‘Kicking the can down the road’: Plaid Cymru leader blasts draft Cop26 climate deal

The draft Cop26 climate emergency deal is “just an agreement to kick the can down the road”, the leader of Plaid Cymru has said.

Adam Price MS made the comments in response to first draft of an agreement or “cover decision” setting out how countries will cut emissions to avoid temperature rises of above 1.5C. It has been published today.

The draft is seven pages long and has been criticised by environmental organisations such as Greenpeace for failing to mention fossil fuels.

Price, who is currently travelling to Glasgow today by train and will visit the summit tomorrow on its penultimate day, said the gulf between world leaders’ rhetoric and the reality presented in the draft was “astonishing”.

He slammed the lack of dates or targets to phase out fossil fuels and urged Boris Johnson to “take the bull by the horns and set out a plan to keep 1.5 degrees in sight”.

Price said the UK Government should also implement more ambitious domestic measures – including delivering £3.6 billion to kick-start the decarbonisation of Wales’s housing stock.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be returning to the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow and will urge nations to “pull out all the stops” to limit warming.

Speaking ahead of his visit to the Cop26 summit, Plaid Cymru Leader Adam Price MS said: “The gulf between world leaders’ rhetoric at the start of the talks and the reality today in black and white is astonishing. Today’s draft COP26 deal is just an agreement to kick the can down the road.

 “With our forests burning, our seas acidifying and our world warming, there is no more time. Our climate, planet and marginalised communities simply cannot afford to wait.”

‘Damning’  

He added: “There are no firm dates or targets to phase out fossil fuels in this text, despite damning analysis by the Climate Action Tracker yesterday showing that pledges made for 2030 will put the world on track for 2.4 degrees of warming by 2100. That would be well beyond the United Nations targeted cap of 1.5 degrees and would have catastrophic effects on our planet.

“For these final three days, Boris Johnson must take the bull by the horns and set out a plan to keep 1.5 degrees in sight. That must translate into more ambitious domestic measures by the UK Government itself, including delivering the £3.6 billion Plaid Cymru has called for to kick-start the decarbonisation of Wales’s housing stock.”