Climate and environment ministers from 51 countries were meeting in London, which will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) Summit in Glasgow from October 31 to November 12.
The President of the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP) Alok Sharma was leading the two-day meeting which began on Sunday and expected to discuss key issued that require resolution at the upcoming summit. Ministers and officials from France, the United States, India and China will be among those participating in the closed-door meeting where Sharma hopes to build common ground and sketch the outline of the Glasgow outcome. Qatar has been a vociferous advocate for mitigating the climate change phenomenon.
The country hosted the 18th session of the Conference of Parties (COP18) from November 26 to December 7, 2012 at the Qatar National Convention Center in Doha, which took some very effective decisions such as approaches to address loss and damage associated with climate change impacts in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change to enhance adaptive capacity, a work programme on longterm finance, further guidance to the Least Developed Countries Fund, national adaptation plans etc.
Early this month, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met in Washington with US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and reviewed efforts to reduce the repercussions of climate change and measures taken by Qatar to address climate issues. During the meeting, Kerry praised Qatar’s commitment to addressing the climate change issues and praised the country’s efforts to host a carbon-neutral 2022 FIFA World Cup.
In the first week of July, Second Secretary of the Permanent Delegation of Qatar to the United States office in Geneva Ibrahim Sultan Al Hashemi, while addressing a UN meeting said that Qatar has paid great attention to climate within the framework of its National Vision 2030, which made preservation and development of the environment one of the main pillars of the Vision.
He referred to Qatar’s pledge to provide $100m to support small island developing states and Least Developed Countries to build and support capabilities to confront this phenomenon and its challenges.
It is high time that the world opened its eyes to the impact of the devastating effects brought about by the deteriorating climatic conditions which are already wreaking havoc across the planet in the form of floods, droughts and of course the COVID-19 pandemic.
The international community should take the COP26 as an opportunity to redouble their efforts to protect and safeguard the environment through adopting measures, sometimes even painful, to ensure a world safer for the future generation where the emission level of harmful gases kept to the minimum level if not zero.
