Extract from ABC News
The planet will face "doomsday" if world leaders do not pull off a "James-Bond" victory, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told the official opening ceremony of the COP26 leaders summit.
Key points:
- More than 100 world leaders have gathered for the UN COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland
- UK PM Boris Johnson told delegates the world was at "one minute to midnight on the doomsday clock"
- Sir David Attenborough said he had witnessed a "horrible decline" of the environment in his lifetime
Mr Johnson opened his address to more than a hundred heads of state with a reference to the fictional spy and compared the struggle to stop global warming to a movie-like mission.
"But the tragedy is, that this is not a movie, and the doomsday device is real," Mr Johnson said.
"And the clock is ticking to the furious rhythm of hundreds of billions of pistons and turbines and furnaces and engines.
As host of the UN’s global climate change conference, the UK is trying to secure one key goal: global net-zero emissions by 2050.
Mr Johnson's catchphrase for achieving this is: "coal, cars, cash and trees".
"We can phase out the use of cars with hydrocarbon internal combustion (petrol-fuelled) engines by 2035," he said.
"We can plant hundreds of millions of trees, a trillion.
Mr Johnson also is pushing for an end to coal-fired power, and he wants the conference to secure $US100 billion ($132 billion) in annual climate funding.
Before official proceedings started, some of the world's most high-profile leaders were seen mingling — the first time many had been at such a large gathering since the outbreak of the pandemic.
US President Joe Biden could be seen smiling at Saudi Arabian leaders, and Mr Johnson and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had a brief, but warm embrace.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Energy Minister Angus Taylor were also seen working the room, just weeks after the government agreed to the net zero by 2050 target.
Still, Australia has arrived at the conference with a reputation of being a "climate laggard", with critics calling the country’s climate policy "suicidal".
'Is this how our species is doomed to end?'
The UK has asked all attending countries to adopt more ambitious 2030 emissions targets, which UN scientists believe are critical if the world wants to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Any further warming would be catastrophic for the world, Mr Johnson said in his address.
"We know what the scientists tell us … two degrees more and we jeopardise the food supply for hundreds of millions of people's crops," he said.
"Three degrees and you can add more wildfires and cyclones twice as many five times as many droughts and 36 times as many heatwaves.
"Four degrees, we say goodbye to whole cities — Miami, Alexandria, Shanghai all lost beneath the waves — and the longer we fail to act, the worse it gets and the higher the price."
UN secretary-general António Guterres warned that since delegates agreed to the historic 2015 Paris Climate Accord, the world had experienced "the six hottest years on record".
Samoan climate activist Brianna Fruean made one of the key addresses at the opening ceremony, and used it to put political leaders on notice.
"You all have the power to be better … you know what climate justice is doing to us, you don't need my pain or my tears to know that we are in a crisis," the 23-year-old said.
"Remember in your meetings rooms and drafting documents, they are more than black and white objects.
"Your words wield the weapons that could save us or sell us out.
"The real question is: Do you have the political will do the right thing, to use the right words and follow up with much-needed action?"
Other guests at the opening ceremony included members of the British royal family, and the world’s best-known naturalist, Sir David Attenborough.
The Prince of Wales urged governments to work more closely with the private sector, while Sir David urged all leaders to take urgent action.
"Those who have contributed the least are feeling the impacts the most," Sir David said.
"Is this how our species is doomed to end?"
Mr Johnson reminded delegates at COP26 they were not of the same generation that would witness the impacts of climate change.
"Half of the population of the world is under 30. The average age of this conclave of world leaders, I'm afraid to say, is over 60," he said.
Earlier in the day, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon met with some of the most high-profile youth activists, including Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate.
They urged all delegates to consider the future of younger generations, and issued a pointed reminder their failure would cost their children, and their children.
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