High-profile climate activists have called Cop26 a failure, but other voices warned that their doom message may be as bad as a total denial of climate change.
The first week of the climate summit brought some major promises, but critics say these promises are just more hot air.
This is a guide to what the big men in the climate struggle have said so far.
Greta Thunberg told the protesters gathered Glasgow Friday: “Many people start to ask themselves, what do those in power need to wake up?
“But let us make it clear that they are already awake. They know exactly what they are doing-they know exactly what invaluable value they have sacrificed in order to maintain normal business.”
Thunberg added: “Leaders are not doing nothing, they are actively creating loopholes and shaping the framework to benefit themselves and continue to profit from this destructive system.
“This is an active choice of the leaders to continue to allow the exploitation of people in nature and the destruction of present and future living conditions to occur.”
She described the summit as “a beautiful public relations event” and a “greenwashing festival” orchestrated by the rich countries in the north of the world.
Thunberg’s words contrast sharply with his optimism. John Kerry At a business dinner on Thursday night, he said that according to the commitments made by the International Energy Agency so far at the meeting, the temperature rise will be limited to 1.8 degrees Celsius.
Before the arrival of the police, analysis showed that humans were moving in the direction of 2.7C.
Mr. Kerry also revealed that the US$100 billion (74.1 billion pounds) climate finance target promised by rich countries to developing countries will be achieved in 2022, one year earlier than previously predicted.
The U.S. climate envoy told delegates: “I believe we will be able to raise our ambitions to anything beyond our imagination-we already have very important funds.”
The pioneering climate scientist Professor Michael E. Mann is one of the behind the famous global warming hockey stick figure. He criticized some activists’ views on social media.
In a tweet on Friday, he said: “Beware of the slippery slope from cynicism to nihilism. It leads to the same thing as denialism: inaction.
“This is exactly what polluters and bidders want.”
In an earlier post, he said: “Cop26 has just begun. activist The announcement that it was dead upon arrival made the fossil fuel executives jump for joy.
“They want to undermine and discredit the concept of multilateral climate action.”
Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate was more optimistic during Friday’s future protests.
Describing what the world would look like if humans were to deal with climate change, she said: “The climate crisis is here now.
“But dry land can rejoice again, farmland can bloom again, animals can rejoice because they have water to drink, and land that was once dry can sing loudly.
“Pain and suffering have passed, and people are celebrating because the disaster has passed.”
She continued: “We don’t have to fight for limited resources, because everyone will have enough resources.”
Professor Rebecca Willis, an environmental policy expert at Lancaster University, believes that a little hope can be a powerful thing.
She told PA News Agency: “It’s really important not to scare yourself, because it leads to absolute fatalism.”
Professor Willis added: “1.5C is better than 1.6C, and 1.6C is better than 1.7C. We can exclude more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, the better the effect.”
