COP26 outcome ‘in the balance’ as reaching agreement will be a ‘big challenge’, president says
The president of the COP26 UN climate summit has told Sky News it is unclear if the crucial meeting will be a success and it is currently hanging “in the balance”.
Just days from the summit, Alok Sharma said: “This is going to be difficult.
“This is going to be a big challenge.
“This is getting almost 200 countries to reach consensus on some of these difficult issues that have been outstanding for six years now.
“It is in the balance.”
His comments add to growing concerns about the success of COP26 as world leaders head first to the G20 summit in Rome and then on to Glasgow.
Mr Sharma was referring, among other things, to a lack of agreement on phasing out coal, and to the fact that some countries, including India and China, have yet to submit more ambitious plans for reducing carbon emissions, despite promising to do so.
China has already committed to peak carbon emissions before 2030, and net zero by 2060, and has indicated that it is both unwilling and unable to move further.
But US special envoy on climate change John Kerry has said that the world will miss its global emissions targets unless this happens.
Alok Sharma has said the outcome of the summit is ‘in the balance’
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Mr Sharma said: “China is the biggest emitter in the world.
“What China does matters.
“If you look at all of the G20 collectively they are responsible for 80% of global emissions, and China’s responsible for around 27% of global emissions … but actually what every country does matters as well.”
“17 out of the 20 have said that they’re going to get to net zero by the middle of the century, but of course that’s not enough.”
In light of the UN Secretary General’s comment that the disparity between what has been pledged and what needs to be done is actually caused by a leadership gap, I asked the COP26 president if there was a problem with his leadership.
He said: “Ultimately, this is world leaders who made commitments in Paris, and it is world leaders who have to deliver.
“My job as COP26 president is effectively to act as shepherd-in-chief, to listen to people to try and bring consensus.
“I can’t force any one country to do anything.”
“And you know, (Glasgow) is a big, big ask and I would argue this is actually tougher than Paris, and Paris was a historic agreement.
In terms of the personal steps he is taking to be more environmentally friendly, Mr Sharma said he has given up meat.
He admitted to still having his diesel car and committed to swapping it for a fully electric one as soon as he has “a bit of time after COP”.
He was reluctant to be drawn on his exact plans for reducing the number of flights he will take for personal reasons, saying: “I’ve not had a personal holiday flight for some time.
“But look … we all need to sort of look at what we can do in our own lives.
“But … this is not about forcing people or telling people what to do.”
Returning to the looming summit, Mr Sharma conceded that although much progress has been made, there still is a long list of issues to be resolved.
Apart from coal and more ambitious targets, this includes agreement on global carbon markets, transparency and accountability protocols, and how much money lower income nations will receive to adapt to the changes that are already locked in as a result of global warming.
Mr Sharma said: “What keeps me up at night is just thinking about the complexity of this.
“I’ve described it in the past as playing multi-dimensional chess, and we’re now getting towards the end of the chess game.
“What we want is for us to win for the world collectively, so that we can say to our generation, but also the future generations, that we delivered when it mattered.”
That’s the ambition.
Geopolitics may get in the way.
In a few day’s time, we’ll find out.
Israel’s defence minister has threatened to “take whatever measures necessary” to stop an aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg from reaching Gaza.
The climate campaigner, 22, is one of a dozen activists aboard the Madleen, which set sail from Sicily last Sunday on a mission aiming to break Israel‘s sea blockade.
The activists have said they plan to reach Gaza‘s territorial waters as early as Sunday to deliver humanitarian aid.
But in a post on X, Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said he has instructed the IDF to prevent the vessel reaching shore and to “take whatever measures necessary”.
Addressing Thunberg and the other activists, he said: “You should turn back – because you will not reach Gaza.”
He wrote: “I have instructed the IDF to act so that the “Madeleine” hate flotilla does not reach the shores of Gaza – and to take any means necessary to that end.
“To the anti-Semitic Greta and her fellow Hamas propaganda spokespeople, I say clearly: You should turn back – because you will not reach Gaza.
“Israel will act against any attempt to break the blockade or assist terrorist organizations – at sea, in the air and on land.”
Latest known position of the vessel
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Why is Greta sailing to Gaza?
Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament, who is of Palestinian descent, is also on the boat, which is operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.
She has been barred from entering Israel because of her opposition to Israel’s policies towards Palestinians.
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Israel started allowing some basic aid into Gaza last month after a three-month total blockade aimed at pressuring Hamas and preventing the group from importing arms.
But humanitarian workers have warned of famine unless there is an end to the blockade and the 20-month war, which was ignited by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 Oct 2023.
An attempt last month by Freedom Flotilla to reach Gaza by sea failed after another of the group’s vessels was attacked by two drones while sailing in international waters off Malta.
The group blamed Israel for the attack, which damaged the front section of the ship.
A British surgeon has told Sky News she has never treated or seen anyone in a Gaza hospital in military uniform – and the only people she has seen with weapons are the IDF.
