COP26 President Alok Sharma has said he wants “more out of every country” and now is the time to deliver on limiting temperature rises to below 1.5C.
Ahead of around 120 world leaders gathering at the event in Glasgow on Monday for a two-day summit, Mr Sharma urged them to do more to help the planet.
Speaking to Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday, Mr Sharma said: “My message to them is very clear, leave the ghosts of the past behind you and let’s focus on the future and unite around this one issue that we know matters to all of us, which is protecting our precious planet.”
He said the summit of world leaders at COP26 is very important for agreeing a consensus but added there are two whole weeks of “detailed negotiations” following that two-day summit – and without a deal “the future is really quite unimaginable”.
“This is a chance for all these countries to show leadership, this is the point where they have to stand up and be counted,” he said.
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“I want more out of every country.
“But I think the point is we have made progress and then we’re going to have to take stock on where there is a gap between where the commitments are and where we need to be.”
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He said it is important that leaders discuss how to close that gap over the next decade.
But he played down the significance of China and Russia’s leaders not turning up in Glasgow, saying they have “both announced net zero targets for the middle of the century” and that all countries need to show leadership on climate change.
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Sharma heckled during youth climate speech
However, he said the challenge at COP26 is more difficult than in Paris in 2015.
“Paris was a brilliant achievement, an historical achievement, but it was a framework agreement,” he said.
“What we have had to do since then is agree some of the detailed rules and some of the most difficult rules are still outstanding after six years. That makes it really challenging and, of course, we know that the geopolitics is more difficult than it was at the time of Paris.”
The government is hoping a detailed agreement will be made between countries around the world at the end of the fortnight of COP26.
Asked if Mr Sharma thinks it will end in a deal, he said: “That is what I’m driving towards and I think what I’ve always said is what we need to come out of Glasgow is saying with credibility that we have kept 1.5C alive.
“That 1.5C really matters.”
Image: Protests have already started in Glasgow
He added at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels there will be countries in the world that will be under water, which is why an agreement is needed on how to tackle climate change over the next decade.
Labour’s Emily Thornberry told Trevor Phillips on Sunday the summit is “not a giant photo opportunity” for Boris Johnson and called on him to “summon up all the statesmanship he has” to get countries to agree to a deal.
This year’s summit is particularly important as it will be the first time the parties will review the most up-to-date plans for how they will limit global warming to 2C but ideally 1.5C, a goal set under the Paris Agreement at COP21.
Ambitions to achieve that may be depleted as a draft joint statement by G20 leaders contains few concrete actions to limit carbon emissions, according to Reuters journalists who have seen the statement.
Boris Johnson told Sky News’ Beth Rigby on Saturday that success in the fight to tackle global warming “is going to be very difficult” but “the whole of humanity is in the ring”.
On Friday, he said “Team World” was “5-1” down at half-time in the battle to save the planet.
Former Conservative chairman and friend of Boris Johnson – Sir Jake Berry – is defecting to Reform UK, causing more problems for Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.
On today’s episode, Sky News’ Sam Coates and Politico’s Anne McElvoy discuss if his defection will divide parts of Reform policy.
Elsewhere, the Anglo-French summit gets under way, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hoping to announce a migration deal with French President Emmanuel Macron to deter small boat crossings.
Plus, chatter around Whitehall that No10 are considering a pre-summer reshuffle, but will it have any value?
The trial is part of Project Acacia, an initiative from the RBA exploring how digital money and tokenization could support financial markets in Australia.
Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron have agreed the need for a “new deterrent” to deter small boats crossings in the Channel, Downing Street has said.
The prime minister met Mr Macron this afternoon as part of the French president’s state visit to the UK, which began on Tuesday.
High up the agenda for the two leaders is the need to tackle small boat crossings in the Channel, which Mr Macron said yesterday was a “burden” for both the UK and France.
The small boats crisis is a pressing issue for the prime minister, given that more than 20,000 migrants crossed the English Channel to the UK in the first six months of this year – a rise of almost 50% on the number crossing in 2024.
Sir Keir is hoping he can reach a deal for a one-in one-out return treaty with France, ahead of the UK-France summit on Thursday, which will involve ministerial teams from both nations.
The deal would see those crossing the Channel illegally sent back to France in exchange for Britain taking in any asylum seeker with a family connection in the UK.
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However, it is understood the deal is still in the balance, with some EU countries unhappy about France and the UK agreeing on a bilateral deal.
French newspaper Le Monde reports that up to 50 small boat migrants could be sent back to France each week, starting from August, as part of an agreement between Sir Keir and Mr Macron.
A statement from Downing Street said: “The prime minister met the French President Emmanuel Macron in Downing Street this afternoon.
“They reflected on the state visit of the president so far, agreeing that it had been an important representation of the deep ties between our two countries.
“Moving on to discuss joint working, they shared their desire to deepen our partnership further – from joint leadership in support of Ukraine to strengthening our defence collaboration and increasing bilateral trade and investment.”
It added: “The leaders agreed tackling the threat of irregular migration and small boat crossings is a shared priority that requires shared solutions.
“The prime minister spoke of his government’s toughening of the system in the past year to ensure rules are respected and enforced, including a massive surge in illegal working arrests to end the false promise of jobs that are used to sell spaces on boats.
“The two leaders agreed on the need to go further and make progress on new and innovative solutions, including a new deterrent to break the business model of these gangs.”
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, seized on the statement to criticise Labour for scrapping the Conservatives’ Rwanda plan, which the Tories claim would have sent asylum seekers “entering the UK illegally” to Rwanda.
He said in an online post: “We had a deterrent ready to go, where every single illegal immigrant arriving over the Channel would be sent to Rwanda.
“But Starmer cancelled this before it had a chance to start.
“Now, a year later, he’s realised he made a massive mistake. That’s why numbers have surged and this year so far has been the worst in history for illegal channel crossings.
“Starmer is weak and incompetent and he’s lost control of our borders.”