SENIOR Tory ministers have been accused of being "missing in action" with 100 days until the COP26 climate conference with calls for the UK Government to step up climate action.
The UN summit in November that will be hosted in Glasgow is being described as the most important since the Paris Agreement – the world’s first comprehensive treaty on tackling climate change – was secured at talks in France in 2015.
That resolution commits countries to curb global temperature rises to 2C above pre-industrial levels and also pursue a tougher target of 1.5C - now seen as the threshold beyond which the worst impacts of global warming will be felt.
Climate-driven killer heatwaves, floods and wildfires are gripping parts of the world as the 100-day milestone is reached, with warnings that the crisis will worsen without urgent efforts to slash emissions.
While the UK Government is urging other nations to accelerate the "green transition" to cleaner economies and avert dangerous climate change, campaigners are saying more needs to be done.
READ MORE: Scotland gives international pledge on climate change ahead of COP26
The Climate Coalition have accused Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak of being “missing in action” ahead of ministers gathering in London to discuss plans for the summit.
An alliance of organisations ranging from the National Trust to Oxfam and the RSPB, The Climate Coalition is calling for urgent restoration of the natural world, green jobs, unlocking money from wealthier countries to support poorer nations, and no new fossil fuel projects.
Ben Margolis, interim director of the group, said time was quickly running down to the UN climate talks – the biggest diplomatic event in the UK for decades and essential to limiting warming to 1.5C or less.
“The Prime Minister has pledged that the UK will show global leadership on climate change.
“Yet despite this, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak are most noticeable for being missing in action and failing to deliver real, concrete progress to tackle the nature and climate emergencies.
“In order to deliver on that pledge, every arm of government needs to step up,” he urged.
Greenpeace UK’s policy director, Doug Parr, said that as hosts of the talks, the UK needed to get its own house in order.
“This starts by ripping up plans for the new Cambo oil project in the North Sea, along with a commitment to end all new fossil fuel projects immediately and support workers to transition.
READ MORE: Climate activists hold sit-in at UK Government building over Shetland oil field
“Rolling out a nationwide energy efficiency programme and plans to decarbonise home heating must swiftly follow.”
He said that anything less and the UK’s targets for cutting emissions, by 68% by 2030 on the road to 100% cuts by 2050, “will remain blatantly hollow and jeopardise the talks altogether”.
COP26 is being described by the talks’ president, Alok Sharma (below), as the “last best chance” to keep alive a 1.5C warming limit – which requires the world to slash carbon by 45% by 2030 on the road to reaching zero emissions overall, or net zero, by mid-century.
READ MORE: Key themes for COP26 climate conference revealed in timetable
It also needs to deliver on a long-promised 100 billion US dollars (£73bn) a year to help developing countries deal with climate change, ensure a green recovery from the pandemic and address issues around delivering the Paris Agreement.
Sharma said: “COP26 is our last best hope of avoiding the worst effects of climate change, and we cannot afford to fail.
“Over the next 100 days, we need all governments to accelerate the green transition, so that we leave Glasgow with a clear plan to limit global warming to 1.5C.
“This will set the course of this decisive decade for our planet and future generations.”
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