In international terms, it is the most important summit in the world – more than the United Nations General Assembly, and more important than a meeting between leaders of superpowers. The decisions made at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP26, even if they only partially materialize, will ultimately affect all of humanity and how we live.
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There is, for example, a direct connection between plastic utensils doubling in price in Israel and the issue on behalf of which 190 world leaders are currently gathered in Glasgow, Scotland. Due to global warming, reducing the use of plastic is critical. Israel must fall in line with the global norms, and – similar to every other country – also must cope with the rising costs of crude oil, from which many plastic products are made. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Israel, which is considered the second-best developer of green energy solutions in the world, will have a lot to offer the 30,000 summit attendees. From this perspective, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's mission is to step into the giant shoes of Benjamin Netanyahu and market what the Jewish state has to offer. Without a successful marketing campaign, Israel's green patents will remain on the drawing table.
Even if the official excuse for Bennett's attendance at the summit is global warming, it's clear that the central issue he will be discussing with the leaders he meets behind closed doors is Israel's "cold war" with Iran, as he referred to it on Sunday.
This time around, it is the American-Israeli side, not the Iranian side, doing the most muscle-flexing. The cyberattack that paralyzed Iranian gas stations (attributed to Israel); the multinational military exercise in Israel (which included the Jordanian and UAE air forces); escorting the American B-1 bomber flying over Israeli territory on its way to the Persian Gulf; and the interview by Maj. Gen. Tal Kelman (who holds the IDF's Iran file) to a Bahraini newspaper, in which he said that if a diplomatic resolution isn't reached, Israel and its allies will have to use force.
This succession of signals is not coincidental. It's safe to assume its purpose, at least in part, is to pressure the US no less so than Iran. With the renewal of nuclear negotiations seemingly around the corner, Israel is sending a message that it would be wise to take its interests into account. Unlike a decade ago under Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Ehud Barak, there is no independent plan to attack Iran in the works, rather far-more moderate threats. And yet, in light of the current state of affairs vis-a-vis Iran – which the US also agrees is at a critical point – Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Bennett, and Foreign Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid are playing the game.
The world came to chilly Glasgow to stop global warming; Israel went to Glasgow to stop the cold war with Iran from heating up. Either way, Alok Sharma, the British energy minister chairing climate talks, called rising temperatures a "wake up call for all of us" that is "unequivocally" caused by human action.
Negotiators will push nations to ratchet up their efforts to keep global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius this century compared with pre-industrial times.
The climate summit remains "our last, best hope to keep 1.5 in reach," said Sharma.
Scientists say the chances of meeting that goal are slowly slipping away. The world has already warmed by more than 1.1C and current projections based on planned emissions cuts over the next decade are for it to hit 2.7C by the year 2100.
The amount of energy unleashed by such planetary warming would melt much of the planet's ice, raise global sea levels and greatly increase the likelihood and intensity of extreme weather, experts say.
Sharma noted that China, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, had just raised its climate targets somewhat.
"But of course we expected more," Sharma told the BBC earlier Sunday.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson struck a grim tone, saying G-20 leaders "inched forward" on curbing global warming, but the goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) – struck in a landmark deal at the end of the 2015 Paris climate accord – was in danger of slipping out of reach.
"If Glasgow fails then the whole thing fails," Johnson told reporters in Rome.
US climate envoy John Kerry warned last week of the dramatic impacts that exceeding the 2015 Paris accord's goal will have on nature and people, but expressed optimism that the world is heading in the right direction.
"I believe we can move negotiations forward and launch a decade of ever-increasing ambition and action... but we need to hit the ground running," Sharma said, in his opening speech on Sunday.
"Six years ago, in Paris, we agreed our shared goals," he said, referring to the 2015 agreement in the French capital to keep global warming to below 2C Celsius and endeavor to reach 1.5C.
"COP26 is our last best hope to keep 1.5C in reach… If we act now and we act together we can protect our precious promise and ensure where Paris promised, Glasgow delivers," he said.
At the Vatican Sunday, Pope Francis urged the crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square: "Let us pray so that the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor" is heard by summit participants.
The G-20 countries represent more than three-quarters of the world's climate-damaging emissions and G-20 host Italy and Britain, which is hosting the Glasgow conference, had looked for more ambitious targets coming out of Rome.
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But major polluters including China and Russia had already made clear they had no immediate intention of following US and European pledges to zero out all fossil-fuel pollution by 2050. Russia said on Sunday that it was sticking to its target of 2060.
Speaking to reporters before leaving Rome, US President Joe Biden called it "disappointing' that G-20 members Russia and China 'basically didn't show up" with commitments to address the scourge of climate change ahead of the UN climate summit.
India, the world's third-biggest emitter, has yet to follow China, the US and the European Union in setting a target for reaching 'net zero' emissions. Negotiators are hoping India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi will announce such a goal in Glasgow.
Some of the issues being discussed during the talks have been on the agenda for decades, including how rich countries can help poor nations tackle emissions and adapt to a hotter world. The slow pace of action has angered many environmental campaigners, who are expected to stage loud and creative protests during the summit.
