By Paul Homewood
h/t Dennis Ambler
It would appear that the BBC and the Guardian get their act together!
Just a few days ago, Matt McGrath was praising Claire Perry to the skies:
If the Glasgow climate conference fails to deliver, it could mark the end of the global approach to tackling the problem.
COP26 in November will see around 200 world leaders meet to agree a new, long term deal on rising temperatures.
But according to Claire O’Neill, the president of COP26, the UK has "one shot" at making it a success.
She told a BBC documentary that if Glasgow fails, people will question the whole UN approach.
COP26 marks a critical moment for the UN in the long running effort to find a global solution to climate change.
As part of the Paris climate deal, agreed in 2015, countries are meant to update their carbon cutting plans by the end of this year.
So far, 114 say they have done this, or are in the process of doing so this year.
Another 120 countries have now told the UN that they have either agreed on plans to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 or are working towards that goal.
While this represents some progress, a key part of the Glasgow meeting will be trying to push countries to go even further.
In December, there was widespread dismay after countries failed to agree on more ambitious steps at the Madrid conference of the parties known as COP25.
The messy compromise in the Spanish capital has also left a raft of complex issues unresolved, including the use of carbon markets, plus the question of compensation for loss and damage suffered by poorer nations from storms and rising sea levels.
Underpinning the lack of progress in Madrid was the huge gap between big emitters such as Brazil, Australia, India, China and US and an alliance of countries wanting to go much faster including the European Union, small island states and vulnerable nations.
Former UK minister Claire O’Neill has been tasked with presiding over COP26 and delivering an agreement acceptable to all.
Widely seen as knowledgeable and authoritative, Ms O’Neill says that Glasgow is the best, and perhaps last chance to make progress under the long drawn out UN process.
"I think we have one shot," she said, speaking to the BBC at the end of the Madrid conference in December.
"I think if we don’t have a successful outcome next year people will legitimately look at us and say ‘what are you doing, is there a better way?’
"I think we have this amazing opportunity to get the world together to talk about ambition but crucially to deliver it, and I guess I am really determined to do that."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51229604
Unfortunately he forgot to check his script first with his chums at the Guardian, who published this four days later:
Claire O’Neill, the former UK energy minister who was to lead the UN climate talks this year in Glasgow, has been removed from the post.
Her sacking comes as Boris Johnson prepares to launch the UK’s strategy for hosting November’s crunch climate talks, known as COP26.
O’Neill, under her Twitter handle of @COP26President, wrote on Friday evening: “Very sad that the role I was offered by Boris Johnson last year has now been rescinded as Whitehall ‘can’t cope’ with an indy COP unit. A shame we haven’t had one climate cabinet meeting since we formed. Wishing the COP team every blessing in the climate recovery emergency.”
The dramatic last-minute change of plan follows murmurings over the past month that O’Neill, known under her previous married name of Perry when she was a minister, lacked the gravitas for one of the most important jobs in international politics this year.
A source in the COP26 unit said: “Claire has seriously underperformed, including at Davos and on a recent ministerial visit to India. She had said ‘the Paris agreement is dead’ in key meetings to the surprise of everyone.
“She didn’t seem to get that this is a diplomatic job. The senior team of officials in the unit couldn’t work with her and her erratic behaviour and poor performance has spooked key stakeholders in the UK and internationally. She had to go. The PM now needs to show he is taking this seriously by appointing a heavy-hitting minister.”
Obviously telling everybody that the Paris so-called Agreement has been a waste of time is rather like telling the Emperor he has no clothes!
But poor deluded Matt McGrath still seems to think that the rest of the world gives a toss about any of this nonsense.
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
February 2, 2020 at 04:21PM
Iowa Climate Science Education 