News sources quoted from: The United Nations
Media www.rajawalisiber.com -Ahead of the opening of COP26, UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward, told reporters, “we are, as we know, at the point of no return. So emitters cannot put their heads in the sand any longer.”
Speaking to reporters in New York today (28 Oct), Ambassador Woodward echoed her Prime Minister’s call on ‘Cash, Cars, Coal, Trees’ for climate actions. She noted that there are still big gap “between the national determined contributions that we need and those we got delivered, between the pledges we got and the policies that were underpinned.”
She added, “the finance that we need moving from a combustion engine to electrical vehicles, moving away from coal and planting trees to get us back the lung that our planet needs.”
The British Ambassador also said, “countries like Samoa are absolutely at the forefront of a crisis which they did not create, those who have contributed the least, like Samoa, are really doing the most so far in response and already we have seen 21 Small Island developing States submit enhanced NDC, and we very much welcome that.”
Ambassador Fatumanava-o-Upolu III Pa’olelei Luteru, from Samoa also spoke to reporters. He reiterated, “the 1.5 degree, for us that is not negotiable. For us, it is a red line that we cannot and must not cross.”
He explained, “I think the implication and the consequences of going beyond is not something that we should anticipate, and it will be catastrophic for not us, not only us in the Pacific, but for everyone.”
On Ocean, the Ambassador highlighted “this is an area of critical importance to us in the Pacific, for obvious reasons. We are surrounded by it, it links all our countries, and there are also implications that exist between climate change and sea level rise, we will have implications for our Small Island States in the future in terms of loss of State route, as well as sovereignty, erosion of our maritime soil, etc.”
The UK will host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow on 31 October – 12 November 2021.
The COP26 summit will bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
UN Photo/Manuel Elías