PM calls end to the ‘chainsaw massacre’
THE Prime Minister has said leaders at Cop26 have begun to create “a sense of how actually you can deliver” on cutting CO2 targets, as set out at the Paris summit.
Speaking at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow, Boris Johnson said: “I was at Paris and I remember what it was like. We had this great sense that we had agreed this thing that we were going to try and cut CO2 together. But it was also a slightly floaty feeling because we didn’t know how on earth we were going to do it.
“There was no roadmap, there was no very clear sense of how you could do it.
“I think what you’re starting to see here at Cop26 in Glasgow is a sense of how actually you can deliver those cuts in CO2, but there is a long way to go.”
He added: “If there’s one thing that starts to give me confidence or optimism, it’s that we are starting to create – for the countries that find it most difficult to transition away from fossil fuels – we’re starting to create those coalitions of support to help them to move on.”
Earlier Mr Johnson hailed a pledge by more than 100 international leaders to end the “great chainsaw massacre” of the world’s forests. On the second day of the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, 110 nations – covering 85% of the world’s forests – signed a declaration to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030.
The Prime Minister said the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C cannot be achieved without protecting the natural environment and ending the “devastating” loss of forests which are the “lungs of our planet”.
“Let’s end this great chainsaw massacre by making conservation do what we know it can do, and that is deliver long-term sustainable jobs and growth as well,” he said.
Downing Street said the pledges have been backed by £8.75 billion of public funding with a further £5.3 billion in private investment.
It includes 2 billion US dollars (£1.47 billion) from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for land restoration in Africa – double what he previously committed just a day earlier at an event with the Prince of Wales.
COP26: Pledge on methane levels - P27