World Leaders Call For Actions To Address Climate Change

On Monday, World leaders called for concrete actions to tackle the challenges of climate change at the 26th United Nations Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP26).

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"This COP must be a moment of solidarity. The US$100 billion a year climate finance commitment in support of developing countries must become a US$100 billion climate finance reality," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, adding that "This is critical to restoring trust and credibility."

In 2009, developed countries, who built their wealth by burning fossil fuels and have contributed most to the climate crisis, pledged US$100 billion a year to help lower-income nations by 2020. However, they still have not made good on the pledge. Recent reports indicate that this goal could slip to 2023.

“Parties need to honor their commitments, set realistic targets and visions, and do their best according to national conditions to deliver their climate action measures. Visions will come true only when we act on them,” China’s President Xi Jinping said in a written statement.

"There's no more time to hang back or sit on the fence or argue amongst ourselves. This is the challenge of our collective lifetimes; the existential threat to human existence as we know it. And every day we delay, the cost of inaction increases," U.S. President Joe Biden said.

COP26, delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, kicked off on Sunday in Glasgow, Scotland. It is the first conference after the five-year review cycle under the Paris Agreement inked in 2015. As the rulers of the richest countries vowed their commitment to the fight against climate change, activist Greta Thunberg stressed that politicians attending COP26 are only pretending to take the future seriously.

"This COP26 is so far just like the previous COPs and that has led us nowhere. They have led us nowhere," Thunberg said from a Fridays for Future meeting that took place near the COP26 campus.

"Change is not going to come from inside there. That is not leadership - this is leadership ... we're going to make the change whether they like it or not," she added, as reported by ABC.