A British official will be preside at a U.N. Climate Summit. He said Tuesday that he is losing sleep over the long-promised funding for poorer countries to transition to cleaner energy and deal with the worst effects of climate change.
Alok Sharma, the president of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference used a speech in Paris in order to inspire richer countries into action in the final weeks before the Oct. 31-Nov.12 event in Glasgow, Scotland.
Sharma stated that the summit’s success depends on securing climate change funding for the poorer countries, as Sharma previously said.
“Finance is essential for tackling climate change. So developing countries must pay the $100 billion per year that they promised. This is an inexorable figure. It is a matter of trust. He said that trust is a fragile and hard-won commodity in climate negotiations.
He said, “Thinking about it keeps me awake at night,”
Sharma was also the U.K.’s Secretary of State for Business before he stepped down as COP26 Conference Director. He put pressure on the Group 20 countries that together account the bulk of global wealth, trade, and about 80% of the global warming-related polluting emissions.
Sharma stated that the G-20 nations agreed in July to set “ambitious” targets for reducing emissions by 2030 before the COP26 meeting. Sharma said that some countries have not yet achieved their targets and they “must deliver”.
He said, “I say to these G-20 leaders: They simply have to step up ahead of COP26.”
