For a summit meant to secure the future of the world, it boasts only a decent attendance. US President Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron of France and our own Rishi Sunak are all at COP27 in Egypt but leaders from some of the world’s largest emitters of carbon dioxide such as China, India and Canada are all conspicuous by their absences.
UN secretary-general António Guterres said “COP27 must be the place to close the ambition gap, the credibility gap and the solidarity gap”. If not, we will be “doomed”. Indeed, we are on course for warming of 2.8C this century, a rise that would lead to climate disaster.
But the reality is that while many countries and businesses have made ambitious-sounding promises on cutting carbon, many have not followed through with the detailed plans needed to deliver on them.
Despite warm words, the UN’s Emission Gap Report finds that countries’ nationally determined contributions submitted since COP26 in Glasgow cut less than one per cent of projected global emissions by 2030.
Britain can and must do more. The PM is right to focus on “clean growth”. It is therefore odd that he should persist with the effective moratorium on onshore wind — one of the cheapest forms of energy. We must go further on everything, from retrofitting buildings to boosting energy efficiency and rolling out electrification across sectors to ultimately phasing out all fossil fuel production.
Nothing should be off the table. In a warming world, every fraction of a degree counts.
No end to disruption
Disruption amid strikes, disruption even when they are called off. That was the reality for Londoners over the weekend and into today. Though the RMT union called off industrial action on Friday, the network continues to operate only a limited service.
The RMT said it had secured “unconditional” talks with Network Rail and the promise of a pay offer from the train operating companies. Commuters will understandably be wondering why they are always the ones scrambling.
How are our retail and hospitality businesses, still recovering from Covid lockdowns and now bracing themselves for the longest recession on record, meant to thrive if customers and staff cannot get to where they need to be?
We must hope that Mark Harper, the third Transport Secretary in three months, can continue the more positive signs under his predecessor, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, and secure a long-term settlement with the unions. One that ensures Londoners can get on with their lives.
Mental highs and lows
We don’t all face the spotlight of a penalty shootout in the final of a major competition, but each of us knows the feeling of crushing disappointment and how quickly we can fall from emotional high to low.
In a video with England captain Harry Kane and midfielder Declan Rice, Prince William discussed mental health and how to handle the often difficult gap between excitement and disappointment.
The Prince of Wales has long been a public supporter of mental health, and the power of talking — something as a society we still do not do enough of.
