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.
He may not be the one to sit down with Vladimir Putin, but Keith Kellogg, President Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, summed up the horror of Sunday’s ballistic missile strikes on Sumy succinctly.
“Today’s Palm Sunday attack by Russian forces on civilian targets in Sumy crosses any line of decency,” he said.
“As a former military leader, I understand targeting and this is wrong.”
Ukraine war latest: At least 34 people killed
Vladimir Putin gave up on decency long before he started this war.
What he seems to be risking by attacks of this scale is Donald Trump‘s patience.
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Russia launches strike on Ukraine
He does not seem to mind if strikes like this make a mockery of US attempts to bring the two warring parties to the table.
He does not seem to care if he alienates his US counterpart, who has been strangely predisposed to fawn over him to date.
Perhaps he is raising the stakes as high as he can to illustrate his strength of hand: Strikes on civilians damage Ukrainian morale – even if they are hardly battlefield wins – and on the battlefield, he is pushing ahead and does not want to stop.
At least 34 people, including two children, were killed in Sumy on Sunday. Pic: Reuters
Perhaps he knows that if he keeps up his military momentum, President Trump will tire of a conflict he realises he cannot solve and let the matter slip while staying true to his MAGA-economic priorities by letting funds for Ukraine dry up.
Perhaps he thinks President Trump is so keen on a rapprochement with Russia, on the big Putin-Trump bilateral, that the details, the civilian deaths along the way, will all be by-the-by when that long-sought photo-op finally happens.
Whatever it is, President Putin seems to be in no rush to get things settled.
His spokesman told a Russian state reporter on Sunday that talks were under way at several levels but that “of course, it is impossible to expect any instant results”.
Withdrawing his troops would get instant results. But that is not what Vladimir Putin wants.
Read more:
The art of doing a deal with Trump
2025 ‘critical year’ for Ukraine, warns official
His war economy is working for him, and he has the attention of the one country he considers a worthy adversary, the United States.
In the meantime, this attack reinforces why President Zelenskyy’s plea for air defence systems is his top priority. And why a ceasefire cannot come soon enough.
At least 34 people – including two children – have been killed after a Russian missile attack on a Ukrainian city.
The country’s state emergency service said another 117 people have been injured, with 15 children among them, in the northeastern city of Sumy.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry later added that one of the children injured was a baby girl born this year, saying “even newborns are targets for Russia’s crimes”.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy also shared videos on Telegram of the aftermath of the attack on social media, showing dead bodies in the middle of a city street near a destroyed bus.
As it happened: Russian attack is ‘signal’ to US and Ukraine
Two children were killed in the strike. Pic: State Emergency Service of Ukraine
Russia ‘dragging out this war’ – Zelenskyy
The Ukrainian president said on social media “only scoundrels can act like this” and that “tough reaction from the world is needed”.
“Russia wants exactly this kind of terror and is dragging out this war,” he added. “Without pressure on the aggressor, peace is impossible.
“Talks have never stopped ballistic missiles and air bombs. We need the kind of attitude towards Russia that a terrorist deserves.”
Andriy Kovalenko, a security official who runs Ukraine’s centre for countering disinformation, noted the strike came after a visit to Moscow by US envoy Steve Witkoff.
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From Saturday: Putin meets Trump envoy for talks
US official: ‘This is wrong’
Keith Kellogg, Donald Trump‘s envoy for the Ukraine war, said the attack crosses “any line of decency” and that “there are scores of civilian dead and wounded”.
He added: “As a former military leader, I understand targeting and this is wrong. It is why President Trump is working hard to end this war.”
In response to Mr Kellogg, Mr Zelenskyy’s communications adviser, Dmytro Lytvynm asked: “Don’t you think it’s time to smack the Moscow mule across the nose with a 2X4?”.
Later, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the strike was “horrifying” and a “tragic reminder of why President Trump and his Administration are putting so much time and effort into trying to end this war and achieve durable peace”.
Pic: AP
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy added he was “horrified” by Russia’s “barbaric strike” on Sumy, and called for an “immediate ceasefire”.
Meanwhile, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said “cruelty struck again” and called the strike a “blatant violation of international law”.
It came hours before a separate Russian strike killed three people in the central district of the southern city of Kherson.
Read more:
Why Putin seems to be raising the stakes
2025 ‘critical year’ for Ukraine, warns minister
The local governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said a 68-year-old woman was injured and died in hospital and that a 48-year-old man also died after “the occupiers dropped an explosive device from a drone”.
A 62-year-old woman was also killed “as a result of the shelling”.
On Saturday, a Russian guided bomb hit a house in the northeastern Ukrainian town of Kupiansk on Saturday, injuring four people.
Governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram that three others could be trapped under rubble.
It comes after Russian diplomats accused each other of violating a tentative US-brokered deal to pause strikes on energy infrastructure.
“The Ukrainians have been attacking us from the very beginning, every passing day, maybe with two or three exceptions,” Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said, adding that Moscow would provide a list of Kyiv’s attacks from the past three weeks.
Andrii Sybiha, his Ukrainian counterpart, dismissed the claim saying on Saturday that Russia launched “almost 70 missiles, over 2,200 [exploding] drones, and over 6,000 guided aerial bombs at Ukraine, mostly at civilians” since agreeing to the limited pause on strikes.
He may not be the one to sit down with Vladimir Putin, but Keith Kellogg, President Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, summed up the horror of Sunday’s ballistic missile strikes on Sumy succinctly.
“Today’s Palm Sunday attack by Russian forces on civilian targets in Sumy crosses any line of decency,” he said.
“As a former military leader, I understand targeting and this is wrong.”
Ukraine war latest: At least 34 people killed
Vladimir Putin gave up on decency long before he started this war.
What he seems to be risking by attacks of this scale is Donald Trump‘s patience.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Russia launches strike on Ukraine
He does not seem to mind if strikes like this make a mockery of US attempts to bring the two warring parties to the table.
He does not seem to care if he alienates his US counterpart, who has been strangely predisposed to fawn over him to date.
Perhaps he is raising the stakes as high as he can to illustrate his strength of hand: Strikes on civilians damage Ukrainian morale – even if they are hardly battlefield wins – and on the battlefield, he is pushing ahead and does not want to stop.
At least 34 people, including two children, were killed in Sumy on Sunday. Pic: Reuters
Perhaps he knows that if he keeps up his military momentum, President Trump will tire of a conflict he realises he cannot solve and let the matter slip while staying true to his MAGA-economic priorities by letting funds for Ukraine dry up.
Perhaps he thinks President Trump is so keen on a rapprochement with Russia, on the big Putin-Trump bilateral, that the details, the civilian deaths along the way, will all be by-the-by when that long-sought photo-op finally happens.
Whatever it is, President Putin seems to be in no rush to get things settled.
His spokesman told a Russian state reporter on Sunday that talks were under way at several levels but that “of course, it is impossible to expect any instant results”.
Withdrawing his troops would get instant results. But that is not what Vladimir Putin wants.
Read more:
The art of doing a deal with Trump
2025 ‘critical year’ for Ukraine, warns official
His war economy is working for him, and he has the attention of the one country he considers a worthy adversary, the United States.
In the meantime, this attack reinforces why President Zelenskyy’s plea for air defence systems is his top priority. And why a ceasefire cannot come soon enough.
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