Gransnet forums

News & politics

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

(281 Posts)
Urmstongran Thu 27-Oct-22 16:51:11

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

GrannyGravy13 Thu 27-Oct-22 18:03:23

That’s a fair point.

Those that can should though otherwise it’s just do as I say not as I do

varian Thu 27-Oct-22 18:36:58

If Sunak refuses to represent this country at COP we should send King Charles, who is actually recognised by other countries as having a genuine interest in the dangers of climate change.

MerylStreep Thu 27-Oct-22 18:44:21

Germany hosted the first COP.
Germany opened coal fired generators in July this year to cope with their energy crisis.

Urmstongran Thu 27-Oct-22 19:00:00

As we contribute only about 1% of global output maybe let other countries do something for a change. Let the worst offenders attend. Maybe less talking heads would produce some better results.

CraftyGranny Thu 27-Oct-22 19:20:17

UG, I agree

NotSpaghetti Thu 27-Oct-22 19:21:37

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.

Alie2Oxon Thu 27-Oct-22 19:22:31

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.

NotSpaghetti Thu 27-Oct-22 19:24:34

We were the first polluters
We should be there.

Zoejory Thu 27-Oct-22 19:25:28

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.

volver Thu 27-Oct-22 19:32:36

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.

growstuff Thu 27-Oct-22 19:32:58

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

volver Thu 27-Oct-22 19:36:01

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!!!

MayBee70 Thu 27-Oct-22 19:37:27

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.

MerylStreep Thu 27-Oct-22 19:38:34

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.

volver Thu 27-Oct-22 19:40:11

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/#/

volver Thu 27-Oct-22 19:41:05

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 Thu 27-Oct-22 19:44:48

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.

Zoejory Thu 27-Oct-22 19:50:23

Maybe King Charles will be there.

RichmondPark1 Thu 27-Oct-22 20:30:09

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.

vegansrock Thu 27-Oct-22 20:36:50

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.

Grantanow Thu 27-Oct-22 21:12:04

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.

MerylStreep Thu 27-Oct-22 21:45:50

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

rubysong Fri 28-Oct-22 09:20:07

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.

volver Fri 28-Oct-22 09:30:08

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.

volver Fri 28-Oct-22 09:30:53

Our minister for climate change