COP26 last chance to come to terms with climate crisis: Sharma

LONDON: Alok Sharma, the UK minister in charge of the COP26 climate summit talks in Glasgow in November, on Sunday warned that the meeting hosted by Britain later this year is the world’s last chance to get a grip on the climate crisis.

The Indian-origin cabinet minister, who is the president designate of the United Nations Climate Change Conference or COP26 in Glasgow in November, said that the world would face a climate catastrophe unless urgent action is agreed this year.

He also defended his recent hectic travel agenda, which came under some media criticism for his ministerial exemption from Covid-19 self-isolation rules on return from red list countries.

“You’re seeing on a daily basis what is happening across the world. Last year was the hottest on record, the last decade the hottest decade on record,” he told the ‘Observer’ newspaper.

“I don’t think we’re out of time but I think we’re getting dangerously close to when we might be out of time,” the UK minister said.

On his own travel, the minister said he was simply throwing everything at achieving a global consensus ahead of the talks in Glasgow.

“I have every week a large number of virtual meetings, but I can tell you that having in-person meetings with individual ministers is incredibly vital and actually impactful.

“It makes a vital difference, to build those personal relationships which are going to be incredibly important as we look to build consensus,” said the minister, who has travelled to countries such as Bangladesh and Bolivia in recent weeks.