Boris Johnson has said he is “very worried” over whether the COP26 summit will be a success.
The Prime Minister will welcome more than 120 world leaders to Glasgow for the UN summit from Sunday but admitted it was “touch and go” as to whether key goals would be met.
He said: "We need as many people as possible to go to net zero so that they are not producing too much carbon dioxide by the middle of the century.
“Now, I think it can be done. It’s going to be very, very tough, this summit. And I’m very worried, because it might go wrong and we might not get the agreements that we need.
“It’s touch and go.”
Mr Johnson, who was talking to schoolchildren in Downing Street, said meeting the goals of COP26 would be “very, very difficult” but “I think it can be done”.
He added that the UK had "cut down our CO2 emissions massively", as well as coal emissions.
The four main goals of COP26 are to secure global net zero by mid-century and keep 1.5C degrees within reach, adapt to protect communities and natural habitats, mobilise finance, and for countries to “work together to deliver”.
Mr Johnson described Cop26 as "perhaps the most important summit that this country has had in our lifetimes".
He said “peer pressure” at the UN summit could force some nations into action but with some world leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping, expected to be absent experts say the chances of that tactic being a success may be limited.
Mr Johnson acknowledged “it’s very, very far from clear that we will get the progress that we need” although he praised Australia for the “heroic” decision to commit to net zero by 2050.
