‘Will you help us?’: PM urges world leaders to hit phones in search of COP26 deal, as US and China promise late breakthrough
UK Prime Minister also calls on countries to ‘move beyond coal and hydrocarbons’ as UN climate talks enter crunch final stage
Boris Johnson has called on his fellow world leaders to call their diplomatic teams in Glasgow and instruct them to ensure an historic deal gets “over the line” in the final days of COP26, warning that the “backlash from people will be immense and long lasting, and frankly we will deserve their criticism and opprobrium” if the chance to secure an ambitious agreement is squandered.
With COP26 talks on a knife edge, the UK Prime Minister travelled to Glasgow today to meet with negotiating teams and urge them to thrash out an agreement over the next 48 hours that could mark “the beginning of the end of anthropogenic climate change”.
His appearance came just ahead of a dramatic announcement from the US and China that the two countries delegations have signed a new joint declaration promising sweeping bilateral co-operation to accelerate climate action.
Dubbed the ‘Glasgow Declaration’, it also signals that current COP26 negotiations should call on countries to take “ambitious action during this critical decade to keep the [Paris Agreement temperature limit] within reach, including as necessary communicating or updating 2030 NDCs and long-term strategies”.
The hope is that the bilateral agreement can help break deadlocks on a number of fronts that are threatening to stall progress towards an ambitious deal, ahead of the anticipated publication of new draft negotiating texts overnight.
Speaking earlier, Johnson acknowledged that while there had been a flurry of “game-changing announcements” on methane, deforestation and finance last week, the Summit was now “firmly in the hard yards of international diplomacy”, adding that “with a few days left there is still a huge amount to do”.
“The line is in sight, but if we are going to get there, we need a determined push to get us over the line,” he said, suggesting the talks had got stuck in a “rolling maul”. “We need to be more ambitious, and we need more credible plans for implementation,” he added. “We have to bridge the gap between where we are and where we need to be, if we are going to cut emissions in half by 2030. And we need to pull out all the stops if we are going to do what we came here to do, and that’s to keep 1.5 alive and make Paris the success that the world needs it to be.”
As such, Johnson issued a direct plea to world leaders – many of whom left the Glasgow last week after delivering their speeches during the opening stage of the Summit – to hit the phones in order to help unlock an ambitious set of climate agreements in the coming days.
“For world leaders who are now back in their capitals [I ask you] to pick up the phone to their teams here and give them the negotiating margin – give them the space in which to manoeuvre – to get this done,” he said.
“Here in Glasgow the world is closer than it has ever been to signalling the end to anthropogenic climate change,” he added. “My question to my fellow world leaders this afternoon, as we enter the last hours of COP, is: Will you help us do that? Will you help us grasp that opportunity, or will you stand in the way?”
The PM’s reappearance at the Summit in Glasgow came just ahead of the announcement of the US-China Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s, which saw the world’s two biggest economies promise to undertake “enhanced climate actions” that raise ambition in the 2020s within the context of the Paris Agreement.
The document notes that despite “significant efforts” made around the world to address the climate crisis, there remains a “sizeable gap” between progress to date and the action needs to be taken to achieve the Paris Agreement. As such, the world’s two largest emitters have declared their intention to work individually, jointly, and with other countries within the current decade to strengthen and accelerate climate action and cooperation to close the gap – “particularly through stepped-up efforts”.
The document states China and the US plan to launch a joint push over the crucial last days of the Glasgow Summit to secure progress on completing the Paris Agreement rulebook for Article 6 on carbon markets and Article 13 on transparency, as well as ‘common timeframes’ for the submission of national climate action plans, or nationally determined contributions (NDCs) in UN jargon.
The US and China said they want to see “an ambitious, balanced, and inclusive outcome on mitigation, adaptation, and support” at COP26, noting that the conference must send a “clear signal” that parties will deliver on the decarbonisation and financial pledges made under the Paris Agreement.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the new bilateral agreement, declaring that “tackling the climate crisis requires international collaboration and solidarity” and hailing the deal as “an important step in the right direction”.
The dramatic developments late this afternoon come in the wake of the first draft decision texts, that were released this morning by the UK COP Presidency, and which negotiators are now tasked with finalising in the hope of achieving consensus on a deal by the end of the week.
