Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Monday, Oct 06, 2025

UN COP26 Summit Begins In UK's Glasgow Amid Growing Climate Change Threat

UN COP26 Summit Begins In UK's Glasgow Amid Growing Climate Change Threat

The biggest hurdle facing COP26 may be the outcome of the G20 meeting of major economies in Rome this weekend, where leaders backed a 1.5-degree Celsius limit on global temperature rise but offered few new concrete commitments to achieve it.

With the UK hosts warning that "lights are flashing red on the climate change dashboard", the COP26 UN climate summit kicked off on Sunday in Glasgow, marked by pointed warnings of growing threats as emissions-cutting pledges still fail to add up.

"I do not underestimate the challenge" of reaching an effective deal to adequately slash emissions, Alok Sharma, Britain's COP26 president, told delegates at the talks' opening. But, he added, "I believe that we can resolve the outstanding issues."

Heavy rain poured down in Glasgow on the first day of COP26, and a fallen tree blocked train lines from London, forcing some red-faced delegates into last-minute flights or rental cars.

Others struggled to master the phone apps governing a daily coronavirus testing regime for attendees, some of whom showed up to the venue of one of the first major international gatherings since the start of the pandemic with negative tests in hand.

"This is not a normal COP," Sharma admitted.

But the biggest hurdle facing COP26 may be the outcome of the G20 meeting of major economies in Rome this weekend, where leaders backed a 1.5-degree Celsius limit on global temperature rise but offered few new concrete commitments to achieve it.

As world leaders arrive at the talks in Glasgow on Monday, more ambitious emissions-cutting pledges will be crucial for the COP26 hosts to meet their overarching goal to "keep 1.5 alive".

"If the G20 was a dress rehearsal for COP26, then world leaders fluffed their lines," Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International, said in a statement, describing the G20 outcome as "weak".

Alden Meyer, a senior associate at climate think-tank E3G, noted that "much hard work - especially on issues of climate finance - remains ahead, if COP26 is to reach agreement" on keeping the 1.5C goal in sight.

'OUT OF EXCUSES'


At the Glasgow conference's opening session, UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa admitted that the task of swiftly shifting the world's economy onto a greener trajectory, to avoid increasingly deadly climate impacts, was enormously difficult.

"The transition we need is beyond the scope, scale and speed of anything humanity has accomplished in the past. It is a daunting task. But humanity is a species defined by its ingenuity," she said.

She encouraged negotiators to "keep the big picture in mind" as they haggled over details on things like finance and carbon markets, reminding them to think of "what we are trying to achieve together..and the trust invested in you by billions".

Abdulla Shahid, president of the UN General Assembly, urged negotiators to "be honest with each other and with the rest of the world" about past failures to act fast enough on climate threats and to "choose the hard but necessary actions".

"We have run out of excuses. It is time to do the right thing," said Shahid, also foreign minister of the Maldives, a nation of low-lying Indian Ocean islands.

As the talks got underway, the World Meteorological Organization said that the last seven years had been the hottest on record and sea level rise reached a new high in 2021.

In a report released on Sunday, it called the changes "uncharted territory, with far-reaching repercussions for current and future generations".

Mayor Frank Cownie of the US city of Des Moines said changes were not just being seen in the poorer countries considered most vulnerable to climate change threats. His Midwestern city, in the US state of Iowa, has seen much more extreme weather in recent years, including 10 inches (250 mm) of rain falling in just three hours and hurricane-like 130 mph winds.

"This is a global catastrophe that we all need to jump on, (with) all hands on deck," said Cownie, president of ICLEI, an association of sustainable local governments.

"We have to prepare for the worst. That's sort of the new normal."

CITIES SET THE PACE


But cities and other local governments are often leading the way on low-carbon changes, and offer examples national governments can scale up, Ryuzo Sugimoto of Japan's Ministry of Environment, told a press conference with city officials.

He noted that 160 local government bodies in Japan, governing 17 million people, had made carbon-neutral commitments before Japan's national government followed suit last year.

Now, with the need to speed up large-scale emissions cuts by 2030 - on the way to net-zero by 2050 - the world requires a "decarbonisation domino effect", with local governments often good testing grounds for what is possible, Sugimoto said.

Susan Aitken, the leader of Glasgow's city council, said such changes also had to happen in a fair way, focused on "taking our citizens with us".

The decline of Glasgow's industrial might, starting 30 or 40 years ago, left the city with enduring mental and physical scars, she said, including a legacy of unemployment.

Now a rapid switch to a greener economy, based on clean power, needs to be far more just and inclusive, as governments invest "unprecedented sums" to tackle climate change, she said.

"Climate justice and social justice are indivisible," she added.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Syria Holds First Elections Since Fall of Assad
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
×