Welcome to November here in the Daily Outsider.
On the Eve of #COP26 and as the #G20 concluded, we present the following on the State of our World--we will provide guidance after #COP26 concludes:
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Evidence of climate change is now indisputable but the G-20 summit showed the world is still far from united on what to do about it. Divisions between rich and poor states were on display during two days of negotiations that concluded in Rome today. While the leaders’ final statement sought to present a common front for the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow starting tomorrow, that came at the price of weak commitments on issues ranging from phasing out coal to targets for net-zero carbon emissions. “We have different views over how soon we must start to act and how fast we must change course,” Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, the summit’s host, told fellow leaders. “Emerging economies resent how much rich countries have polluted in the past.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the Group of Seven industrialized nations of trying to bounce everyone else into adopting 2050 as a net-zero deadline. “It is not very polite to use this negotiating process the way the G-7 tried to,” he said. None of this bodes well for a breakthrough at COP26, which already faces challenges from the absence of leaders of key emitters including China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, both of whom opted to stay at home and dialed in to the G-20. Related reading: Scientists say that restricting the planet’s warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels is urgently needed to avert devastating environmental upheaval. That’s running into the reality that fossil fuels drive the economies of nations from Australia to Saudi Arabia, and provide heat and fuel to the citizens of China and India. For all the warnings of inevitable catastrophe, the G-20 showed how hard it is to bridge this gap with changes that measure up to the scale of the challenges facing the planet. As the baton is passed on to Glasgow, leaders at COP26 know that no nation will escape the consequences if they fail. — Anthony Halpin Leaders and ministers at the official family photo on Saturday. Photographer: Fabio Cimaglia/IPP It was perhaps the oddest “family photo” for a G-20 — and that’s saying something. The summit was a hybrid with a clutch of leaders skipping an in-person appearance. That required some careful strategy from the hosts to ensure the tradition of a group picture wasn’t lost. |
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Quote of the day | | “I must be clear, that if Glasgow fails, then the whole thing fails. The Paris Agreement will have crumpled at the first reckoning.” | | Boris Johnson U.K. prime minister |
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The year 2021 is now expected to qualify among the hottest seven in history, all of them recorded since 2014, according to an early estimate by the United Nations World Meteorological Organization. Officials meeting in Glasgow will confer on how to keep warming below 2°C (3.6° Fahrenheit) compared with pre-industrial levels — and preferably 1.5°C. - Coming up Monday at COP26: Leaders set out their plans in a moment that’s meant to kick-start two weeks of negotiations.
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Bloomberg Opinion columnists have some advice for how world leaders, academics and activists can make COP26 a success. The bar in Glasgow is higher than it was in Paris, writes Therese Raphael. There, pledges were made; now governments will be measured by what they deliver. Yet the Editors are optimistic that the summit can mark a turning point if it secures breakthroughs on two long-standing challenges: finalizing the details of a global carbon market and supporting climate adaptation in poorer nations. Jonathan Ford warns us that, in Europe especially, nuclear energy — a source of safe, clean power — is being abandoned — a fact that will only make decarbonization harder. Covid-19 has presented the world with an acute threat. No country has responded to the pandemic perfectly, but Clara Ferreira Marques says we can learn from governmental failures. Lesson one: Delaying action serves no one. |
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