China has outlined a plan to hit peak greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade, releasing a long-awaited blueprint just days ahead of the UN’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.
The world’s biggest energy consumer was the latest country to launch new climate policies ahead of COP26. Australia also set net-zero emissions goals on Tuesday, following another laggard, Saudi Arabia, at the weekend. Those plans rely on the continued production of fossil fuels.
They joined the dozens of other countries that have formed new climate pledges in the summit run-up, in the effort to limit global warming to below 2C since pre-industrial times, or ideally 1.5c.
However, it was announced that Queen Elizabeth will not attend the summit. Buckingham Palace said that the 95-year-old monarch, who last week spent a night in hospital, “regretfully” would no longer visit Glasgow for a reception on Monday evening.
“Her Majesty is disappointed not to attend the reception but will deliver an address to the assembled delegates via a recorded video message,” the palace said.
The preparations for the summit came as the UN secretary-general warned that, even with the new pledges, countries were still “utterly failing” to keep the goals of the Paris climate accord within reach.
“We are still on track for climate catastrophe,” Ant6nio Guterres said as he criticized the lack of detail in many climate plans, without singling out any specific country.
“These announcements are for 2050 [or 2060], so it is not clear how they will materialise,” he said, adding: “Obviously an announcement for 2060, without a program for how to get there, well, it has the value that it has.”
Existing climate plans put the world on track for 2.7C of warming by 2100, far beyond the goals of the Paris climate pact, according to the latest report from the UN Environment Programme released this week.