Time is running out at Cop26 climate talks

The United Nations climate summit in Glasgow has made “some serious toddler steps” towards cutting emissions but far from the giant leaps needed to limit global warming to internationally-accepted goals, new data and top officials said Tuesday.

Wednesday's text was the first indication of where nations are 10 days into the COP26 talks in Glasgow Ben STANSALL AFP/File

Time is running out on the two weeks of Cop26 negotiations.

The president of the climate talks, Alok Sharma, told high-level government ministers at the UN conference they needed to reach out to their capitals and bosses soon to see if they can get more ambitious pledges because “we have only a few days left".

Girls from Chili witnessing the devastating effects of climate change in their country protest outside the venue of the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, 10 November 2021. © RFI/Jan van der Made

Sharma assured his audience that the conference is "not seeking to reopen the Paris Agreement," adding that the 2015 deal "clearly sets out the temperature goal well below 2 degrees and pursuing efforts to 1.5 degrees". He stressed that "our overarching goal of 'keeping 1.5 degrees within reach' has been our lodestar".

Limited progress

Sharma listed several breakthroughs, notably:

• 30 countries have agreed to work together to make zero emission vehicles "the new normal"  by 2030 or sooner; 
• Launch of a new World Bank trust fund that will mobilise $200 million over the next 10 years to decarbonise road transport in poor countries;
• Nineteen governments have stated their intent to support the establishment of ‘green shipping corridors’.

He added that the UK intends to end sales of polluting diesel trucks by 2040.

But critics say the pledges are far from enough. A UN Environment Programme analysis of the promises found they wouldn't bring down global warming sufficiently.

"Emissions gap"

All they did was slightly diminish the “emissions gap” which defines how much carbon pollution can be sustained without the global climate hitting dangerous warming levels, according to the review released Tuesday. 

The data showed that by 2030, the world will be emitting 51.5 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, 1.5 billion tonnes less than before the latest pledges.

Two activists sport a banner reading "Fossil fuels = mass murder" in front of the COP26 venue in Glasgow, 10 November 2021. © RFI/Jan van der Made

To achieve the limit first set in the 2015 Paris climate accord, which came out of a similar summit, the world can emit a maximum of 12.5 billion metric tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2030. 

"Don't kill us"

Outside the cavernous halls of the climate change conference, hundreds of climate activists gather every day. Some chant lists of how pollution affects their neighbourhoods. One group carries a banner that reads "don't kill us".

Others carry a grim slogan with the stylised, encircled hourglass symbol of the radical group Extinction Rebellion saying "fossil fuels = mass murder".

"Love and grief for the Earth" reads this poster held by an elderly protester who braves long hours of chilly weather to confront delegates coming out of the COP26 venue, 10 November 2021. © RFI/Jan van der Made

There is a strong police presence along the road leading to the venues. Protesting could heat up during these last two days if the delegates don't manage to hammer out a document providing clear solutions to the problem of the planet's rapidly deteriorating environment.

Police are omnipresent around the venue of the COP26 in Glasgow, 10 November 2021. © RFI/Jan van der Made