Poor Countries Flag “Disappointing” Lack Of Progress At COP Summit

The COP26 climate summit has so far disappointed with a lack of progress, according to the Chair of the Least Developed Countries Group at UN Climate Change negotiations.

“The progress made here is disappointing and in a way also frightening,” Sonam Phuntsho Wangdi of the Kingdom of Bhutan, who chairs the group, said at a press event on Wednesday, as carried by Bloomberg.

According to Wangdi, countries already suffering the consequences of climate change need more funds to cope with the damage. 

The least developed countries in the UN list include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Madagascar, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Yemen, and around 40 others.  

Ahead of the COP26 summit in Glasgow, the LDC Group issued a statement saying that the group of the 46 poor countries who “are the most impacted by the climate crisis despite contributing the least to it – is anxious to see real progress that will see emissions halved by 2030 and climate finance scaled up to support climate action in developing countries.”

“Raising global ambition and increasing climate finance is paramount to our survival. We have come to Glasgow in full knowledge of the climate crisis. It is not just future generations at risk. Already homes are being lost to sea level rise in the Pacific. Climate change-induced famine is taking lives in Madagascar. And floods have displaced millions in Bangladesh,” Wangdi, Chair of the LDC Group, said in the statement this weekend.

“We cannot leave Glasgow without strong commitments that will ensure the survival of the billion people living in the LDCs, now and in the future,” he added.

Some pledges have emerged during the COP26 summit so far, including the Global Methane Pledge signed by 105 countries, but not by China, India, and Russia, which, combined, generate around a third of global methane emissions. Not only are some of the biggest polluters out of the pledge, but it also lacks mechanisms to hold countries accountable as the reductions are non-binding and non-country specific.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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