Politics

COP26: World’s main blocs divided but with one common goal

Glasgow, UK, Nov 1 (EFE).- The COP26 climate conference being held in Glasgow will review the progress made since the 2015 Paris Agreement and seek out fresh commitments to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Leading the path towards sustainability, the European Union has set the goal of cutting its greenhouse emissions by 55 percent by 2030 compared to levels in 1990 and reaching carbon neutrality.

The UK shares the same goals of reaching zero emissions by 2050 by reducing emissions by 68 and 76 percent by 2030 and 2035 respectively.

The US, which has rejoined the Paris Agreement under President Joe Biden after his predecessor Donald Trump controversially withdrew, wants to lower its emissions by 53 percent compared to 2005 and achieve carbon neutrality by mid-century.

China, the world’s biggest polluter since 2006, has boosted its objectives since the Paris accords, hoping to reach carbon neutrality by 2060, even though it expects to mark its emissions peak before 2030.

The Asian giant, whose president Xi Jinping is taking part in the event via videoconference, has recently announced that it will stop investing in coal plants abroad.

Brazil, whose president Jair Bolsonaro has overseen an increase in industrial activity in the Amazon by rolling back environmental protection policies, has promised to end deforestation by 2030 and to get rid of CO2 in 2050, a target that Russia, the world’s fourth polluter, is aspiring to achieve in 2060.

India, the third greenhouse gas producer in the world, has not set a date to reach neutrality.

South Africa, the fifth member of the BRICS nations, will limit its greenhouse emissions to 510 million metric tons in 2025 and less than 420 million in 2030, up from 471.6 million tons in 2019.

Pre-summit agreements have also proliferated in other large developed economies as Japan, the world’s fifth-largest emitter of CO2, aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 46 percent by 2030.

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