Extract from ABC News
Greenhouse gas concentrations hit a record last year and the world is "way off track" on capping rising temperatures, the United Nations says, ahead of climate talks in Glasgow aimed at averting dangerous levels of global warming.
Key points:
UN seeks "dramatic increase" in climate commitments
Australia is expected to formally approve a target of net zero by 2050
UK PM Boris Johnson says COP26 outcome is "touch and go"
A report by the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) showed carbon dioxide levels surged to 413.2 parts per million in 2020, rising more than the average rate over the last decade despite a temporary dip in emissions during COVID-19 lockdowns.
WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said the current rate of increase in heat-trapping gases would result in temperature rises "far in excess" of the 2015 Paris Agreement target of 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average this century.
"We are way off track," he said.
"We need to revisit our industrial, energy and transport systems and whole way of life."
Mr Taalas then called for a "dramatic increase" in commitments at the COP26 conference beginning on Sunday.
In Australia, federal Cabinet is set to formally approve the government's net-zero emissions target, just days before Prime Minister Scott Morrison flies out for the climate talks in Scotland.
Coalition partners the Nationals gave their in-principle support to a target of net zero emissions by 2050 on Sunday.
UK PM signals 'tough summit'
The Glasgow climate talks have been labelled the world's last best chance to cap global warming at the 1.5-2 degrees Celsius upper limit set out in the Paris Agreement.
"It is going to be very, very tough this summit," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said during a news conference with children.
"I am very worried because it might go wrong and we might not get the agreements that we need and it is touch and go, it is very, very difficult, but I think it can be done," he said.
The stakes for the planet are huge — among them the impact on economic livelihoods the world over and the future stability of the global financial system.
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince said on Saturday that the world's top oil exporter aims to reach "net zero" emissions of greenhouse gases, mostly produced by burning fossil fuels, by 2060 — 10 years later than the United States.
He also said it would double the emissions cuts it plans to achieve by 2030.
In Berlin, officials from Germany and Canada were set to present a plan about how rich countries can help poorer nations finance the overhaul needed to address climate change.
Wealthy countries have so far failed to deliver their 2009 pledge to provide $US100 billion ($133 billion) per year in climate finance to poorer countries by 2020.
A Reuters poll of economists found that hitting the Paris Agreement goal of net-zero carbon emissions will require investments in a green transition worth 2 per cent to 3 per cent of world output each year until 2050, far less than the economic cost of inaction.
In London, climate activists restarted their campaign of blockading major roads by disrupting traffic in the city's financial district, while in Madrid a few dozen people staged a sit-in protest, briefly blocking the Gran Via shopping street.
"Greenhouse gas emissions are provoking climate catastrophes all over the planet," said Alberto, 27, a sociologist who took part in the protest.
Reuters
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