THE PLANET’S HAD ENOUGH HOT AIR, IT’S... TIME TO STEP UP!
■ BIDEN TELLS WORLD LEADERS IT’S A DECISIVE DECADE FOR US ALL TO TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE ■ BUT GREENPEACE WARNS THAT TARGETS ON THEIR OWN WILL NOT LEAD TO EMISSION CUTS
FORTY world leaders have met for an extraordinary online summit to save the planet from catastrophic climate change – with US president Joe Biden telling them it was time to ‘step up’.
The group – including Boris Johnson, European heads and leaders of China, Russia and India – met amid warnings of more extreme weather, food shortages and, ultimately, human extinction.
Many promised bold new targets as Mr Biden, hosting a virtual event due to the global pandemic, said: ‘Scientists tell us this is the decisive decade. We must make decisions to avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis.’
But critics including Greenpeace said targets meant nothing without radical action. ‘This summit has seen more targets than an archery competition,’ its UK
head of climate Kate Blagojevic said. ‘Targets, on their own, won’t lead to emissions cuts. That takes real policy and money. And that’s where the whole world is still way off course.’
And Greta Thunberg – the world’s most famous climate activist – said: ‘We can have as many summits as we want but as long as we are not treating the crisis as a crisis we will not be able to achieve major changes.’
Critics also said leaders spouted hot air by not giving details of promises – and pointed out most will be out of power when the deadlines are up.
Kicking off the two-day event on Earth Day, Mr Biden vowed to cut US emissions by up to 52 per cent by the end of this decade, twice its previous commitment and below 2005 levels.
Russian president Vladimir Putin, India’s PM Narendra Modi and EU leaders offered support, with Canada’s Justin Trudeau and Japan’s Yoshihide Suga vowing to ramp up pledges.
President Xi Jinping, of the world’s biggest polluter China, urged nations to ‘commit to harmony between man and nature’ adding: ‘To protect the environment is to protect productivity.’
Even Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro – criticised for destruction of the rainforest in his term – insisted his nation would be carbon neutral by 2050, adding: ‘You can count on Brazil.’
German chancellor Angela Merkel had a dig at former president Donald Trump, who called global warming a hoax invented by China, saying she was ‘delighted to see that the US is back to work together with us’.
Mr Johnson told summit leaders to be ‘original and optimistic’, with green technology offering a way out of the crisis without huge sacrifices or shrinking economies. ‘Cake, have, eat is my message to you,’ he said.
Surreally, he added: ‘It’s vital for us to show it’s not about some expensive, politically correct green act of bunny hugging or however you want to put it. There’s nothing wrong with bunny hugging, but you know what I’m driving at, friends and colleagues. This is about growth and jobs’.
Earlier this week, the PM upped the UK’s own commitments, vowing to cut greenhouse gas emissions 78 per cent by 2035. But he is yet to say how.
Pope Francis also addressed the leaders, wishing them ‘great success’ and adding: ‘We need to ensure the environment is cleaner, more pure. It must be preserved. We need to care for nature so nature may care for us.’
The summit – a huge technical task – featured hitches familiar to many who Zoomed in lockdown. France’s Emmanuel Macron was interrupted by Indonesian president Joko Widodo saying ‘Thank you’ – then cut short by Vladimir Putin who appeared for several seconds waiting to speak but unaware he was on screen.