The G20 bloc, which includes Brazil, China, India, Germany and the United States, accounts for an estimated 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions.Ī new pledge last week from China, the world's biggest polluter, was labelled a missed opportunity that will cast a shadow over the two-week summit.

The conference needs to secure more ambitious pledges to further cut emissions, lock in billions in climate finance, and finish the rules to implement the Paris Agreement with the unanimous consent of the nearly 200 countries that signed it.Īt a summit in Rome, leaders of the Group of 20 major economies agreed on a final statement on Sunday that urges 'meaningful and effective' action to limit global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius but offers few concrete commitments. Meeting the 1.5 C goal, agreed in Paris to much fanfare in 2015, will require a surge in political momentum and diplomatic heavy-lifting to make up for the insufficient action and empty pledges that have characterised much of global climate politics. 'At 1.5 there are countries in the world that will be underwater, and that's why we need to get an agreement here on how we tackle climate change over the next decade.' 'We're already at global warming at 1.1 degrees above pre-industrial levels,' he told Sky News television. 'We need to come out of Glasgow saying with credibility that we have kept 1.5 alive,' Alok Sharma, COP26's president, said on Sunday as delegates began arriving in the Scottish city.

GLASGOW (Reuters) - The United Nations COP26 summit that starts in Glasgow this week has been billed as a make-or-break chance to save the planet from the most calamitous effects of climate change.ĭelayed by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, COP26 aims to keep alive a target of capping global warming at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels - the limit scientists say would avoid its most destructive consequences.

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