(Glasgow) US President Joe Biden on Tuesday accused China, the world’s main polluter, of remaining deaf to the “gigantic” issues of climate change by his absence at COP26, marked by a major step forward to reduce methane emissions.
“I think it was a big mistake for China not to come” and Chinese President Xi Jinping “lost an opportunity to influence people around the world,” Joe Biden said in a speech. press conference at the end of his own visit to the Glasgow climate conference scheduled to last until 12 November and considered to be capital.
“It’s a gigantic subject and they [les Chinois] have turned their backs. How can you do that and claim any kind of leadership? », Commented the American president.
Xi Jinping contented himself with a written message, posted on the conference website, no intervention by videoconference or video message being planned for the heads of state and government, who were to speak on the spot. .
“He has very, very serious weather problems and he’s not showing himself to be willing to do anything,” Biden said.
“It is the same for Vladimir Poutine”, he continued, the Russian president not having attended this meeting either.
Just before the COP26, the American president, who praised the return of his country on the international scene under his mandate, had already charged Beijing and Moscow during the G20 in Rome, saying he was “disappointed” by the lack of commitments climate on their part.
With global warming in the sights limited to +1.5 ° C, countries are under pressure to do more against climate change at the Glasgow conference.
But China, the first emitter of greenhouse gases, and Russia are among the big absent from a flagship agreement reached Tuesday by a hundred countries to contain methane.
Haro on methane
Representing more than 40% of global emissions of this powerful greenhouse gas, they have pledged to reduce emissions by at least 30% by 2030 compared to 2020 levels.
“Methane is one of the gases that we can reduce the fastest. In doing so, this will immediately slow down climate change, ”said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, stressing that this gas was responsible for“ around 30% ”of global warming since the industrial revolution.
It is “a commitment that changes the game”, added Joe Biden, assuring that the signatories represented 70% of world GDP.
Less known than CO2, methane (CH4) is the second greenhouse gas linked to human activity, mainly from livestock, fossil fuels and waste. Above all, if it stays in the atmosphere for a shorter time, its warming effect is much greater than that of carbon dioxide, up to more than 80 times.
“This is a historic moment,” greeted the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol. In ten years, the commitment made is equivalent, according to him, to eliminate the emissions of “all the transport sector” in the world.
The NGO Greenpeace stresses, however, that this pact must mark “the beginning and not the end” of ambitions concerning the reduction of methane.
“Cautiously optimistic”
Despite this announcement and that of a commitment to stop deforestation, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose country is hosting COP26, said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the chances of success of this meeting, stressing that there is had “still a very long way to go”.
On the difficult menu of discussions are in particular the question of financial aid, promised, but still unfinished, to poor countries already affected by climate change and that of accelerated decarbonization of the economy.
Nearly one hundred countries, home to 85% of the world’s forests, also pledged on Tuesday to halt deforestation to protect the lungs of the planet which, along with the oceans, are essential in the fight against climate change, because they absorb a large part of the CO.2 released into the atmosphere.
The initiative will receive public and private funding of $ 19.2 billion over several years.
“We cannot face climate change without protecting our natural environment and respecting the rights of indigenous peoples,” Boris Johnson stressed in presenting this commitment.
However, this agreement is reminiscent of the New York Declaration on Forests of 2014, signed by many countries, companies and indigenous peoples, without much concrete effect.
For NGOs like Greenpeace, the highlighted 2030 target remains far too distant and gives the green light to “an additional decade of deforestation”.
Global Witness has expressed fears that “the failures of previous engagements” will be repeated due to insufficient funding and uncertain follow-up to the promise given.