Boris Johnson says 'no compelling excuses' for not tackling climate change

Boris Johnson says 'no compelling excuses' for not tackling climate change
November 1, 2021, 2:04 am

Boris Johnson-UK

The BBC reported, Boris Johnson has warned world leaders there are "no compelling excuses" for failing to tackle climate change.

Speaking at the close of the G20 summit in Rome, he said some progress was made in the past few days - but there was still a "huge way" to go.

The BBC said that world leaders were meeting in Rome to discuss what can be done to keep global warming in check, ahead of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.

Mr Johnson added immediate action was needed to halve emissions by 2030.

In Rome, the leaders of the 19 countries and the European Union, which form the G20 group of major economies, agreed to pursue efforts to limit global warming with "meaningful and effective actions".

The prime minister said: "There are no compelling excuses for our procrastination.

"Not only have we acknowledged the problem, we have already seen first hand the devastation that climate change causes - heatwaves and droughts to wildfires and hurricanes."

Referring to a treaty on climate change that came from a previous COP summit in 2015, he said: "If we don't act now, the Paris Agreement will be looked at in the future, not as the moment that humanity opened its eyes to the problem but the moment we flinched and turned away."

A report by the World Meteorological Organisation, released alongside the start of COP26, said extreme weather events - including powerful heatwaves and devastating floods - were the new normal.

The two-week summit, which began on Sunday and runs until 12 November, will see delegates from about 200 countries discuss how to cut emissions by 2030.

It was originally scheduled for 2020 but was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Johnson acknowledged the G20 had "made some progress" but said there was still "a huge way still to go".

Asked what he thought the chances were of success at COP26, the prime minister said it was "about six out of 10, it's nip and tuck, it's touch and go".

He added the target of keeping the rise in global temperatures under 1.5C was "very much in the balance".

Scientists say that keeping global warming below 1.5C - a target world leaders agreed to work towards in 2015 - will avoid the worst climate impacts.

Mr Johnson said: "Currently, let's be in no doubt, we are not going to hit it and we have to be honest with ourselves," adding, "So we've got to keep that hope alive."

Source: BBC

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