United States President Joe Biden urged fellow world leaders to take swift action to combat climate change on the first day of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. Biden said the world stood at an “inflection point” and the next decade provided an “enormous opportunity” to curb emissions. The 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was being held with the “eyes of history upon us,” Biden said.
“It’s simple: Will we act? Will we do what is necessary? Will we seize the enormous opportunity before us? Or will we condemn future generations to suffer,” Biden said.
The US president said “this decade that will determine the answer. and “Glasgow must be the kickoff of a decade of ambition and innovation to preserve our shared future.”
Terming climate crisis as the “the existential threat to human existence,” Biden called for an “equitable clean energy future” that would create “millions of good-paying jobs and opportunities around the world.”
He said reducing emissions and saving the planet was the “challenge of our collective lifetimes.”
The US had an “obligation” to help developing countries with clean energy transitions, Biden said, adding his administration is working with US Congress to quadruple the country’s climate finance support to developing countries by 2024.
Around 120 world leaders and thousands of delegates are attending the COP26 climate talks that will last till November 13.
At the ceremonial opening of the two-week-long COP26 summit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned world leaders that “we digging our own graves.”
Despite recent announcements by governments to curb climate change, Guterres said “we are still heading for climate disaster.”
Guterres said major economic powers, including China, should go the “the extra mile” because of their contributions to global greenhouse gas emissions.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who opened the summit, said the climate threat is not a movie — the doomsday device is real,” he warns. “The longer we wait, the worse it gets … it’s one minute to midnight on that doomsday clock and we need to act now.”