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World leaders are preparing the ground for curbing global warming as a crucial U.N. climate summit officially gets underway.
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World leaders are not hemming and hawing when it comes to curbing global warming.
The heads of the world's largest economies had made pledges to curb emissions in the G20 summit in Rome. Pledges many construe as ambiguous and mild.
All the same, as U.N. officials formally kicked off this year's climate summit in Glasgow, government leaders are once again given an opportunity to map out plans to curb global warming and adapt to climate damage in concert.
Now, government leaders are provided with two options: One is to cut greenhouse gas emissions and help impoverished communities and countries survive in this vale in tears - a world that's becoming hotter and harsher; or reconcile themselves to a future marred by gloom and doom.
This meeting came amid rising temperatures and more natural disasters like wildfires in California - things symptomatic of climate change intensifying.
One indigenous climate activist from New Zealand sent a blunt message to world leaders at the summit's opening ceremony. Logan-Riley said, "get in line, or get out of the way."
Meanwhile, notably absent from the G-20 summit in Rome were Russian President Vladimir Putin, and President Xi Jinping. Needless to say, this ruffled U.S. President Joe Biden's feathers.
U.S. President Joe Biden: The disappointment relates to the fact that Russia and China basically didn't show up in terms of any commitments to deal with climate change.
G-20 members represent more than three-quarters of the world's climate-damaging emissions.
Prior to the G-20 summit this year, Italy and Britain had been on the lookout for more ambitious targets coming out of Rome, but to no avail.
Be that as it may, the world's major polluters, including China and Russia, had already made it crystal clear they are not zeroing in on eradicating fossil-fuel production by 2050. Instead, Russia said it was sticking to its 2060 target.
This climate summit also came amid stern warnings from scientists who say the world needs to race against the clock to meet the 1.5 degrees celsius goal.
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry warned last week of the dramatic impacts of failing to meet the 2015 Paris accord goal. That's why President Joe Biden is already committed to his goal of zero emissions by 2050, albeit admitting punitive measures might be needed to stop carbon emissions.
Joe Biden: No one has anticipated that this year we'd be in a position, or even next year, that we're not going to use any more oil or gas; that we're not going to be engaged in any fossil fuels. We're going to stop subsidising those fossil fuels. We're going to be making significant changes. We will get to the point that, by 2050, we have zero emissions.
After all, a united front against climate change is, without a doubt, an essential propeller for the world's success in preventing global warming worsening out of hand.
Nevertheless, the devil's in the detail: The jury is still out on whether the holy grail - reaching the 2015 Paris accord goal - can be pursued, and hence it remains hanging in the balance.
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