The next drafts of the decision texts are expected sometime overnight before another official stocktake on the state of the negotiations tomorrow morning.
But reaction to the initial cover texts – which are certain to change in the coming days as countries fight over a number of contentious issues – has been decidedly mixed, with a number of NGO observers and green groups bemoaning “weak” language on mechanisms to ramp-up climate efforts in the 2020s.
There are also concerns surrounding sections on transparency, adaptation finance, loss and damage, and climate finance, with many less-developed nations seeking far stronger processes for pushing richer countries to step up levels of climate finance to help them cope with worsening climate impacts.
Reports this afternoon indicated India is seeking $1tr in climate finance from developed nations in order to support its new strategy of delivering net zero emissions by 2070, while earlier this week the African group of countries called for overall climate finance for developing nations to increase seven-fold to $700bn a year from 2025 onwards.
Speaking during his press conference, Johnson acknowledged that the delivery of a deal on climate finance was the “solvent” that could unlock an ambitious agreement on multiple fronts.
Calls in the texts for countries to “accelerate the phasing-out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels” are also understood to have met fierce resistance from certain countries’ negotiating teams, and the COP Presidency will have a fight on its hands to keep this in the final decision text.
Saudi Arabia is one of the fossil fuel-reliant countries which has been specifically accused by observers of seeking to derail talks in Glasgow this week, particularly with regards to discussions on transparency measures and efforts to accelerate decarbonisation efforts ahead of 2025.
But Johnson refused to be drawn on which specific countries where blocking progress in the talks. “I don’t want to single out individual countries for chivvying and hectoring now,” he said. “I think everyone can see delicate balance of the negotiations.”
Elsewhere, discussions over Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, the section which governs carbon markets and offsetting rules, appear to be progressing rather more smoothly. There is still some way to go, but at present observers harbour cautious optimism that compromises over issues that have dogged UN climate talks for several years could finally be found in Glasgow this week.
Talks are set to continue late into the evening and over the next few days, and despite the huge gaps to fill in the negotiating texts over the coming days, COP26 President Alok Sharma has remained steadfast in his demands for the Summit to finish on time on Friday evening.
Insiders, meanwhile, insist the “mood music” around the negotiations is broadly positive, and the hope is that the US-China agreement could give the talks a further boost, given it provides tacit support for many of the areas the UK hosts believe could result in an ambitious agreement.
Business figures have also been keeping tabs on the progress of crunch talks in Glasgow this week, with many aligning with NGO observers in calling for clearer, more robust processes and regular pressure points for countries to come forward with more ambitious climate plans in the 2020s.
“As we move into the final stages of the summit, a lot more commitment and action is needed if this is to be a successful COP,” said Kiran Sura, sustainability and climate change expert at consulting giant PwC. “Success would entail leaving Glasgow having mandated for five year common timeframes for NDCs, an enhanced transparency framework that ensures accountability while also providing flexibility for developing countries, and an international carbon market that preserves the environmental integrity of the Paris Agreement.
“It will also be important to conclude COP26 with a clear plan for continued engagement with the broader non-state actor community, including the establishment of a rigorous and transparent framework for measuring action. We have seen some progress – but time is ticking.”
Maria Mendiluce, CEO of the We Mean Business coalition, stressed that clarity on timelines and specific policy measures were crucial to help unlock much needed investment from the private sector to drive the net zero transition.
“Business welcomes that for the first time at COP26, countries have included the need to accelerate the phase out of coal and fossil fuel subsidies in the latest draft text,” she said. “However, we now urge countries to align with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5C. We encourage countries to hear the call of hundreds of companies to phase out call by 2030 in advanced economies and 2040 for other countries, and remove all fossil fuel subsidies by 2040. Business needs these specifics to go all in for scaling up renewable power.”
Meanwhile, on the sidelines of the Summit tomorrow the initial backers are set to be announced for the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance led by Costa Rica and Denmark, which calls on countries to commit to phasing out fossil fuels entirely by 2050.
Asked earlier whether the UK would be joining the pledge, Boris Johnson did not directly answer, but said that “what we want to do is move beyond hydrocarbons in the UK and do so as quickly as possible”.
“We’ll look at what Denmark and Costa Rica are proposing,” he added. “I would encourage everyone to move beyond coal and hydrocarbons.”
