Johnson To World Leaders: We Are One Minute To Midnight

Cop26 climate talks at serious risk of failure, says prime minister. Biden and Modi among politicians in Glasgow as crucial summit begins

The Cop26 climate summit is at risk of failure because countries are still not promising enough to restrict global temperature rises to below 1.5C, Boris Johnson has warned.

In a blunt admission after two days of preliminary talks at the G20 meeting of world leaders, the prime minister conceded little progress had been made – and that the conference was not on track to achieve a deal that kept the goal alive. He put the chances of success as “six out of 10”.

“Currently, let’s be in no doubt, we are not going to hit it and we have to be honest with ourselves,” Johnson said. The commitments being made so far were a “drop in the rapidly warming ocean”.

The prime minister will set out the scale of the challenge facing humanity as he opens the Cop26 leaders’ summit today attended by almost 200 national representatives, including the US president, Joe Biden, and India’s Narendra Modi, but missing key players such as China’s Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin of Russia.

He will tell gathered leaders that the world is at “one minute to midnight” in terms of keeping warming below 1.5C, with the United Nations predicting a rise of 2.7C on the current trajectory – which would lead to catastrophic consequences.

He gave his assessment after meetings with G20 leaders at a gathering in Rome, where he said their progress on climate change had only “inched forward”.

Only 12 have pledged to reach net-zero emissions “by or around 2050” . Several key nations – China and Saudi Arabia – are only formally pledging to meet that goal by 2060.