The president of COP26, the British Alok Sharma, admitted on Tuesday that, although progress has been made, “there is still a mountain to climb” to reach an agreement at this climate summit that allows the objective of limiting to 1.5 degrees of global warming this century.
“We are making progress, but there is still a mountain to climb in the coming days. What has already been collectively agreed is progress but not all that is needed to keep the 1.5 degree target within reach,” he said, at the daily press conference of the British presidency.
The former minister said that “the gap in ambition” of the countries “has been shortened” but “what the world now needs is the confidence that the execution will be carried out and that the promises will be kept.”
“We have the opportunity to succeed,” said the conservative politician, who stressed that the transition to an environmentally sustainable economy is “technologically possible and economically attractive, and is accelerating everywhere.”
Sharma announced that a second draft of the political document (called “cover decision”) will be published on Wednesday that should mark the future course of the multilateral fight against climate change, in order to reach a final text before the closing of the conference. from Glasgow (Scotland) on Friday at 18 GMT.
“The time has come to find political consensus in the areas of divergence and we only have a few days left,” he declared, adding that the pending points are being debated at the ministerial level.
Negotiators from the 197 countries are discussing the possibility of annually reviewing the respective emission reduction targets and a system to verify that governments are meeting their commitments.
It is also negotiated how the financing destined to poor states, which suffer the greatest consequences of climate change, and the normative development of the Paris Agreement should be distributed.
Regarding the complaints of some NGO observers that they could not access the negotiations, Sharma maintained that “a way to expand access is being studied”, which is also possible through a digital platform, although there are “limitations (capacity ) for the covid and security issues “.
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