British Prime Minister Boris Johnson kickstarts COP26 climate summit, warns of ‘doomsday’
By Team Newsable | First Published Nov 1, 2021, 7:55 PM ISTAddressing leaders, he said we are in roughly the same position -- only now the ‘ticking doomsday device’ is not fiction.
Glasgow: Opening the COP26 global climate summit on Monday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the world is strapped to a “doomsday device.” Likening the ever-warming Earth’s position to that of fictional secret agent James Bond — Johnson said it is strapped to a bomb that will destroy the planet and trying to work out how to defuse it.
Addressing leaders, he said we are in roughly the same position -- only now the ‘ticking doomsday device’ is not fiction. The threat is climate change, triggered by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, and he pointed out that it all started in Glasgow with James Watt’s steam engine powered by coal, AP reported.
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The world leaders’ summit of a UN climate conference aims at getting agreement to curb carbon emissions fast enough to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) below pre-industrial levels. According to reports, the world has warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) already. Current projections based on planned emissions cuts over the next decade are for it to hit 2.7C (4.9F) by the year 2100.
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Johnson told the summit that the time for action is now as humanity had run down the clock when it comes to climate change. He pointed out that the generations most harmed by climate change aren’t yet born while more than 130 world leaders who gathered had an average age of over 60.
The AP report stated that Johnson has called for the end of coal-fired power plants and gasoline-powered cars along with a huge influx of cash from rich nations to poor to help them switch to greener economies and adapt to the worsening climate impacts.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also deliver an important speech at the COP26 summit today around 9 pm (IST).
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