COP26: Climate change summit is ‘make or break’ for the planet, says MP

A major summit on climate change is “make or break” for the planet’s future, according to an environmental campaigner turned MP.

In November, Glasgow will host COP26 – the largest gathering of world leaders in UK history.

Anna McMorrin, Labour MP for Cardiff North, said it was an chance for Wales to “reach out and show leadership”.

Scientist Gareth Wyn Jones said he hoped recent extreme heatwaves, floods and wildfires would focus minds.

What is COP26?

The world’s governments have been told they need to make drastic cuts to greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades to hold back a dangerous rise in global temperatures.

At a previous summit in Paris they agreed to try to stop the warming reaching 2C compared with pre-industrial times, and ideally no higher than 1.5C.

But there was a big gap between that goal and the policies for action countries had been coming up with – putting the world on course for far worse climate change.

COP26 is about trying to sort that out.

‘A devastating way to live’

Ms McMorrin said some of her constituents were already suffering the effects of climate change and she had seen “first hand” people moving furniture upstairs out of fear of flooding.

“It’s a devastating way to live,” she said.

At the Paris summit in 2015 she was involved in negotiations about getting the role of smaller states and regions recognised in the text of the treaty that was signed there.

Before becoming an MP she worked as a campaigner for Friends of the Earth and a special adviser to the Welsh government on cutting emissions.

She said while Wales was “punching above its weight” in areas like recycling, planning policy and its Future Generations Act, it needed to be “moving faster with charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, public transport and making it easier for people to use less energy in their homes”.

“We can’t do it alone, we have to work within the UK and with partners overseas as well.”

How is climate change affecting Wales?

Scientists recently reported Wales had seen an average annual increase in temperatures of 0.9C since the 1970s and would be a hotter, wetter place in future.

It means severe flooding – like that experienced by several communities during storms Ciara, Dennis and Jorge in 2020 – is likely to happen more often, even if we manage to get rid of greenhouse gases.

A damaging level of climate change is already – as they put it – “baked in”.

Steve Porretta’s neighbourhood in north Cardiff was struck by flooding during storm Dennis in 2020.

He said: “I could see the water was coming all the way down the road and coming over the bank. I’m thinking ‘oh my God, we are actually really going to flood’.

“It’s absolutely terrifying really, when you stand there and watch this water coming up and up and up, wondering whether it’s going to be you.”

Though some of Mr Porretta’s neighbours had to be rescued through their windows, his house was spared the worst of the flooding as it is slightly more elevated.

“It’s traumatic isn’t it, we’re living right next to the river. You’re constantly then concerned, ‘is it going to flood again?'”

In anticipation of another flood, Mr Porretta has put flood gates on all his doors.

He said he is pessimistic about COP26.

“You’d hope that the governments of the world would see sense, come together and actually do the right thing. Unfortunately, historically, there’s absolutely no precedent for that.”

‘Massive cuts needed’

Prof Jones, emeritus professor at Bangor University, warned the world had “prevaricated” for far too long and avoiding major climate change was now an “extremely hard task”.

Politicians, he said, needed to be straight with the public about the scale of the task.

It means “massive cuts” to emissions in a matter of years, and “getting urgency into the equation is very difficult because we’ve created a society which depends on consumerism,” he said.

Part of the answer lies in getting across to people how much carbon dioxide they themselves are responsible for emitting and encouraging them to reduce that, he suggested.

In Wales, as across the UK, it is estimated approximately 10 tonnes of climate-warming gases are emitted per person each year, around double the global average.

That needs to be cut to 0 by 2050.

“There are relatively simple things you can do – don’t drive an SUV for starters, fly only if it’s absolutely essential, don’t waste food,” said Mr Jones.

What else can help?

Ella Smillie runs Benthyg Cymru, a “library of things”, where people hire goods and can volunteer their time instead of paying.

It was set up by the community and Ms Smillie hopes to establish 11 similar libraries across Wales in the run up to COP26.

More than 200 objects donated by locals are available to hire for as little as 50p a day, with power washers, carpet cleaners, lawnmowers and a gazebo some of the highest demands.

Ms Smillie said: “These are things you only need to use once or twice a year but take a huge amount of energy and resource to make.”

She said she hoped the summit could provide a “huge opportunity” for communities to talk to politicians about their own ideas and “the immediate need to reduce our carbon footprint”.

“The climate emergency is the single biggest issue of our lifetimes,” she said.

“One thing we can all do is reduce our consumption – and this is a really easy way for people to do that on an individual level while also supporting their communities to be more sustainable.”