Climate Summit UK COP26

An old saying goes, where sun is shining bright, there is always shadow somewhere...

COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland a momentum gathering of world leaders, negotiators, Royal Highnesses, Excellencies, Lords and Ladies to address urgent issues of climate change. We have seen some of distinguished minds giving very well crafted speeches. Here are some extracts from statements delivered.

HRH Prince of Wales : "With a growing global population creating ever-increasing demand on the planet’s finite resources, we have to reduce emissions urgently and take action to tackle the carbon already in the atmosphere, including from coal-fired power stations.?Putting a value on carbon, thus making carbon capture solutions more economical, is therefore absolutely critical.?Similarly, after billions of years of evolution, Nature is our best teacher – in this regard, restoring Natural Capital, accelerating Nature-based solutions and leveraging the circular bioeconomy will be vital to our efforts."

The UN Secretary António Guterres: "We face a stark choice: Either we stop it — or it stops us. It’s time to say: enough. Enough of brutalising biodiversity. Enough of killing ourselves with carbon. Enough of treating nature like a toilet."

The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson: "the clock is ticking to the furious rhythm of hundreds of billions of pistons and turbines and furnaces and engines with which we are pumping carbon into the air faster and faster- record outputs and quilting the earth in an invisible and suffocating blanket of CO2, raising the temperature of the planet with a speed and an abruptness that is entirely manmade and we know what the scientists tell us and we have learned not to ignore them. 2 degrees more and we jeopardise the food supply for hundreds of millions of people as crops wither, locusts swarm; 3 degrees and you can add more wildfires and cyclones – twice as many of them, five times as many droughts and 36 times as many heatwaves. 4 degrees and 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 when we are eventually forced by catastrophe to act because humanity has long since run down the clock on climate change."

POTUS Joe Biden: "We’re standing at an inflection point in world history.?We have the ability to invest in ourselves and build an equitable clean-energy future and in the process create millions of good-paying jobs and opportunities around the world — cleaner air for our children, where bountiful oceans, healthier forests and ecosystems for our planet. We can create an environment that raises the standard of living around the world.?And this is a moral imperative, but it’s also an economic imperative — if we fuel greater growth, new jobs, and better opportunities for all our people."

The event COP26 successfully brought diplomats to meet and together discuss the major climate concerns. The main question is, can you reverse a global warming? A billionaire entrepreneur Bill Gates says YES. It will take at least 30 years to help the 1.5 degree Celsius goal. "If we keep this up — if the world puts even more effort into innovations that reduce the cost of getting to zero and help the poorest people adapt to climate change — then we’ll be able to look back on this summit as an important milestone in avoiding a climate disaster" wrote Bill Gates in his blog.

The COP26 evaluated the importance of innovating and deploying new, carbon-cutting technologies to achieve relief from climate crisis.There is also a greater focus on people on hotter continents and especially in poor countries. Instead of placing the burden of our pollution on them, governments and non-profit organizations must help and provide the necessary resources to combat climate change.

We don’t need to study geology to understand that this is important, and climate change is a real problem. Carbon reduction pledges are crucial to raising issues, but they need to be addressed through action before disasters strike.