GLASGOW (Reuters) – COP26, a U.N. conference critical to averting the most disastrous effects of climate change, is running for the first two weeks of November.
Here are some quotes from participants and observers on Tuesday, Nov. 9:
COP PRESIDENT ALOK SHARMA
“We are making progress at COP26 but we still have a mountain to climb over the next few days. And what has been collectively committed to goes some way, but certainly not all the way, to keeping 1.5 (degrees global warming limit) within reach. The gap in ambition has narrowed.
“Now the world needs confidence that we will shift immediately into implementation, that the pledges made here will be delivered, and that the policies and investment will swiftly followed.”
U.S. CONGRESSWOMAN ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ
“We’re just here to say that we’re not just back. We’re different and we’re more just. And we are more open-minded to questioning prior assumptions of what is politically possible,” she told a side event at the climate conference.
“And I would argue that it’s a fundamentally different approach.”
SIMON KOFE, TUVALU FOREIGN MINISTER
“We’re actually imagining a worst-case scenario where we are forced to relocate or our lands are submerged.”
BRAZIL ENVIRONMENT MINISTER JOAQUIM PEREIRA LEITE
“Now is the big moment for European countries, rich countries like the G7 to also make a clear move to reach a solution, and the solution is economic, it’s financial.”
“There are four days now of a lot of negotiations… we will firstly defend Brazil’s interests but seek a global consensus.”
HARJEET SINGH OF NGO CLIMATE ACTION NETWORK
“We’ve been too slow on mitigation and adaption, and so now we have this big and growing problem of loss and damage.”
MUTSUYOSHI NISHIMURA, FORMER SENIOR JAPANESE GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL AND CHIEF CLIMATE CHANGE NEGOTIATOR
“For pro-coal corporate Japan, what’s more important is business, not the planet.”
“It’s sad to see there is no vision for a better, more sustainable and more competitive Japan.”
(Compiled by Barbara Lewis; Editing by Andrei Khalip)
