Sunak says he’s not going to attend the Cop27 climate summit.

MerylStreep

On a lighter note, all they do is produce a lot of hot air

How wrong you are.

In my "professional" days I went to quite a lot of conferences. Some were relatively local, some were National and some were International.

Mostly I wasn't excited about going but once I got there I was generally buzzing! New ideas, new challenges, new people, new ways of doing things... new ideas by the "water cooler" or over lunch.

Being there is worth a hundred "virtuals". It's not usually what happens in the lecture theatre that informs your practice and motivates you (though sometimes it really is that) - it's often what is talked about between sessions and during workshops.

If you haven't been to a conference with truly driven people you cannot know this.

The conferences I've attended haven't all been life changing- but I can think of at least two which have been.
They have changed both my life and my work.

Please don't just dismiss COP27.

My next door neighbour is working from home today.

Just seen BBC news again - they did a piece on how many people are having difficulty getting to work because of petrol prices - affecting many people. Ended it showing a Shell petrol station, the one that has just made that obscene profit.....

deliberate, I think.

volver

MerylStreep

On a lighter note, all they do is produce a lot of hot air.
Watching Frozen Planet last Sunday showed that our grandchildren are going to face some serious decisions.

No lass, we face the decisions. And unless we make them, your grandchildren are f**ked.

Exactly so.

You know we are living through climate change and have been doing so for years.

I can give a lived example.

For the past 20 years we have been walking various dogs by a river quite near the estuary. It has 2 banks- one lower than the other. 20 years ago the lower bank flooded twice a year - spring tides.

Now it floods every month at least and often more.

That is as a result if the rising sea levels because of melting ice.

The environment energy has recently constructed flood defences to the tune of £25million to defend Shoreham by Sea but it is already clear that it will very soon be insufficient. It is all happening far quicker than the scientists expected.

That has happened in such a short time it is scary.

Our minister for climate change

Johnson went to COP26 for less than 1 day. I'm sure Sunak could get to Egypt and back in time for the financial statement.

And the fact that he can't organise that shows the UK is far from taking climate change seriously. Our minister for climate has been demoted from the cabinet.

Poor Rishi, damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. If he went he would be absent at the time of the very important budget statement and would be accused of avoiding the, inevitable, difficult questions. I hope the King will go for some part of the conference to show the UK is taking climate change seriously.

RichmondPark
I’m not ignoring you, I just don’t wish to comment any more on this thread.

Sunak is rightly busy with the domestic economy after Truss and Kwarteng's mess up but I think Charles should go to COP even though Truss said he couldn't.

The world is facing irreversible climate breakdown, the mild weather we are having now is due to the climate crisis. Shell and other energy firms announce record profits, species are dying out in record numbers, our water companies and intensive agriculture are poisoning our waterways. But let’s not care, let’s just fiddle with tax cuts while Rome burns.

GrannyGravy13

MerylStreep

The only flaw I can see in a virtual conference is that is a bit difficult to scratch someone’s back.

Bulls eye ???

Can someone please provide some details to explain these comments.

Has there been back scratching at previous conferences? I've heard nothing about that and having done a quick search can't find anything.

Maybe King Charles will be there.

volver

growstuff

How do you know that somebody will go from the UK? Do you have inside information?

Of course there will be UK people there. It's not a bunch of politicians sitting round a table having a chat. It's a working conference.

cop27.eg/#/

Fair enough! I just hope we send somebody with a bit of gravitas.

MerylStreep

On a lighter note, all they do is produce a lot of hot air.
Watching Frozen Planet last Sunday showed that our grandchildren are going to face some serious decisions.

No lass, we face the decisions. And unless we make them, your grandchildren are f**ked.

growstuff

How do you know that somebody will go from the UK? Do you have inside information?

Of course there will be UK people there. It's not a bunch of politicians sitting round a table having a chat. It's a working conference.

cop27.eg/#/

On a lighter note, all they do is produce a lot of hot air.
Watching Frozen Planet last Sunday showed that our grandchildren are going to face some serious decisions.

I’ve now realised why Alok Sharma supported Johnson and I think I’m right in thinking he hasn’t got a ministerial position in Sunak’s cabinet. I think Sunak has made it clear how high on his agenda the environment is.

It is about the carbon footprint of countries, looking for renewable energy along with urging us all to do our bit.

Let’s start with that. That’s not what it's about. Well, OK, the first bit, definitely, about carbon footprints. Renewable energy is one way of helping to fix things. However they don’t care if you and I are doing Our Bit, because Our Bit is a drop in the ocean.

COP is the annual meeting at which the various countries are supposed to report on what they have done to meet their committed targets. Of course, they have never met any of them. So given that up until now our leaders have been completely useless at doing what they need to do, they need to start talking about what they will do, now, and what their plans are for mitigation. So, for instance, how will the sub-Saharan countries plan to feed their starving populations? How will the European countries plan to manage all the people who are going to appear on our shores, getting angrier every year? How will we manage when the clean water runs out and Amsterdam disappears beneath the North Sea?

So while its awfully public spirited of you GG13, not to buy that gas guzzler, its won’t make an iota of difference. What will make a difference is when governments put in place plans to stop the production of gas guzzlers. We need macro solutions, not well meaning Grans.

I recall that you are a businessperson GG13? Well you will be aware that bargains are built on relationships and personalities. So our shiny new PM not going along, just reinforces the idea that the UK doesn’t care. So much for Global Britain, eh?

Virtual? Ever tried to do complex negotiations over a Zoom call? Doesn’t work. Especially if there are 30,000 of you. It’s not “The Voice”. The energy expended going to this meeting is negligible compared to what we have to do to fix this, so wittering on about not wasting the world’s resources so that they can all go on a jolly is risible.

But anyway. I agree that the meetings have been disappointing up until now. The biggest difference between us is that so many people here just seem to think that we should just give up on the whole thing and stay home, while I can see, (as can others here) that this is the biggest threat we have to our way of life – maybe even to our lives. However, I’m not the one with grandchildren who will lead reduced lives because of it – the rest of you are. They’ll be very interested to hear how you didn’t think it was worth doing anything about it, because, you know, the Germans/Chinese/Americans are nasty people who wouldn’t play ball!!!

How do you know that somebody will go from the UK? Do you have inside information?

Zoejory

Of course someone will go from the UK. Just not Rishi.

These things don't seem to do much good really. They are also rather unfriendly to the environment.

*Of the 53,374 tonnes of CO2 produced on average by the COP23, COP24 and COP25 events – held in Bonn, Germany, Katowice, Poland and Madrid, Spain respectively – 45,264 came from air travel.*

Annual CO2 global production - 34 billion tonnes.

So COP, a 2-week event, amounts for 0.00015% of annual CO2 production.

Of course someone will go from the UK. Just not Rishi.

These things don't seem to do much good really. They are also rather unfriendly to the environment.

Of the 53,374 tonnes of CO2 produced on average by the COP23, COP24 and COP25 events – held in Bonn, Germany, Katowice, Poland and Madrid, Spain respectively – 45,264 came from air travel.

We were the first polluters
We should be there.

I was going to start this one, but it's here! My point...
Somebody ought to go and represent Britain!

Liz Truss was going to go, I'm extremely glad she's not.

The BBC is plugging it quite well. It's the 'only game in town' that's trying to do anything globally, and we should be in there. Even if it doesn't do all that we hope.

DO WE JUST LET THE WORLD DIE?

This is not an exaggeration.

Urmstongran

He’s got a lot on his plate right now. He’s definitely doing things differently to Boris. “Focusing on domestic issues”.

This IS a domestic problem.

I hope he sends a "deputy" encourages King Charles to go.