue into Tuesday for the second and final day of the World Leaders Summit section of the conference.
Developing nations want rich countries to fulfil a long-overdue promise to stump up $100bn a year in climate finance to help them cut emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change, for which developed countries are mostly responsible.
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Over the next two weeks, delegates will seek to hammer out deals on "coal, cars, cash and trees", as Mr Johnson likes to put it.
These roughly translate to phasing out coal, accelerating the transition to electric vehicles and ending deforestation, as well as stumping up climate finance to help developing nations on the front line of the climate crisis.
The heads of key major economies, including China's Xi Jinping and Russian president Vladimir Putin, are not attending, though they are sending delegations.
COP26 President Alok Sharma has described the summit as the "last, best hope" for tackling climate change.
For full coverage of COP26 watch Climate Live on Sky channel 525.
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