by Fiona Harvey<\/a><\/span><\/h6>\n[dropcap letter=”I”]In the Marshall Islands people are used to the vagaries of the ocean. But recently the monthly \u201cking tide\u201d has brought new perils to this small group of islands in the Pacific about halfway between Australia and Hawaii. Waves crash over the roads and airport runways, especially when the unusually high tide coincides with a storm surge, cutting off communication and making daily business dangerous or impossible.<\/span><\/p>\nThe islanders\u2019 lives are now full of inescapable reminders of climate breakdown<\/a>, says Tina Stege, the climate envoy for the tiny nation of 60,000 people on 29 atolls. \u201cWe see stronger storms and storm surges. Droughts are more frequent and more intense and longer. Growing up I remember just one very intense drought; now they\u2019re happening maybe every three years. We recently had a dengue fever emergency, a problem we\u2019re seeing now in the winter months as they get warmer.\u201d<\/p>\nStege is chair of the High Ambition Coalition, a grouping at the UN climate talks that brings together some of the world\u2019s richest nations, including the EU, and some of the poorest and most vulnerable, to push for stronger climate action. Small island developing states are feeling the impact of climate change, but so, too, are far more populous countries, from low-lying Bangladesh to landlocked Rwanda, also members of the HAC, which represents more than 1 billion people around the world.<\/p>\n
\nWe are a small nation, but we have moral authority \u2013 our position on the frontline gives us that,\u201d says Stege. \u201cWe need to raise our voice, as these changes will affect the whole world in time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
These vulnerable countries are preparing for what many see as the last chance to save their people from devastating climate catastrophe. The Cop26 <\/a>climate summit will gather more than 120 heads of state and government and representatives of nearly 200 countries to forge a plan aimed at holding global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.<\/p>\nSmall developing countries, and their moral authority, are a large part of the reason delegates are meeting with that goal of \u201ckeeping 1.5C alive\u201d, as it is framed by the UK hosts. It means all countries must come forward with national plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, preserve forests and other carbon sinks, and move to a green economy.<\/p>\n
Cop26 is the biggest diplomatic event on UK soil since the second world war, and is a crunch moment for attempts to tackle the climate crisis, because scientists say there is just a decade left in which to take crucial action to prevent more than 1.5C of warming. Alok Sharma, the UK cabinet minister who is president of the talks<\/a>, told the Guardian failure at Cop26 would be \u201ccatastrophic\u201d, adding: \u201cI don\u2019t know another word for it. You\u2019re seeing on a daily basis what is happening across the world. Last year was the hottest on record, the last decade the hottest decade on record.\u201d<\/p>\nThe 1.5C limit is the core aim of the talks; the Paris agreement of 2015 required nations to hold global temperature rises \u201cwell below\u201d 2C, and to \u201cpursue efforts\u201d to limit rises to 1.5C. That lower temperature limit was included in the agreement at the vocal insistence of the HAC, just a few days before the Paris summit concluded<\/a>. If they had failed, the world would almost certainly already be on an irreversible path to 2C of heating \u2013 a level that we now know, thanks to science completed after the Paris agreement was signed<\/a>, would lead to far worse impacts, including widespread drought, water shortages for billions of people, heatwaves and sea level rises. At 2C, small islands and low-lying coastal areas around the world would face inundation.<\/p>\nThe question now is: can a pathway to 1.5C be kept at the Glasgow talks?<\/p>\n
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The islanders\u2019 lives are now full of inescapable reminders of climate breakdown<\/a>, says Tina Stege, the climate envoy for the tiny nation of 60,000 people on 29 atolls. \u201cWe see stronger storms and storm surges. Droughts are more frequent and more intense and longer. Growing up I remember just one very intense drought; now they\u2019re happening maybe every three years. We recently had a dengue fever emergency, a problem we\u2019re seeing now in the winter months as they get warmer.\u201d<\/p>\n Stege is chair of the High Ambition Coalition, a grouping at the UN climate talks that brings together some of the world\u2019s richest nations, including the EU, and some of the poorest and most vulnerable, to push for stronger climate action. Small island developing states are feeling the impact of climate change, but so, too, are far more populous countries, from low-lying Bangladesh to landlocked Rwanda, also members of the HAC, which represents more than 1 billion people around the world.<\/p>\n We are a small nation, but we have moral authority \u2013 our position on the frontline gives us that,\u201d says Stege. \u201cWe need to raise our voice, as these changes will affect the whole world in time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n These vulnerable countries are preparing for what many see as the last chance to save their people from devastating climate catastrophe. The Cop26 <\/a>climate summit will gather more than 120 heads of state and government and representatives of nearly 200 countries to forge a plan aimed at holding global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.<\/p>\n Small developing countries, and their moral authority, are a large part of the reason delegates are meeting with that goal of \u201ckeeping 1.5C alive\u201d, as it is framed by the UK hosts. It means all countries must come forward with national plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, preserve forests and other carbon sinks, and move to a green economy.<\/p>\n Cop26 is the biggest diplomatic event on UK soil since the second world war, and is a crunch moment for attempts to tackle the climate crisis, because scientists say there is just a decade left in which to take crucial action to prevent more than 1.5C of warming. Alok Sharma, the UK cabinet minister who is president of the talks<\/a>, told the Guardian failure at Cop26 would be \u201ccatastrophic\u201d, adding: \u201cI don\u2019t know another word for it. You\u2019re seeing on a daily basis what is happening across the world. Last year was the hottest on record, the last decade the hottest decade on record.\u201d<\/p>\n The 1.5C limit is the core aim of the talks; the Paris agreement of 2015 required nations to hold global temperature rises \u201cwell below\u201d 2C, and to \u201cpursue efforts\u201d to limit rises to 1.5C. That lower temperature limit was included in the agreement at the vocal insistence of the HAC, just a few days before the Paris summit concluded<\/a>. If they had failed, the world would almost certainly already be on an irreversible path to 2C of heating \u2013 a level that we now know, thanks to science completed after the Paris agreement was signed<\/a>, would lead to far worse impacts, including widespread drought, water shortages for billions of people, heatwaves and sea level rises. At 2C, small islands and low-lying coastal areas around the world would face inundation.<\/p>\n The question now is: can a pathway to 1.5C be kept at the Glasgow talks?<\/p>\n\n