COP26: Failure Is A Death Sentence For Humanity

A few days ago, world leaders converged in Glasgow, Scotland for the 26^th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The world leaders and other stakeholders were meeting six years after the Paris Climate Agreement where world leaders committed to climate action. Sadly, as the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres highlighted in his COP26 opening address ‘the six years since the Paris Climate Agreement have been the hottest six years on record.’   In addition, the sea-level rise is double the rate it was 30 years ago with oceans not only hotter than ever before but also getting warmer faster. The situation is so catastrophic that in the last decade nearly 4 billion people have suffered climate-related disasters. Zimbabwe has not been spared the devastation. The most disastrous and fatal of such disasters, Cyclone Idai which decimated parts of Manicaland Province, quickly comes to mind. The seriousness of the global situation has been aptly captured by the UN SG when he lamented that we are fast approaching tipping points that will trigger a global disaster of unprecedented proportions.