Joint actions, not empty talks, imperative to ensure successful Glasgow climate conference

With the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) set to open on Sunday in Glasgow, Scotland, the high-profile international gathering is widely expected to be a crucial opportunity for reaching new consensus on further curbing carbon emissions.

The two-week event, which was postponed by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, comes amid a lack of progress among some parties to narrow a worrisome financial gap to tackle climate change. For instance, a long-standing pledge by developed countries to channel 100 billion U.S. dollars a year to developing ones has not been honored so far, undermining trust and engagement at forthcoming climate negotiations.

The stalled progress has raised concerns about COP26's chance of success and sparked warnings that the conference may end in empty talks.

At present, few can deny that climate change is a challenge facing all of humanity, and that it is imperative to successfully tackle the problem for the future of the planet. This extensive global consensus has been built for decades following melting glaciers and polar ice, record-breaking heat waves, droughts and rising sea levels, which are threatening the lives of billions of people and potentially wrecking economies across the world.

In the face of the grave impacts, COP26 participants should take the global gathering as an opportunity to bring hope, rather than despair, to the effort of fighting the war that human beings cannot afford to lose. Just as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in October, "COP26 must be a turning point" of climate actions.

To achieve that, all parties at COP26 should first of all translate climate goals into specific policies, and complete negotiations on the implementation details of the Paris Agreement to ensure that global climate governance continues on the right track.

Adopted in 2015, the agreement aims to limit the global temperature rise in this century to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and to even further pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Second, the Glasgow conference should deliver a breakthrough in climate adaptation. Together with emissions reductions and financing for climate actions in developing countries, climate adaptation is one of the three key elements of the political package that Guterres has urged to be delivered at COP26.

As climate disruption is affecting more and more lives and livelihoods worldwide every year, especially among the most vulnerable, building resilience and adaptation must be a priority for all.

Third, the success of COP26 lies on all parties' commitment to true multilateralism and genuine respect for specific national conditions of each and every developing country, on the basis of which the Paris Agreement was reached in the first place.

To be specific, those developed countries with a few hundred years of industrialization and ecological debt should take the lead in climate actions, and stop pinning responsibilities on conscientious developing nations, such as China.

As the world's largest developing country with a population of more than 1.4 billion that has not completed industrialization or urbanization, China has nevertheless honored its ambitious pledges to tackle climate change despite the difficulty.

For years, China has voluntarily adopted nationally determined contributions and supporting policy measures, and actively taken part in global climate governance.

Though facing other innumerable social and economic priorities, China has announced that it will strive to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, which means that the country has to realize an unprecedented reduction in carbon emissions and move from peak carbon to carbon neutrality faster than any nation in history.

China has laid out a concrete road map towards greener development and means what it says. Therefore, any worry that it might fail to achieve its goal is unfounded, and any attempt to smear China's resolve to mitigate climate change and its progress in this regard will prove futile.

No one is safe until all are safe. As the window of opportunity to prevent the worst climate impacts is rapidly closing, it is time for the international community, developed countries in particular, to show their joint determination to address this mighty challenge facing mankind. Taking collective, effective and prompt actions at the Glasgow conference is key for future success.