The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26 – Council of Parties 26th annual summit) recently convened in Glasgow, Scotland. The purpose of this summit is to reach agreement on how to tackle climate change.
In reference to this climate summit, global leaders met in Paris in 2015 to reach an agreement to hold the increase in global temperatures to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels but preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
However, scientific reports from climateactiontracker.org state that with current global policies, there is a projected 2.7-degree Celsius rise in temperature from pre-industrial levels by the turn of the next century. The main contributors to global emissions that are responsible for the rise in temperature are gas and coal.
Climate change is becoming more of a threat as countries are experiencing loss and damage from flooding, droughts, and heat waves. According to the U.K.’s. Met Office, one billion people will endure extreme stress if the global temperature continues to increase by 2 degrees Celsius.
Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics stated;
“It’s all very well for leaders to claim they have a net zero target, but if they have no plans as to how to get there, and their 2030 targets are as low as so many of them are, then frankly, these net zero targets are just lip service to real climate action.”
Lip service is the last thing this world needs. Whether we realize it or not, we are all interconnected. The pandemic is the most obvious example of our interconnection. All of our lives have been affected by it and the outcome of climate change will be no different.
References:
1. https://www.carbonbrief.org/cop26-key-outcomes-agreed-at-the-un-climate-talks-in-glasgow
2. https://climateactiontracker.org/global/temperatures/
Photo by Li-An Lim on Unsplash
