UNITED NATIONS • World leader after world leader yesterday told the United Nations that they will do more to prevent a warming world from reaching even more dangerous levels, but as they made their pledge, they conceded it was not enough.
Sixty-six countries have promised to have more ambitious climate goals and 30 swore to be carbon neutral by mid-century, said Chilean President Sebastian Pinera Echenique, who is hosting the next climate negotiations later this year.
Heads of nations such as Germany and Finland promised to ban coal within a decade.
United States President Donald Trump made an unscheduled brief stop, listening attentively as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke and German Chancellor Angela Merkel made detailed pledges, including going coal-free. He then left without saying anything.
In an emotional speech, 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg chided the leaders with the repeated phrase: "How dare you?"
"This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here," she said.
"I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you have come to us young people for hope. How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words."
She told the UN that even the strictest emission cuts being talked about gives the world only a 50 per cent chance of limiting future warming to another 0.4 deg C from now, which is a global goal.
"We will not let you get away with this," she said. "Right now is where we draw the line."
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the Climate Action Summit by saying: "Earth is issuing a chilling cry: Stop."
He told the gathered leaders that it was not a time to negotiate but to act to make the world carbon neutral by 2050.
At present, only around 20 countries have incorporated the pledge to have "net zero" carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 into their national law or made concrete policy plans to implement it.
Mr Guterres had asked countries to bring "concrete, realistic plans" to enhance commitments made in 2015 in the Paris pact towards the goal of limiting long-term warming to less than 2 deg C - and ideally 1.5 deg C - over pre-industrial levels.
Russia said yesterday that it would implement the 2015 Paris Agreement to fight climate change after Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev approved a government resolution signifying Moscow's final acceptance of the deal. The resolution said Russia would not technically ratify the accord due to a legal nuance but Mr Medvedev said Moscow would adapt the accord to existing legal norms.
Russia is the world's fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases and the biggest emitter not to have ratified the landmark global climate deal.
Mr Modi highlighted India's plans to generate 175 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2022, and how the government had encouraged the use of biofuel to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels.
Dr Merkel, in her speech, said that Germany will increase its funding for global climate protection measures from €2 billion (S$3 billion) to €4 billion.
Pledges from companies to cut carbon also rolled in. Amazon.com announced it will order 100,000 electric delivery vehicles as part of a plan to go carbon neutral by 2040. AT&T announced deals with Invenergy and Duke Energy to buy more wind and solar energy.
Fossil fuel companies also got in on the act. A coalition of 13 oil and gas companies including BP, Chevron and Exxon Mobil announced an initiative to "unlock large-scale investment" in technology that would capture and trap gases that cause global warming, in support of the Paris Agreement.
ASSOCIATED PRESS, REUTERS, BLOOMBERG
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