Glasgow, Nov 1 (AP) Activists in costumes have posed as world leaders playing in a traditional Scottish bagpipe band on Monday as world leaders came together at the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow.

The Oxfam campaigners wore kilts and said that world leaders need to come up with more action and not only “hot air” to tackle the climate crisis.

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“These leaders, instead of reducing emissions and putting the world on a safer path, they are just blowing hot air, and we have had enough of hot air and empty promises, what we are asking for is for concrete action," Oxfam Climate Policy Lead Nafkote Dabi said.

“We need climate finance, poor countries need climate finance, vulnerable communities need climate finance, and they need to be serious about this, to support vulnerable countries, to adapt to the worst impact of the climate crisis.”

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Glasgow: The head of the United Nations warned leaders at the global climate summit in Glasgow that “we digging our own graves” by burning fossil fuels and destroying the environment.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the ceremonial opening of the two-week talks Monday that believing recent announcements by governments could turn the tide on climate change were “an illusion,” not least because there are serious questions many countries' pledges.

“As we open this much anticipated climate conference, we are still heading for climate disaster,” he said.

Guterres urged major economic powers, including emerging nations like China, to “go the extra mile” because they contribute the lion's share of global greenhouse gas emissions.

He also criticised a confusion over emissions reductions targets, and announced the creation of a new group of experts to propose “clear standards” for measuring commitments from businesses and other non-state actors.

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Moscow: The Kremlin says that Moscow remains fully committed to global efforts on controlling climate change even though Russian President Vladimir Putin won't attend the U.N. climate conference this week.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the format of the conference in Glasgow wouldn't allow the Russian president to address the gathering via video link. But he added that Putin will record a video address to be delivered to a forest and land use conference which is part of the U.N. climate conference.

Peskov told reporters Monday that Russia fully shares global climate efforts and will stick to its goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. The U.S. and the EU have prodded Moscow to set a more ambitious goal and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

Peskov charged that Russia is already ahead of some Western European countries regarding the share of low-carbon power generation sources. The Kremlin spokesman also emphasised the need to pay special attention to the needs of developing countries while mapping global climate efforts and consider their low emissions in the past.

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Copenhagen: Sweden's prime minister says “it's a shame” that rich countries haven't been successful in meeting a pledge by rich countries of $100 billion a year until 2025 to help poorer nations fight climate change.

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told a news conference in Glasgow at the COP26 summit that “it is obvious that there will be tough negotiations.”

He was quoted as saying by Swedish news agency TT that “more needs to be done to ensure that the goal of limiting the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees can be achieved. ”

Lofven added that “the science is very clear. We must speed up the implementation of the Paris Agreement.” He also still sees positive signals, and singled out, among other things, the Group of 20's agreement over the weekend to limit global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees as an example.

He said “it is possible to move forward only if the political will exists and if the political will exists in Glasgow, it is possible to achieve result.” (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)