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The UN climate conference begins, accompanied by warnings of an escalating climate crisis. But many states haven’t done their homework. Can protests shake them up?
Glasgow – At the start of the World Climate Conference in Glasgow this Sunday, climate activists are calling for significantly more speed and ambition in the fight against the impending climate catastrophe.
Neubauer: “Knowingly rob perspectives”
None of the rich industrial nations, including Germany, are currently keeping their commitments to climate protection, said Luisa Neubauer from the environmental movement Fridays for Future of the German press agency. “They all knowingly rob the global South and the younger generations of their prospects. Where are the governments that are putting an end to this fraud? ”Asked the 25-year-old.
Six years have passed since the historic Paris climate protection agreement in 2015 – and emissions of climate-damaging greenhouse gases are now higher than ever, she denounced. “This conference must be the moment when this trend is reversed.” The activist, who is also a member of the Greens, announced that she will travel to Glasgow with hundreds of fellow campaigners.
25,000 arrive
In Glasgow, at the invitation of the United Nations, government representatives from around 200 countries spent two weeks discussing how mankind can still contain accelerated global warming to a tolerable level. Around 25,000 people are expected to arrive, including thousands of journalists and climate protection activists.
Environmental associations and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had previously criticized the fact that in the two years since the last UN conference in Madrid, many states had not tightened their plans for climate protection sufficiently and delayed the necessary rapid phase-out of coal, oil and gas. The man-made warming of the atmosphere through greenhouse gases is already ensuring that extreme weather increases. Examples are the recent floods in Germany, the drought in the Sahel zone in Africa or devastating forest fires in California and Russia.
Climate is also an issue at the G20
The fight against the climate crisis is also a topic in Rome on Sunday at the summit of the heads of state and government of the G20 group. Two important heads of state are not there, and they are also missing in Glasgow at the beginning of the week: Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not travel, officially because of the corona pandemic. China is the largest producer of climate-damaging greenhouse gases, while Russia’s economy is based on the export of gas and oil.
In Glasgow there were first protests by climate protection activists: Members of Ocean Rebellion lay half-naked under fishing nets near the River Clyde as “dead sea men” to draw attention to the dangers of marine life such as dolphins, sharks and whales. Thousands of activists who went to Glasgow on foot, including those from Germany, should also arrive on Saturday. A Spanish group took the ferry to Portsmouth in the south of England and hiked through Great Britain for 30 days from there.
Paris goals are missed
The earth has already warmed up by around 1.1 degrees compared to pre-industrial levels; in Germany it is already 1.6 degrees. In Paris six years ago, the international community agreed to limit global warming to a maximum of two degrees, better 1.5 degrees, if possible. So far, however, the plans submitted by the states are nowhere near enough.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had also denounced the blatant deficits in the fight against global warming – and urged the international community to catch up. “Humanity as a whole is 1: 5 behind at halftime,” said Johnson on Saturday on the flight to the G20 summit. “We have the opportunity to equalize, to save the position, to come back – but it will take a lot of strength,” he said after media reports.
Johnson draws a comparison with the Roman Empire
With a view to the inadequate commitments of the vast majority of states on climate protection, Johnson referred to history. “When something goes wrong, it can go wrong at an extraordinary rate,” he said. “You saw that with the fall of the Roman Empire, and I’m afraid that if we don’t manage to fight climate change, we could also see our civilization, our world, fall.”
Other important topics in Glasgow are trade between countries that have made progress in climate protection and the financing of damage and losses caused by global warming, especially in poorer countries. dpa
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