UK must ‘walk the talk’ on climate action

[Michael Grove]

The UK must “walk the talk” on climate action over the next 12 months, which will be critical in tackling the climate emergency, according to an assessment of the Cop26 summit by the Climate Change Committee. The UK has one of the most ambitious 2030 emissions targets in the world, according to the government’s official advisers, but it does not have all the policies in place to deliver it.

In particular, the CCC said, the government must produce a robust plan for cutting emissions from farming, which produces 10% of UK emissions, and address a gap in behaviour change policy for shifting diets away from meat and dairy and limiting rising demand for flying.

The UK hosted Cop26 in Glasgow and retains the presidency until November 2022, giving it a vital role in driving international action.

[Michael Grove]

  Fossil fuel companies turned up in force. In spite

  of being told that oil and gas companies would not

  have access to the talks, they found ways in. The

  utterly shameless former UK energy minister Claire 

  O’Neill’s World Business Council for Sustainable

  Development brought in a delegation including

  representatives of oil and tobacco companies.

  While I can imagine the spurious arguments oil

  companies might use for how they might have a  

  role to play here, my mind can’t even begin to

  imagine how tobacco companies could in any way

  present themselves as having any role to play here

  whatsoever.

                  Rob Hopkins - Imagination taking Power

[Michael Grove]

Briefly spoken of in a possible UN climate role, Alok Sharma may enjoy similar treatment in future years, as his COP26 presidency was widely praised. But Truss and Rees-Mogg, if they continue as they have begun, could sound the death knell of the UK’s reputation for climate lead....

If green groups are to be slung out with the anti-growth coalition, they may both be content at the prospect. But Burke warned it would also be “a betrayal of the British people”, the great majority of whom – consistently, according to opinion polls – want to see progress on the climate crisis, and who took pride in the UK’s role on the world stage.

“The British public really responded to Cop26, the business community did too & the scientists – there was a real sense that the UK was taking a leading role in the world on an important issue,” said Burke. “Even the Queen in her queenly way made it clear she thought something needed to be done. There was a broad sense that we were reflecting [at Cop26] the kind of country we want ourselves to be. This government is now betraying all of that.”

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