Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the roundtable that “history will judge” the world’s richest nations if they fail to deliver on their pledge to commit $ 100 billion in annual climate aid ahead of COP26, reports Asian Lite Newsdesk
The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that COP26 UN Climate Change Conference is “a turning point” for the world.
“I think the Glasgow COP26 is a turning point for the world. And it’s the moment when we have to grow up and take our responsibilities,” Johnson told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York following the closing of the Informal Leaders Roundtable on Climate Action.
Calling on the rich countries to honour their pledge to provide each year $ 100 billion for the climate action in the developing countries, the Prime Minister said that “it is the developing world that is bearing the brunt of catastrophic climate change in the forms of hurricanes and fires and floods and the real long-term economic damage that they face.”
“It’s the developed world that over 200 years has put the carbon in the atmosphere that is causing this acceleration of climate change and, say, it really is up to us to help them,” he added.
Earlier, Johnson told the roundtable that “history will judge” the world’s richest nations if they fail to deliver on their pledge to commit $ 100 billion in annual climate aid ahead of COP26.
He placed the chances of securing the money before November at “six out of 10”.
“We cannot let climate action become another victim of coronavirus. Let us be the leaders who secure the very health of te planet for our children, grandchildren and generations to come,” Johnson said at the event.
While international support for tackling climate change has increased hugely since 2015, developed countries have collectively failed to reach the $100 billion target – last week the OECD confirmed that only $79.6 billion was mobilised in 2019.
There has been some recent progress. All G7 countries have committed to enhance contributions in the next five years, including scaling up finance for adaptation and nature. At the G7 Summit in June, new pledges amounting to $4 billion per year in additional finance were made by major economies.
He also assured his country “will lead by example, keeping the environment on the global agenda and serving as a launch pad for a global green industrial revolution.”
However, he warned that “no one country can turn the tide, it would be akin to bailing out a liner with a single bucket.”
The UK has already committed £11.6 billion in international climate finance over the next five years, twice the previous five-year commitment. The Prime Minister also announced on Monday that £550 million of this will be allocated to support developing countries to meet new zero by adopting the policies and technologies needed to end the use of coal and create a cleaner, greener planet.
The roundtable follows the recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, signalling a “code red for humanity,” and comes less than six weeks before the COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.
The roundtable addresses the gaps that remain on the actions urgently needed from national governments — especially the G20 — on mitigation, finance and adaptation.
With fewer than 50 days to go until the UK-hosted COP26 Summit, the Prime Minister asked world leaders to build on the work that has already been done and get public and private finance flowing so that the climate finance target can finally be met.
At the end of the UN General Assembly this week the UK will publish the detail of countries’ climate finance commitments to date.
In response to calls from developing countries for greater transparency and predictability in international climate finance, the UK has asked Germany and Canada to lead on developing a ’$100bn Delivery Plan’, to be published ahead of the COP26 Summit. The detail on contributions the
UK will publish this week will be a key component of this Plan, which will outline how the $100bn goal will be met through to 2025.