UK's Johnson warns world leaders as climate summit begins

AP , Monday 1 Nov 2021

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has opened a global climate summit, saying the world is strapped to a 'doomsday device'.

UK PM
Britain s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during the opening ceremony of the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland on November 1, 2021. AFP

Johnson likened the Earth's position to that of fictional secret agent James Bond _ strapped to a bomb that will destroy the planet and trying to work out how to defuse it.

He told leaders Monday that 'we are in roughly the same position' _ only now the 'ticking doomsday device' is real and not fiction.

He was kicking off the world leaders' summit portion of a U.N. climate conference, which is aimed at getting agreement to curb carbon emissions fast enough to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) below pre-industrial levels.

Britain's leader struck a gloomy note on the eve of the conference, after Group of 20 leaders made only modest climate commitments at their summit in Rome.

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