UN delays global climate talks amid coronavirus
crisis
November’s COP26 talks in Glasgow will be pushed back.
By KALINA
OROSCHAKOFF AND ZACK COLMAN 4/1/20, 9:49 PM CET Updated 4/1/20, 10:42 PM CET
Global
climate talks scheduled for November will be delayed in response to the
coronavirus pandemic, the U.N. and the British and Italian governments said
Wednesday evening.
"The
world is currently facing an unprecedented global challenge and countries are
rightly focusing their efforts on saving lives and fighting COVID-19. That is
why we have decided to reschedule COP26," said Alok Sharma, the
president-designate of the climate talks and the U.K.'s secretary of state for
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
The two
co-hosts, Italy and the U.K., are dealing with the full force of the pandemic;
as of Wednesday evening 13,155 had died in Italy and 2,352 in the U.K.
The U.N.
Framework Convention on Climate Change COP26 meeting planned for Glasgow in
Scotland had been viewed as a key political deadline for countries to release
new, more ambitious national plans to combat planet-warming gases. That has now
been put on hold as countries struggle to arrest the spread of the deadly
virus.
"COVID-19
is the most urgent threat facing humanity today, but we cannot forget that
climate change is the biggest threat facing humanity over the long term,"
said U.N. Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa.
Most
countries are far behind in meeting the national commitments they made as part
of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, the first global pact of countries to
address climate change. The Glasgow conference was designed to ratchet up
pressure on nations to reach those marks while simultaneously setting more
ambitious goals.
The U.N
said that "Dates for a rescheduled conference in 2021, hosted in Glasgow
by the UK in partnership with Italy, will be set out in due course following
further discussion with parties."
An
intermediate meeting in Bonn, Germany,
will be shifted from June to October 4-13. The U.N. "will review
the feasibility of this date by 4 August at the latest," said a note seen
by POLITICO.
As the
coronavirus rattled countries around the world, it became clear that
governments would be too stretched to focus on climate goals amid immediate
public health and economic concerns.
Laurence
Tubiana, the architect of the Paris agreement, called postponement "the
right thing to do" and suggested nations consider climate outcomes in
their eventual economic recovery plans.
"The
UK Presidency and all Governments should use this time to design resilient
recovery and transition plans that consider climate, biodiversity, development
and social justice in an integrated way," she said in a statement.
"This crisis has shown that international cooperation and solidarity are
essential to protect global well-being and peace."
Cop26 climate talks in Glasgow postponed until
2021
Crucial UN conference will be delayed until next year
as a result of the coronavirus crisis
Jillian
Ambrose and Fiona Harvey
Wed 1 Apr
2020 21.20 BSTFirst published on Wed 1 Apr 2020 19.14 BST
The UN
climate talks due to be held in Glasgow later this year have been postponed as
governments around the world struggle to halt the spread of coronavirus.
The most
important climate negotiations since the Paris agreement in 2015 were scheduled
to take place this November to put countries back on track to avoid climate
breakdown. They will now be pushed back to 2021.
A statement
from the UN on Wednesday night confirmed that the meeting of over 26,000
attendees would be delayed until next year. It said new dates for the
conference would be decided in due course.
The UK
energy minister and president of the Cop26 conference, Alok Sharma, held crunch
talks with the UN and several other countries on Wednesday evening to confirm
the timing of the summit. “The world is currently facing an unprecedented
global challenge and countries are rightly focusing their efforts on saving
lives and fighting Covid-19. That is why we have decided to reschedule Cop26,”
he said.
“We will
continue working tirelessly with our partners to deliver the ambition needed to
tackle the climate crisis and I look forward to agreeing a new date for the
conference.”
The Cop26
meeting was scheduled to be held in Glasgow at the SEC arena, a venue that the
Scottish government plans to turn into a field hospital to treat virus victims.
The UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change agreed to delay the vital talks because
of the widespread disruption caused by coronavirus, and will also delay a key
preliminary meeting scheduled for Bonn, Germany, which was also expected to be
derailed by widespread lockdowns and travel restrictions.
John
Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said it was vital that the delay
should not allow governments to back down on their commitments to tackle the
climate crisis. “The decision to postpone the climate talks in Glasgow was
inevitable given the health emergency the world is currently facing,” he told
the Guardian. “But while the summit has been delayed, the climate emergency
can’t be put on hold. Government stimulus packages will hold the key as to
whether this emergency significantly delays or advances progress on tackling the
climate emergency.”
Some
campaigners believe there could be another advantage to delay, as the US
presidential elections take place this November, just before Cop26 was
scheduled to begin. With the summit delayed to next year, other governments
will have time to adjust either to a second term of Donald Trump – who opposes
the Paris agreement and is withdrawing the US from it – or a new president who
is likely to support climate action.
But several
prominent climate experts had feared that delaying the talks would mean
governments eased off on pursuing stronger commitments to fulfil the Paris
goals.
Christiana
Figueres, the UN climate chief who oversaw the Paris summit in 2015, had argued
for keeping Glasgow on track. On Wednesday night she accepted the delay but
added: “Emissions must peak this year if we want to limit warming to 1.5C and
the Paris agreement set the Cop26 summit as the moment when all countries would
ramp up their targets in line with the steep emissions decline we need to see
in this decisive next decade.”
The
Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) welcomed the delay as
the best hope of rebuilding diplomatic momentum before the talks take place.
Stephanie Pfeifer, the group’s CEO, said investors would support the decision
because it “improves the likelihood of a strong outcome and ensuring that the
world is put on a path to tackle the climate crisis”.
But the
delay will come as a blow to some climate campaigners, who have urged the UK
government to proceed with the conference despite the outbreak to avoid
stalling progress on global climate action. They believe since the Paris
agreement, countries have failed to develop climate commitments that go far
enough to avoid a catastrophic environmental breakdown. The Glasgow talks aim
to galvanise tougher plans to cap rising temperatures by limiting greenhouse
gas emissions.
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