COP26 President Alok Sharma on Sunday called on the candidates for the post of British Prime Minister not to give up on the United Kingdom's objective of carbon neutrality.
Of the five candidates still in the running to succeed Boris Johnson in Downing Street, only former finance minister Rishi Sunak has not questioned the country's goal - and the levers to achieve it - of neutrality carbon by 2050.
As the contenders meet on Sunday night for a second televised debate, COP26 President Alok Sharma called on them to pledge to uphold that commitment.
“Anyone who aspires to lead our country must show that they take the problem very seriously,” he told
The Observer newspaper.
“I hope that all the candidates realize why this is so important for the voters (…) And I hope that we will see, particularly from the last two candidates, very clear commitments” on the subject.
Tears in the eyes and a planet on fire
While each additional tenth of a degree has major consequences, the decisions of COP26 will not lead to a warming limited to 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era, the most ambitious objective of the agreement. of Paris, which in 2015 laid the foundations for climate action.
Alok Sharma had tearfully apologized to the world after failing to include a coal and oil 'exit' goal in the agreement, with India and China managing at the last moment to water down the wording to ' reduction”.
Among the candidates for Downing Street, Secretary of State Kemi Badenoch has been reluctant to hold the targets while the head of diplomacy Liz Truss and the former defense minister have called for a "rethink" of the way of reach the goal.
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