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This is the year countries have to start to take seriously the climate change issue and Prime Minister Boris Johnson is going to remind world leaders of that during a virtual summit.
Boris Johnson at the climate summit
The Leaders Summit on Climate convened by US President Joe Biden is taking virtually place on April 22 and 23. The aim is to encourage countries to increase their efforts to combat climate change. The world needs a clear step change both in action and policies to cut gas emissions.
International Energy Agency has lately forecast a huge increase in global carbon emissions. After a significant decrease in 2020 due to the pandemic, in 2021 pollution levels will come back to the 2019 ones.
Boris Johnson to speak at climate summit
That’s the reason why Boris Johnson intends urge world leaders to a stronger commitment to the fight against climate change. In his speech, the Prime Minister will point out that a growing economy is compatible with decreasing gas emissions. So the issue seems to be more political than technical, but the 2020s must be the decade of change.
Mr Johnson has already announced an ambitious plan for UK: emissions should be cut by 78 per cent on 1990 levels by 2035. With this new target, UK comes forward as world-leading example in the fight against climate change.
New climate targets worldwide
Joe Biden is also expected to set a new target: US will halve greenhouse gas emissions on 2005 levels by 2030. The proposal is part of a new national climate plan in order to return to the Paris climate accord and restore an environmental policy, severed by former president Donald Trump.
Leaders of major economies, including Russia, India and Australia, will take part in the summit. Also China participates in the meeting, having released a joint statement with US, where the two nations commit to combat climate change. Japan and Canada will presumably announce new climate targets, while European Union has recently agreed a new law to slash emissions by 55 per cent on 1990 levels by 2030.
Among the others, speeches from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Pope Francis are eagerly awaited.
The summit will discuss many topics like increasing climate action, the role of natural solutions, security impacts of climate change and finance for developing countries. The event, which aims to boost ambition on climate action, will be a testing field before UN Cop26 talks in Glasgow in November.