“These headlines will not save the planet,” said Harjeet Singh of the Climate Action Network, which includes more than 1,500 organizations from around the world, in Glasgow on Wednesday. So far, more than 100 countries in various alliances have announced that they want to stop deforestation and significantly reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas methane.
Some of the announcements made so far have been encouraging, but all in all, they are nowhere near enough to put the world on the targeted 1.5-degree path. “There is a lot of devil in the details,” said Singh. According to the United Nations, the world is heading towards 2.7 degrees global warming with its current plans.
Climate justice must be the focus of the conference. “The people who are already suffering today also need support today,” said Singh. Among other things, it is about the 100 billion dollar pledge of the rich industrialized countries to poorer developing countries, which was confirmed in the Paris Climate Agreement. This money should actually have been flowing every year since 2020, but now the sum is only to be reached for the first time in 2023.
The activist Greta Thunberg made fun of the declarations of intent in her own way, which she had already criticized as “blah, blah, blah” in the past. “I’m happy to announce that I’ve decided to strive for zero net for swear words,” tweeted the 18-year-old. “In the event that I should say something inappropriate, I undertake to compensate for this with nice words.” Thunberg is known for her haunting words in the fight against the climate crisis, but not for swearing. In Glasgow, however, she had occasionally used swear words in speeches, to which she might be referring.