Alok Sharma will urge countries to deliver on COP26 commitments

COP26 President Alok Sharma is set to urge countries to deliver on the commitments made in the Glasgow Climate Pact. 

In his first major speech since COP26, Mr Sharma will set out his agenda to turn ambition into action for the rest of the UK’s Presidency this year. 

He is expected to outline the UK’s priorities to accelerate action, these include: 

• Ensuring promises on emissions reductions are kept and that every country honours the commitment in the Glasgow Climate Pact to strengthen their climate targets. 
• Delivering for climate-vulnerable countries by ensuring that commitments on adaption and loss and damage are honoured.
• Help to ensure that countries, international finance institutions, and private financial institutions deliver on commitments.

COP President Alok Sharma is expected to say: ‘At COP26 itself almost 200 countries came together and agreed the historic Glasgow Climate Pact. In doing so they demonstrated that climate can create a space for cooperation amidst a splintered global politics, that the world can work together to improve our common future, to address major global challenges and to seize opportunities.

‘There is no doubt that the commitments we secured at COP26 were historic. Yet at the moment they are just words on a page. And unless we honour the promises made, to turn the commitments in the Glasgow Climate Pact into action, they will wither on the vine. We will have mitigated no risks. Seized no opportunities. We will have fractured the trust built between nations. And 1.5 degrees will slip from our grasp.

‘So my absolute focus for the UK Presidency year is delivery.’

Katie White, Executive Director of Advocacy and Campaigns at WWF, commented: ‘The science is clear: we are facing a climate and nature emergency. The COP26 summit proved there is global ambition to tackle this threat, but if we’re serious about keeping harmful global warming to 1.5 degrees then we need to see urgent action here and now, not just promises for the future.’

Mr Sharma recently visited both COP27 President Egypt, and COP28 President UAE, to underline the importance of building strong partnerships with the next two hosts for the summit.

This week, he will meet the UNFCCC to discuss the implementation of the measures agreed with Glasgow. He will also address the Major Economies Forum and continue to ramp up pressure on the rich donor nations to support climate-vulnerable countries. 

To read more about COP26, click here to read Environment Journal’s report.