Boris Johnson reaches G20 Summit with grim warning to world leaders on climate crisis

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday, October 29, arrived in Italy for a G20 conference with a grim warning, "modern civilization could soon lie in ruins like ancient Rome if world leaders don’t act to curb climate change." At the G20 meeting, Johnson's main goal at the G20 meeting is to encourage the leaders of the world's largest economies to invest at the United Nations climate summit in Scotland, which begins on Sunday, October 31, AP reported.

According to AP, the ruins of the Eternal City, Johnson told reporters on his flight to Rome, "are a fantastic reminder, a memento mori to us today … that humanity, civilization, society can go backwards as well as forwards and when things start to go wrong they can go wrong with extraordinary speed.”

Nonetheless, Boris Johnson has raised reservations about the UK COP26 climate summit's ability to extract enough carbon-cutting promises to keep the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels alive. Johnson will try to extract cash and carbon-cutting commitments from the G20, which includes China, the United States, India, and Russia, among the world's largest carbon emitters. 

'We could see our world our civilization go backwards' says Johnson

AP reported, citing Johnson, "unless we get this right in tackling climate change, we could see our world our civilization go backwards and consign future generations to a life far less agreeable than our own,” with mass migrations, water shortages and conflicts because of climate change." Johnson's aspirations for a "G20 bounce" to create momentum for the 12-day COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, London, are clouded by these disagreements. He wants to leave Rome with a stack of global carbon-cutting pledges, a strategy to reduce coal use, and a long-promised but never-delivered $100 billion a year in funding to help impoverished nations deal with climate change's effects.

Major G-20 polluters, notably Russia and Australia, have failed to improve on their post-Paris pledges to reduce carbon emissions. Neither Chinese President Xi Jinping nor Russian President Vladimir Putin, the leaders of the world's two largest carbon emitters, intend to attend the G20 or the COP26 in person. This week, China unveiled an updated version of its climate ambitions, aiming to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2060 and to peak emissions by 2030. When the Chinese President and UK PM spoke by phone on Friday, October 29, Johnson claimed he pushed Xi to move the peak to 2025. "I wouldn’t say he committed on that," Johnson said, AP reported.

(With inputs from AP)

Image: AP