Dr Victoria Rose, a NHS plastic surgeon who has experience working in Gaza, said conditions there are now the worst they’ve ever been.
“There’s been a real escalation in the bombing campaign,” she told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips.
“The population is on their knees.”
Dr Victoria Rose in Gaza
Hospitals in Gaza have frequently come under Israeli military (IDF) fire – and sometimes find themselves besieged – in the ongoing war following Hamas’s October 2023 attacks on Israel.
Medical facilities are usually protected during conflicts under international law, but Israel has repeatedly claimed that Hamas uses them for command centres.
Asked about Israel’s allegations, Dr Rose said: “I’ve never treated or seen anyone – in any of the hospitals that I’ve worked in – in military uniform or with a weapon.
“The only people I’ve ever seen in Gaza with military uniforms and weapons are the IDF.”
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Palestinians ‘shot while getting food’
Dr Rose told Sky News about the impact of the war on hospital staff: “Lots of my Palestinian colleagues were telling me that they would rather die than carry on with this war.”
It comes as a controversial humanitarian organisation backed by Israel and the US said it did not distribute any food in Gaza on Saturday, accusing Hamas of making threats that “made it impossible” to operate. Hamas denied the claims.
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UN: 500,000 are food insecure in Gaza
The Israeli blockade on aid going into Gaza has severely affected the population, she said, leaving them malnourished and without the nutrients they need.
Speaking about her last visit to a hospital in the enclave, she said: “Infection rates were soaring… We were seeing a lot of avoidable deaths, a lot of small children dying from sepsis that would have been prevented if they’d been in in the Western world.”
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Despite a limited lifting of the blockade by Israel – the head of the UN called it a “teaspoon” – the aid situation in Gaza remains dire.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is endorsed by Israel and the US, took over responsibility for distributing aid in Gaza, but has been criticised for lack of experience, organisation and faces allegations of assisting in ethnic cleansing by luring Palestinians to the south of the enclave if they want food.
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Why is Greta sailing to Gaza?
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said on Saturday the GHF operation has “utterly failed on all levels” and that Hamas was ready to help secure aid deliveries by a separate long-running UN-led humanitarian operation.
A Hamas source told Reuters the group’s armed wing would deploy snipers on Sunday to prevent armed gangs looting food shipments.
World
Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay in ‘critical condition’ after attempted assassination – as 15-year-old suspect arrested
A 15 year-old-boy has been arrested after a Colombian senator running to be the country’s next president was shot and “critically” injured at a campaign rally in Bogota, authorities have said.
Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, 39, was targeted during the campaign event in a park in the Fontibon area of the Colombian capital, according to the Attorney General’s office.
He suffered two gunshot wounds when armed assailants shot him from behind and appeared to be bleeding from his head as he was helped by aides and people in the crowd, in a video posted on social media.
According to a medical report at the Santa Fe Foundation hospital, he was admitted there in a “critical condition” and is still undergoing a “neurosurgical and peripheral vascular procedure”.
Opposition senator Miguel Uribe Turbay on 13 May. Pic: AP
His wife Maria Claudia Tarazone wrote on X that he is “fighting for his life” and urged Colombians to pray for him.
Two other people were injured but the nature of their injuries has not been made public.
A suspect, a 15-year-old boy, was arrested at the scene with a firearm and is being treated for a leg injury, police chief General Carlos Triana said.
The government is offering a $730,000 (£540,000) reward for information and President Gustavo Petro said the investigation will focus on who ordered the attack.
“For now there is nothing more than hypothesis,” he said, adding that failures in security protocols would also be looked into.
People gather outside the hospital where Mr Uribe Turbay is ‘fighting for his life’. Pic: Reuters
Mr Uribe Turbay, who announced his presidential bid for the right-wing Democratic Center Party in March, was accompanied by a team of 21 people at the time of the shooting, his office said, including councilman Andres Barrios.
He was hoping to run in the presidential elections taking place on 31 May next year – and succeed Mr Petro, the country’s first leftist leader.
His mother, who was a journalist, was kidnapped and killed in 1991 during one of the most violent periods in Colombia’s history.
Forensic investigators at the scene of Mr Uribe Turbay’s shooting in Bogota. Pic: AP
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His party described it as an “unacceptable act of violence”, while US secretary of state Marco Rubio condemned it in the “strongest possible terms”.
Writing on X, Mr Rubio also urged Colombia’s current president to “dial back the inflammatory rhetoric and protect Colombian officials”.
Police outside the hospital where Mr Uribe Turbay is being treated. Pic: AP
Former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, who is not related to Mr Uribe Turbay, said the gunman had “attacked the hope of the country, a great husband, son, brother, and a great colleague”.
He cancelled a planned trip to France due to the “seriousness of the events”, his office said in a statement.
Messages of support poured in from elsewhere in Latin America, with Chilean President Gabriel Boric saying: “There is no room or justification for violence in a democracy.”
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa added: “We condemn all forms of violence and intolerance.”
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