Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, spoke after participating in the COP26 climate conference on Tuesday and urged the world “to guard against false hope”, according to media reports. 

Johnson said in a press conference, “We must take care to guard against false hope and not to think in any way that the job is done, because it is not – there is still a very long way to go”, as per a Reuters report.

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In a statement reflecting Johnson’s appreciation of “big businesses”, the Prime Minister of the host nation pointed out that just 1% of the world’s economy had aligned itself with the obligations of the Paris agreement when Scotland was picked as the COP26 venue. The number — which relates to improving 2030 emission targets– has now spiked to 80%. 

Johnson said, “Billions of dollars have been committed to supporting developing and vulnerable countries” adding that big businesses have now started playing a significant part.

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The British Prime Minister did not fail to point out the progress made after two days of diplomatic negotiations between world leaders — including United States President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazillian President Jair Bolosonaro– but did add a pinch of salt to his statements. 

Johnson said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the discussions at the climate summit and added that there was “still a very long way to go”, according to reports from BBC.

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“It is not just about putting better targets, bigger targets, it is about putting forward the plans to reach those targets. Billions of dollars have been committed to supporting developing and vulnerable countries”, Johnson said in the statement.

He added, “After just a couple of days, we can certainly begin to tick three of those boxes” while speaking about issues related to “cars, coal, cash and trees”.