On low expectations – NYT:

‘“Humanity has long since run down the clock on climate change,” Mr. Johnson will say, according to an advance copy of his remarks. “It’s one minute to midnight, and we need to act now.” Yet expectations for the annual gathering — which was canceled last year because of the pandemic — are low, owing to more than two decades of missed opportunities to sharply reduce emissions. Scientists say that nations must make an immediate, sharp pivot away from fossil fuels if they hope to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change.
The goal is to prevent the average global temperature from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with levels before the Industrial Revolution. That is the threshold beyond which scientists say the dangers of global warming — such as deadly heat waves, water shortages, crop failures and ecosystem collapse — grow immensely.
On Sunday, leaders of the Group of 20 wealthy nations agreed to “pursue efforts” to keep the 1.5-degree target within reach. But it is clear that nations are falling short.
China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, proposed a new emissions target that is largely indistinguishable from one it made six years ago. The United States, the largest historic emitter, has an ambitious emissions goal but has not been able to pass legislationto achieve it. And Australia, India and Russia have not made any new pledges to draw down climate pollution this decade.
Meanwhile, only a few wealthy countries have allocated money to help poor and vulnerable nations cope with the effects of climate disasters that those countries have done little to cause.
Those two factors make the likelihood of success at the conference, known as COP26, uncertain.’

Read the complete article here.

One should not judge a politician only by bis rhetorical tricks, but if you have nothing better to offer than trite remarks about ‘one minute before midnight’ the will to implement laws that will make a change is feeble, to say the least.

If you want to change something the catastrophe should be near, or should be already there. Ask Merkel.