Sharma echoes Stiell call on world leaders to act despite current challenges

06 / 11 / 2022

By Marwa Nassar - -

Alok Sharma, President of COP26 representing the United Kingdom, echoed a call by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary Simon Stiell on world leaders to act, despite current geopolitical challenges.

Sharma passed the baton officially to the new Egyptian President, Sameh Shoukry, during the opening plenary.

Sharma reviewed the achievements made at Glasgow last year, such as finalizing the so-called Paris Rulebook – the the guidelines for how that Agreement is delivered – and making stronger finance commitments.

“The UN Secretary-General has said ‘our shared long-term futures do not lie in fossil fuels’, and I agree with him, wholeheartedly”, he said.

According to the COP26 President, if all commitments made last year, including the net-zero pledges, were to be implemented, the world would be on a path to 1.7 degrees Celsius warming by the end of the century.

“Still not 1.5C, but progress,” he said, recognizing the scale of the challenge that the world is facing.

“As challenging as our current moment is, inaction is myopic, and can only defer climate catastrophe, we must find the ability to focus on more than one thing at once”, he urged.