Following warnings that urgent action is needed to keep the 2015 Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global average temperature increases to 1.5C within reach, the United Nations Climate Change Conference opened yesterday with the aim to raise ambition on all fronts.

“The devastating loss of lives and livelihoods this year due to extreme weather events clarifies how important it is to convene COP26 despite the impacts of the pandemic still being felt,” said Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change at the conference opening session.

“We are on track for a global temperature rise of 2.7C, while we should be heading for the 1.5C goal. Clearly, we are in a climate emergency. Clearly, we need to address it. Clearly, we need to support the most vulnerable to cope. To do so successfully, greater ambition is now critical.”

Addressing the conference, COP President, Alok Sharma, outlined the urgent need for action.

“I believe we can resolve the outstanding issues. We can move the negotiations forward. We can launch a decade of ever-increasing ambition and action,” he said.

“Together, we can seize the enormous opportunities for green growth, for good green jobs, for cheaper, cleaner power. But we must hit the ground running to develop the solutions we need. And that work starts today. We will succeed, or fail, as one.

A central issue for COP26 is the provision of support to developing countries, especially in relation to the goal of mobilising $100bn  annually by 2020 for the world’s poorest countries to mitigate the effects of climate change in terms of adaptation, capacity-building, and technology transfer.

First Minister Mark Drakeford will be in Glasgow today to attend the World Leaders Summit, and Minister for Climate Change, Julie James MS, will be present on Wednesday.

Writing in Green Industries Wales magazine to be published this week, Ms James said:

“People in Wales have seen the effects of the climate emergency – around the world and at home, and there’s a greater awareness now more than ever of the dangers climate change brings. I believe it is the job of government to make sure all sectors of our society, know what to do in terms of their behaviour and their agendas, to get us on the path to net zero.

“And we need to accelerate the pace of change. We’ve twice as much to do in the next 10 years as we did in the last 30.”

“What do we want out of COP26? We want all countries to embrace the under 1.5C warming threshold seriously.“

Wales is part of an alliance of global subnational governments called the ‘Under 2 Coalition’  who have committed to limiting emissions to 80-95% below 1990 levels, and below 2 annual metric tons per capita by 2050 – the level of emission reduction necessary to limit global warming to under 2°C by the end

of this century.

Yesterday, Lee Waters MS, Wales’ deputy minister for climate change told BBC Radio Wales, that “tough choices” had to be made by policy makers.

The deputy minister said that flood maps forecast by National Resources Wales suggests that towns and villages on the north and south Wales coast could be underwater by 2050 because of rising sea levels caused by global warming.

Underlining the Welsh Government’s ambitions for public transport, he added that it was possible to respond to the climate emergency and grow Wales’ green economy by developing projects of immediate value – and the opportunities of growing market share in the green economy.

“We have to decarbonise the bus fleet. So we've got a commitment to get rid of the dirtiest 50% by the end of the decade, and then move beyond that.”

“If we pool all our orders in Wales and say we're going to be building x hundred buses, instead of buying these from China or India, let's make those in Wales.

We all have a responsibility. These are collective decisions we all make – from builders and planners and managers, to decision makers in public authority.”

Monday will see the first World Leaders Summit take place at COP26 where Boris Johnson will implore heads of state and government leaders to take more action.

At the G20 in Rome Johnson called commitments being made so far a “drop in the rapidly warming ocean.” Only 12 of the G20 nations have so far pledged to reach net zero emissions “by or around 2050”.