UK needs to do a lot more to contain global warming – Cop26 President

The UK and other countries should be doing “a lot more” if they are serious about containing global warming, according to the President of Cop26.

Sir Alok Sharma, who led the United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow two years ago, said “the world is not on track” in its aim to curb rising temperatures and meet its previous targets.

United Nations members signed the Paris Agreement in 2015, an international treaty with the goal of limiting the global temperature increase to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

The former Conservative cabinet minister was speaking at Windsor Castle on Tuesday after formally receiving his knighthood from the King for services to tackling climate change.

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Asked whether progress had been made since the conference, Sir Alok told the PA news agency: “I think there are areas where we have moved forward, but the reality is that, if we are going to keep alive the prospect of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees, we need to be doing a lot more (and) countries need to accelerate on the commitments they’ve already made.”

This year’s climate change conference, Cop28, will be held from late November to mid-December in Dubai and Sir Alok emphasised the event will provide “vitally important” answers.

He said: “Cop28 is going to be that next point where the world comes together. Because, for the first time, we will have a stock-take process, we will be able to see whether we’re on track, and unfortunately I think we will find that the world is not on track to tackle climate change and avoid its worst effects.”

He added that he hoped to see a commitment to phasing out fossil fuels at the upcoming conference.

Sir Alok, a serving MP for Reading West since 2010, said receiving his knighthood was “one of the proudest moments of my life” and a great opportunity to catch up with the King, having spoken with him about environmental issues on several previous meetings.

“He said some very nice words to me, and then we spoke about the need for more climate and development finance, we spoke briefly about Cop28, and I told him about the work I’m now doing with the Rockefeller Foundation,” he said.

“Obviously this is something that he has an enormous amount of interest in. He’s been on this agenda for decades, well before talking about climate was mainstream.”