A glacier in far-away Antarctica has been formally named Glasgow Glacier in honour of this Scottish metropolis internet hosting the high-level UN local weather summit which formally opened right here on Sunday, kicking off two weeks of intense diplomatic talks on curbing world warming.
The 100-km lengthy physique of ice, which has been experiencing speedy melting, was formally named by researchers on the University of Leeds to mark the twenty sixth Conference of Parties (COP26) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a stark reminder of why such an pressing motion is required.
“Glasgow represents our best chance. Just as the G-20 shares a collective responsibility to act, so the solutions are in our hands. I hope countries will gather next week in a spirit of responsibility and ambition so we can keep the goal of 1.5 degrees alive,” Johnson asserted.
Besides Glasgow, the eight newly named glaciers are Geneva, Rio, Berlin, Kyoto, Bali, Stockholm, Paris and Incheon – all named after cities internet hosting essential UN local weather conferences.
PhD Researcher Heather Selley, from Leeds’ School of Earth and Environment, has recognized 14 glaciers within the Getz Basin of West Antarctica which might be thinning by a mean of 25 per cent between 1994 and 2018 resulting from local weather change.
Her examine, printed in February 2021, discovered that 315 gigatonnes of ice had been misplaced from the area within the final 25 years.
In essence, that is equal to 126 million Olympic-sized swimming swimming pools of water.
Selley and Dr Anna Hogg had requested that the 9 unnamed glaciers within the examine be named after places of main local weather treaties, reviews and conferences, the newest being the one named after the Glasgow summit.
Her proposal was submitted by the UK authorities and supported by the UK Antarctic Place-names committee.
The names will now be added to the International Composite Gazetteer for Antarctica, for the use on maps, charts and future publications.
“Naming the glaciers after the locations of major climate treaties, conferences and reports is a great way to celebrate the international collaboration on climate change science and policy over the last 42 years,” Selly defined.
“We wanted to permanently mark the outstanding effort the scientific community has put into measuring the present-day impact of climate change and its predicted future evolution,” she stated.
Dramatic adjustments in ice cowl and pictures of Antarctica have grow to be synonymous with local weather change.
Over the previous 40 years, satellites have noticed big iceberg calving occasions, adjustments within the move of glaciers and quickly thinning ice demonstrating the devastating impression of worldwide warming.
Downing Street stated the UK’s message on the G-20 Summit in Rome on Sunday will likely be to spotlight how 50 years in the past the UK derived round 80 per cent of its electrical energy from burning coal, and 9 years in the past that quantity was practically right down to 40 per cent and at this time it’s beneath 2 per cent.
The UK plans to part out the usage of coal in energy technology fully by 2024.
Johnson is asking on the world’s richest economies to do every thing they will to succeed in Net Zero carbon emissions domestically by 2050, whereas serving to creating international locations transition to wash power by halting, reversing deforestation and land degradation by 2030.