Boris Johnson today admitted that the chance of COP26 being a success is just six out of 10 as he begged China to do more to stop climate change.
The PM said that the outcome was still in question during a round of interviews at Rome’s G20 summit.
He painted a grim picture about the consequences of world leaders failing to act. Civilisation could be plunged back into the ‘Dark Ages.
He said that the Roman Empire would collapse if it could not control its borders. People came in from the East. Climate change could also cause similar disasters, with ‘contests to water, for foods’.
Although he acknowledged that there will be costs to moving to a Net Zero economy, which he promised the UK would do by 2050, he stated that it would also create high-skilled and high-paid jobs.
He stated that if you raise the temperature of the planet by 4°C or more, as is predicted, you’ll see the graphs. Then you can produce these very difficult geopolitical events.
‘You produce shortages, you produce desertification, habitat loss, movements… contests for water, for food, huge movements of peoples.
“Those are the things that are going be very difficult to control politically. The Roman Empire was destroyed largely because of uncontrolled immigration.
‘The Empire couldn’t control its borders, people flooded in from the east and we entered a Dark Ages. Europe went into a Dark Ages for a very long period.
“The point of that is not to say it can’t happen again.” People shouldn’t be so conceited that they think history is a one-way process.

Boris Johnson said that the outcome of the G20 summit in Rome (pictured), where he is trying gain momentum ahead to the gathering in Glasgow next Tuesday, was still in the balance.

Johnson admitted that he had asked China’s president X Jinping (pictured), in a call yesterday, to move the date for ‘peak’ emissions forward to 2025 instead of 2030. However, he was silenced

Last night, Mr Johnson walked the Spanish Steps together with his wife Carrie in preparation for the G20 summit
Johnson admitted that he had asked China’s president X Jinping yesterday to move the date for ‘peak’ emissions forward to 2025 instead of 2030. However, X Jinping refused.
“The point I made was to our Chinese friends that they have made progress in overseas financing of coal. He said this today: “That’s a good fact.”
“China must find new ways to make a greater, more ambitious and nationally determined contribution.
Told that China was not going to do that, Mr Johnson replied: `Let’s see where we can get to.
“What I believe the entire world needs to know is that it is possible to reduce dependence on coal very quickly.
‘I reminded President Xi that last time I was … the first time I went to Beijing as the mayor of London, our country, the UK was 40 per cent reliant on coal to generate power. Today, it’s just 1%. You can make rapid progress.
Johnson was remined saying that COP had only six of 10 chances of succeeding. He was pressed on whether his prospects had improved.
“I would say they are about the same. He said that everyone needs to be focused.
“What the UK has been trying do is to take the abstract concepts of Net Zero, which we discussed in Paris six year ago, and to make them into hard, sharp deliverables, in terms of reducing coke use, reducing the use internal combustion engines and planting millions of trees. It’s also trying to get the cash that the world needs in order to finance green tech.
When pressed that he should be more honest with the public on the costs of reaching Net Zero – estimated at a trillion pounds by 2050, although dealing with the effects of major climate would be bigger – Mr Johnson said: `Of course there are costs, but what you can do with green technology is produce hundreds of thousands of high wage, high skilled jobs.
“I think that’s the point people get. Look at what we have done, and I will say that going green makes it easier.
“The UK has reduced climate emissions and cut CO2 by 44% compared to 1990 levels, yet our economy has grown by 78%.”
The comments came amid fears about the Glasgow gathering becoming a damp squib.
Xi Jinping, China’s premier, has said that he will not attend in person but will speak via video link.
Along with Jair Bolsanaro from Brazil, Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, is also refusing to attend the summit.
Next week, COP26 will begin at Glasgow’s Scottish Event Campus. During the 13-day conference, 30,000 delegates, 10,000 officers and as many as 200k protestors will be welcomed.

COP26 will begin in Glasgow on Sunday. It will build on the Paris climate summit’s 2015 agreements, where nations committed to keeping global warming below 1.5C.

The Prime Minister’s remarks come at a time when some have claimed that the absence China and Russia of their premiers will make COP26 a damp fish.