The UN Climate Summit COP26 got under way on Monday with "doomsday" warnings from world leaders and environmentalists. But there were also renewed commitments to tackle climate change. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that his country would achieve net-zero by 2070, two decades later than the summit's target. India is the world's fourth-biggest carbon emitter and before now had not announced a plan to reach net-zero. Scores of heads of state spoke about what their country is going to do about the threat of global warming. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced that his government would increase its climate funding by 50 percent in the next few years. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, meanwhile, called for the introduction of global carbon pricing. And while opening the summit, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson compared global warming to "a doomsday device" strapped to humanity. And UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres added, "We are digging our own graves." Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pulled out of the conference at the last minute. And Xi Jinping, president of top carbon polluting nation China, and Russian President Vladimir Putin won't be in Glasgow. G20 leaders in Rome only offered vague climate pledges, saying they would seek carbon neutrality "by or around mid-century.'' The key takeaway of the day was Modi's announcement that India will reach net zero by 2070 — 20 years after COP26 target India is the world's fourth-biggest carbon emitter and before now had not announced a plan to reach net-zero. But, Modi added, while India has 17 percent of the world's population, it is responsible for only around 5 percent of total emissions. He also outlined five major promises by 2030 saying they represented "unprecedented commitment by India". • 50 per cent of energy will come from renewable sources • Increase non-fossil fuel energy capacity to 500GW • Reduce total projected carbon emissions by 1 billion tons • Reduce the carbon intensity of India's economy by 45 percent • Achieving the previously mentioned target of net-zero by 2070 The Indian prime minister marked his country's success since 2015, stating: "Today the entire world acknowledges that India is the only big economy in the world that has delivered in letter and spirit to its Paris commitments." In a video message, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II said, "the time for words has now moved to the time for action." The monarch said she hoped that the conference would be "one of those rare occasions where everyone will have the chance to rise above the politics of the moment, and achieve true statesmanship." "History has shown that when nations come together in common cause, there is always room for hope," she said in the video, which was recorded on Friday at Windsor Castle. Outside the negotiations, youth climate activist Greta Thunberg accused world leaders of "pretending to take our future seriously." "Change is not going to come from inside there," Thunberg said, "We say no more blah-blah-blah." The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reiterated Europe's ambition to become the first climate-neutral continent at the COP26. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the international climate negotiations, she said countries had to "speed up our race to net zero. We're running out of time." She pushed for other rich countries to aid poorer nations as much as Europe does and put a price on carbon emissions because "nature cannot pay that price anymore." Also US President Joe Biden urged world leaders to tackle the climate crisis, saying there is "no more time to hang back" or "argue amongst ourselves" about the peril facing the planet. "Glasgow must be the kickoff of a decade of ambition," Biden told world leaders. He said the crisis also offered an opportunity to "make a generational investment" to grow economies around the globe. The US leader also said he wants to do more to help countries around the world to address the challenges caused by climate change. — Euronews
