Chasm opens between COP26 words and climate action

"PINCH OF SALT"

Experts say that an accord by more than 100 nations to slash methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030 could have a real impact on short-term heating.

And India, the fourth-biggest emitter, announced its intention to ramp up renewables and reach net-zero by 2070.

International Energy Agency head Fatih Birol said this week that the pledges announced at COP26 - if fully implemented - could see warming limited to 1.8 degrees Celsius.

He stressed, however, that this required "governments to turn their pledges into clear and credible policy actions and strategies today".

British sources are already trailing the 1.8 degrees Celsius figure as a possible COP26 achievement.

But scientists say it is based on vague net-zero plans with few or no short-term emissions targets.

A senior diplomat told AFP that "most of the net-zero pledges are void of content".

Countries such as Australia and Saudi Arabia announced net-zero goals with "no plans to implement them and emissions going massively in the wrong direction", Simon Lewis, professor of global change science at University College London and the University of Leeds, told AFP.

"It's logical to take all pledges and convert them into a best estimate," he said.

"But you've got to take it with a huge pinch of salt and an enormous banner saying: Warning! This is unlikely to happen."

The UN says that the latest round of net-zero commitments will see emissions rise 13.7 per cent by 2030. To be 1.5 degrees Celsius compliant, they must fall 45 per cent by then.

Daniel Willis from Global Justice Now said that COP26 had "failed to adequately address the climate crisis".

He said that the summit had instead produced "inflated reporting of financial sums, rehashed spending pledges spun as new, and bizarre claims that leaders have managed to limit warming to 1.8 degrees Celsius based only on pledges without action".

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