World leaders and activists have arrived in Glasgow, Scotland, for COP26, a critical United Nations summit aimed at averting the most catastrophic effects of the climate crisis. 

Glasgow, November 1 (RHC)-- World leaders and activists have arrived in Glasgow, Scotland, for COP26, a critical United Nations summit aimed at averting the most catastrophic effects of the climate crisis.  A recent U.N. Emissions Gap Report showed that current contributions and commitments by nations to reduce emissions aren’t nearly enough to avert a planetary disaster. 

At the opening of the conferece, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said: “There is a serious risk that Glasgow will not deliver.  Several recent climate announcements might leave the impression of a rosier picture.  Unfortunately, this is an illusion.  The current nationally determined contributions, formal commitments by governments, still condemn the world to a calamitous 2.7 degree increase. … There are serious questions of credibility.  We see dangerous levels of mistrust among the big powers, among members of the G20, between developed and developing countries.”

Some 30,000 people are expected to take part in the two-week summit, which was postponed for a year by the pandemic.  Climate activists have been gathering in Glasgow to push world leaders to take more drastic action, like ending government subsidies for fossil fuels and divesting from coal, oil and gas.

Lewis Coenen-Rowe: “So, we know that our whole financial system at the moment is embroiled with the fossil fuel industry, and we need to find a way to get out of that and to move the money into climate solutions rather than the causes of climate change.”