A total of 31 countries and 11 major automobile companies have committed this Wednesday, in the framework of the COP26 climate summit, to sell only zero-emission cars by 2035 (2040 in the case of developing countries). The United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Canada, Austria and India are among the signatories, but major car manufacturers such as the United States, Germany, France and Spain are missing. The latter three, however, are awaiting the negotiation of a proposal from the European Commission that goes in exactly the same direction and that if successful would also establish a ban on the sale of polluting cars throughout the EU in 2035.

The recovery from the covid-19 pandemic is once again driving up greenhouse gas emissions. The drop in CO₂ left by lockdown will remain a mere jolt, because the post-pandemic economic recovery plans are back on fossil fuels and moving us away from the change that science is calling for. The emissions rebound, in fact, puts the world on track to exceed the 1.5°C limit in 11 years. This is according to the latest analysis of global CO₂ emissions by the Global Carbon Project, presented on Thursday at the COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow.

We are a year late and six years behind schedule. Since the Paris Agreement was reached in 2015, the world has still not managed to set a course towards the goals set out in that historic pact: to keep global warming below 2ºC, at least, and ideally below 1.5ºC. The UN climate summit that kicks off this Sunday in Glasgow, COP26, is a historic new opportunity to achieve this. A key meeting that should lay the foundations for the radical economic and energy transformation that scientists are calling for before 2030. But the 190 countries that signed the agreement have their homework to do and their credibility is being called into question.

The Glasgow Climate Summit, COP26, is starting and until the 12th experts, politicians and activists will compete to explain who is the most aware and responsible in the fight against global warming. There will again be promises, which will be labelled as insufficient and which, as has happened so far, will probably not be fulfilled. Parole, parole, as the song goes.