‘Difficult questions’ await climate summit

It might be more difficult to reach a climate change deal at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) summit than it was to find consensus for the 2015 Paris Agreement, said the president of COP26, which will begin on Sunday in Glasgow.

Alok Sharma, who is in charge of the gathering, told The Guardian newspaper that he is under no illusions about the size of the task ahead.

“What we’re trying to do here in Glasgow is actually really tough,” said Sharma, who also is a United Kingdom minister of state at the Cabinet Office. “It was brilliant what they did in Paris, it was a framework agreement, (but) a lot of the detailed rules were left for the future.”

He said that with the need to iron out details now, the conference of 200 nations and territories, which will conclude on Nov 12, represents a global crunchtime.

“It’s like we’ve got to the end of the exam paper and the most difficult questions are left and you’re running out of time; the exam’s over in half an hour, and you go, ‘How are we going to answer this one?’” he said.

National leaders and negotiating teams will try to find ways to limit greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to ensure that the global increase in temperature does not exceed 1.5 C more than pre-industrial levels.

Most greenhouse gases are attributed to the burning of fossil fuels, so finding ways to limit the use of such fuels will be a major part of the talks. However, with nations consuming more fossil fuels today than ever, and with less-developed countries calling for developed nations to compensate them for the impact of climate change, there will likely be much compromising.

“This is definitely harder than Paris on lots of levels,” Sharma told

What we’re trying to do here in Glasgow is actually really tough. It was brilliant what they did in Paris, ... (but) a lot of the detailed rules were left for the future.”

Alok Sharma, the United Kingdom Cabinet minister and president of COP26

The Guardian. “(But) what we have going for us is that there is an understanding that we need to deal with this.”

The UK published its road map to reducing its carbon footprint last week. Its net-zero strategy calls for $90 billion in mainly private-sector investment to be directed at its environmental initiatives.

With Sharma highlighting the difficulty of the task ahead, climate activist Greta Thunberg told the BBC that people should not pin all their hopes on governments improving the situation.

“The change is going to come when people are demanding change,” she said. “So we can’t expect everything to happen at these conferences.”

She said she will attend the COP26 summit, and that committing to producing less carbon won’t be enough if countries “look for loopholes”.

With world leaders, senior politicians and officials heading for Glasgow, Scotland’s Daily Record newspaper said the security services are monitoring “more than 800 potential terrorists” over fears they may target the event.

MI5, the UK’s counterintelligence and security agency, said the UK terror threat level is currently “substantial”.