The UN’s COP26 climate change summit due to take place in the Scottish city of Glasgow in November has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the British government said on Wednesday.
“In light of the ongoing, worldwide effects of COVID-19, holding an ambitious, inclusive COP26 in November 2020 is no longer possible,” the government said in a statement, adding that dates for a rescheduled conference next year would be announced later.
About 30,000 people, including 200 world leaders, had been due to attend the 10-day conference for talks.
Photo: AFP / 10 DOWNING STREET / PIPPA FOWLES
A UN panel in 2018 said that avoiding global climate chaos needed a major shift in society and the world economy.
Global carbon dioxide emissions needed to drop 45 percent by 2030 and reach “net zero” by 2050 to limit temperature rises at 1.5°C — a cap set as a goal in the Paris accord.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he supported the decision to postpone, as “the need to suppress the virus and safeguard lives is our foremost priority.”
“This dramatic human crisis is also an example of how vulnerable countries, societies and economies are to existential threats,” he said in a statement. “Countries must work to protect the health of people and the planet has never been more at risk.”
UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa said postponement was unavoidable, but that the pandemic should not divert the world from the climate change challenge.
“COVID-19 is the most urgent threat facing humanity today, but we cannot forget that climate change is the biggest threat facing humanity over the long term,” she said.
Climate activists recognized the need to delay the conference because of the global health crisis, but urged governments not to forget their climate commitments.
“While events can be postponed, climate change won’t pause even for a pandemic of epic proportions,” said Alden Meyer, a climate negotiations specialist.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
Russia early yesterday bombarded Ukraine, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France. A nationwide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine’s military said air defenses were operating in several places. In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building. Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, Kyiv Governor Mykola
RSS