“This is the moment of truth for our planet,” COP26 President Alok Sharma said Saturday, as he urged nations to agree upon the latest draft text that is intended to keep the world on track for limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Nations at the United Nations' COP26 climate talks were one hour into the so-called “informal stocktake”, a plenary session delayed from Saturday morning, which is aimed at reaching consensus on the third and latest draft agreement text, which was published at 8 am.
Sharma called on delegations to approve the text, repeating that he wants talks at the climate change summit in Glasgow to be wrapped up on Saturday.
“We have arrived at what I believe is the moment of truth. And this is the moment of truth for our planet, for our children and our grandchildren. And you all know that the world is willing us on to be bold, to be ambitious,” said Sharma.
“And so much rests on the decisions that we collectively take today. These texts are now clean. And we believe that they are the product of a transparent, inclusive and policy-driven process [that] has been founded on listening and the search for consensus."
“I completely understand that parties sometimes have different priorities," he said. "And yet, we all ultimately have to sign up to the same agreement.”
