The world is still not on track to fulfil the 2015 Paris climate agreement, the UK’s business secretary Alok Sharma warned, after a summit of more than 70 world leaders on the climate crisis ended with few new commitments on greenhouse gas emissions. He said progress had been made at the Climate Ambition Summit, co-hosted by the UK, the UN and France, marking five years since the Paris accord was adopted. More than 80 world leaders including China’s Xi Jinping, the European commission president Ursula von der Leyen, and Pope Francis urged swifter action on the climate crisis. Sharma will be president of the next round of UN climate talks, called Cop26, to be hosted by the UK next year in Glasgow, postponed from this November. He urged more countries to come forward with plans before Cop26 to reach net-zero emissions by mid-century, and cut emissions substantially in the next decade, to fulfill the Paris agreement.
By Fiona Harvey. The Guardian. December 12, 2020.
