Cop26: World leaders address climate change summit in Glasgow
Prime Minister Boris Johnson's speech opened the conference at the SEC.
Last updated 27th May 2022
World leaders have addressed the Cop26 climate summit at a ceremony in Glasgow this afternoon.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson's speech opened the conference, held at at the SEC, which featured speakers including natural historian David Attenborough and the Prince of Wales.
Mr Johnson urged world leaders not to “fluff our lines” at the World Leaders Summit, warning that younger generations will “not forgive us”.
“The children who will judge us are children not yet born, and their children,” he said.
“We are now coming centre stage before a vast and uncountable audience of posterity and we must not fluff our lines or miss our cue.
“Because if we fail, they will not forgive us - they will know that Glasgow was the historic turning point when history failed to turn.
“They will judge us with bitterness and with a resentment that eclipses any of the climate activists of today and they will be right.
“Cop26 will not and cannot be the end of the story on climate change.”
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The Prime Minister continued: “If summits alone solve climate change then we wouldn’t have needed 25 previous Cop summits to get where we are today.
“But while Cop26 will not be the end of climate change, it can and it must mark the beginning of the end.
“In the years since Paris, the world has slowly and with great effort and pain built a lifeboat for humanity.
"And now is the time to give that lifeboat a mighty shove into the water like some great liner rolling down the slipways of the Clyde."
The Prince of Wales urged the world to put itself on a “war-like footing” amid the existential threat of climate change.
Addressing delegates, Prince Charles said: "The scale and scope of the threat we face call for a global, systems-level solution based on radically transforming our current fossil fuel-based economy to one that is genuinely renewable and sustainable.
“So, ladies and gentlemen, my plea today is for countries to come together to create the environment that enables every sector of industry to take the action required.
“We know this will take trillions, not billions, of dollars. We also know that countries, many of whom are burdened by growing levels of debt, simply cannot afford to ‘go green’.
“Here, we need a vast military-style campaign to marshal the strength of the global private sector. With trillions at its disposal - far beyond global GDP and, with the greatest respect, beyond even the governments of the world’s leaders - it offers the only real prospect of achieving fundamental economic transition.”
Sir David Attenborough later took to the conference stage, warning world leaders that humanity is “already in trouble” from climate change.
The 95-year-old natural history broadcaster told delegates: “Our burning of fossil fuels, our destruction of nature, our approach to industry, construction and learning, our releasing carbon into the atmosphere - we are already in trouble.
“The stability that we all depend on is breaking. This story is one of inequality as well as instability.”
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He added: “Today, those who have done the least to cause this problem are being the hardest hit. Ultimately all of us will feel the impacts, some of which are now unavoidable."
Sir David told how the younger generation will reflect on Cop26 and consider whether global temperatures started to drop as a result of commitments made at the crucial world summit.
“There is every reason to believe that the answer can be yes,” he said.
“If working apart, we are force powerful enough to destabilise our planet, surely working together, we are powerful enough to save it.”
World leaders will continue giving their opening statements to delegates this afternoon, with US president Joe Biden and French president Emmanuel Macron among those due to speak.
World leaders at Cop26
Angela Merkel arrives at Cop26
Other prominent climate activists and leaders were taking part in negotiations. Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon met young climate campaigners Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate and called on leaders to "put their egos aside" to work on the common issue of solving the climate crisis.
Boris Johnson waits to greet leaders at Cop26
Boris Johnson at the Cop26 Action and Solidarity session
Prince Charles and Joe Biden at Cop26
French president Emmanuel Macron at Cop26
Nicola Sturgeon at the Cop26 World Leaders Summit
Boris Johnson at Cop26