Glasgow. The World Climate Conference in Glasgow, Scotland has now officially started with a slight delay. Under the chairmanship of Great Britain, government representatives from nearly 200 countries will hold talks for two weeks starting this Sunday on a more ambitious global climate policy. This event is organized by the United Nations. The official opening ceremony, which was delayed by almost an hour, began with a minute’s silence for the victims of the coronavirus pandemic.
“In Glasgow, the global community can and should clearly articulate open questions about the rules of international cooperation in climate protection. If that is successful, Glasgow could usher in a new phase of international climate cooperation. ,” said Acting Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schultz (SPD) at the start of the conference.
The focus should now be on concrete implementation of the climate goals. “There’s an urgent need: the world is still far from a 1.5-degree course,” Schultz said. This means that the primary goal of the signatory states is to keep global warming to less than 1.5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial era. Six years ago at the decisive World Climate Conference in Paris, the states made a binding agreement on this.
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Greta Thunberg: With Climate Train to Glasgow
Before the start of the World Climate Summit, Greta Thunberg arrived in Scotland, as did hundreds of other climate activists. © Reuters
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in the morning that he expected an “atmosphere of responsibility and ambition” to keep the Paris target alive.
Acting Federal Environment Minister Gerd Müller (CSU) also appealed to the global community to begin: “The global climate catastrophe is preventable. We have the technology and the knowledge, the only deciding factor is the global willingness to act decisively. “Industrialized countries “played the main responsibility for ecological and social global development,” explained Müller.
The state representatives want to hold talks with each other by November 12. About 25,000 people are expected to attend, including thousands of journalists and climate protection activists.
Central issues lie in the reduction of greenhouse gases between states and in funding the losses and damages caused by global warming, especially in poor countries.