The Latest: UK's Johnson 'cautiously optimistic' about COP26
The latest on U.N. climate summit COP26 in Glasgow:
GLASGOW, Scotland — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has cautioned against getting “caught up in a mood of exaggerated enthusiasm,” but he hailed the progress made as world leaders gathered at the U.N. climate summit.
Johnson and scores of other leaders were preparing to head home from the COP26 conference Tuesday after two days of talks in Glasgow, Scotland. The summit will last another 10 days, as negotiators strain to turn the politicians’ climate pledges into reality.
Johnson said his message to negotiators is: “The eyes of the populations of the world are on you.”
Johnson said at a news conference that it was important to “guard against false hope,” but he added that he was “cautiously optimistic” about the outcome of talks aimed at keeping the world on track to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
He cited India’s pledge to make a deep dent in carbon emissions by 2030 and a pledge by more than 100 world leaders to stop deforestation.
Johnson repeated his comparison of climate change to a ticking doomsday device, but said, “We’ve got a bomb disposal team on site, and they’re starting to snip the wires.”
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VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis says this year's U.N. climate conference will show “whether there really exists a political will” to do what it takes to mitigate climate change and to assist the “poorer and more vulnerable nations most affected by it.”
Francis sent his regrets for not attending the conference, saying in a message read by the Vatican’s No. 2 official, Cardinal Pietro Parolin: “I had hoped to be with you in person” in Glasgow, Scotland, “but that was not possible.”
He added in the message, “I accompany you,...