Scientists say that a climate apocalypse is still preventable, but only if very strong measures are taken without any further delay. This is the immense challenge facing the United Nations summit conference, being held this week.
Almost 200 countries were invited to take part in the latest annual summit - being held this year under the title COP29 in Azerbaijan.
Portugal’s former prime minister, now leader of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, spoke at the opening ceremony on Monday.“
“We are in the final countdown to limit global climate temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. And time is not on our side.”
Mr Guterres continued: “With the hottest day on record... the hottest months on record... this is most certainly going to be he hottest year on record."
“And a lesson in climate destruction: Families running for their lives before the next hurricane hits; workers and pilgrims collapsing under unbearable heat; Floods that devastate communities and infrastructures; Children who go to bed hungry as droughts devastate crops; And all of these catastrophes, and more, are being made worse by man-made climate change. And no country is spared.”
Many leaders have declined to attend the conference for one reason or another.
Neither President Biden nor Vice-President Harris is attending, though Biden sent an envoy who said: that global warming is “a life or death fight.”
President-elect Donald Trump is certainly not attending as he is not only in denial about global warming, but threatening to dismantle the international climate efforts started with the Paris Agreement.
Other absentees at the summit are said to include Britain’s dedicated environmentalist, King Charles lll, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, Russia’s President Putin, France’s President Macron, and Germany’s Chancellor Scollz. China is not represented by President Xi Jinping, but by his deputy, Han Zheng.
“It is hard to image a less plausible venue for the annual UN -sponsored conference than the dictatorial petrostate of Azerbaijan,” wrote Gwynne Dyer in the Portugal News. The eastern European country of Azerbaijan continues to export huge amounts of oil and gas, two of the fossil fuels massively harming the modern world. In recent years, Portugal has been energetically minimising its use of such fossil fuels.
The island state of Papua New Guinea has refused to take part in the summit, saying that it is “a waste of time.”
Island states are the most vulnerable in the world to climate change, due mainly to rising sea levels that are threatening to swamp them. Portugal is a particularly vulnerable mainland country ever-threatened by wildfires, drought, and flooding. Rising sea levels could completely saturate Portugal’s beautiful low-lying coastal areas, eradicating beaches along with the tourist economy.
Top of this week’s working agenda is the highly controversial financial deal needed for wealthy countries, to pay the poorer countries who are suffering worst because of the greenhouse gas emissions caused by China, North America, Russia, India and the richer European nations. In 2019, the richer nations promised to provide the poorer ones $100 billion (more than €94 billion) a year.
“The rich cause the problem, the poor pay the price,” said Mr Guterres.
Let’s see what the COP29 conference comes up with.
An update will be published here early next week.
Written by guest writer, Len Port
