Guest essay by Eric Worrall
In the wake of a dramatic rollback of climate policy in Britain and Germany, the UN has accused Britain and Germany of “betraying the spirit” of the Paris Climate Accord.
Ban Ki-moon’s climate change envoy has accused the UK and Germany of backtracking on the spirit of the Paris climate deal by financing the fossil fuel industry through subsidies.
Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and UN special envoy on climate change and El Niño, said she had to speak out after Germany promised compensation for coal power and the UK provided tax breaks for oil and gas.
Governments in Paris last year not only pledged to phase out fossil fuels in the long term but to make flows of finance consistent with the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
“They’ve [the British government] introduced new tax breaks for oil and gas in 2015 that will cost the UK taxpayer billions between 2015 and 2020, and at the same time they’ve cut support for renewables and for energy efficiency,” she told the Guardian.
“It’s regrettable. That’s not in the spirit [of Paris]. In many ways, the UK was a real leader [on climate change] and hopefully the UK will become again a real leader. But it’s not at the moment.”
As Ban Ki-moon’s tenure as UN Secretary General draws to a close, he is no doubt thinking about his legacy, how history will remember him. Given the accelerating collapse of political climate enthusiasm across the world, my prediction is Ban Ki-moon will be remembered as the UN Secretary General who presided over the downfall of the green movement.
Ban Ki-moon will be remembered as one of the greatest wastes of time and space in the history of the United Nations and that is a very big amount of waste in an organisation that has spiraled down out of control since Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld was killed.
The accelerating collapse of political climate enthusiasm around the world isbeing helped on by people like Ban Ki-moon and the ecological leeches that surround him.
Legacy? Korea will be a long time living Ki-moon down.
A betrayal? No way…..this is people coming to their senses.
PR not Science again.
Look at the WUWT headlinwe “UN Accuses Germany, Britain of “Betraying” the Paris Climate Accord” which an repition of the Guardian’s headline un-criticises-uk-and-german-for-betraying-the-spirit-of-the-paris-climate-deal
Does the content of the Guardian article justify the headline ?
Has the UN issued an official statement ? NO
Is it news ? Like did Mary Robinson and other quoted people appear at some public event saying these things?
Is it a constructed story ? Seems to me yes, as if the journalist has gathered up quoytes to build a narrative. He may or may not be pushing PR from mary Robinson’s team, but the new-story contains no info saying whether the writer actually met up with her.
So I conclude as with a lot or most Greenblob stuff it’s the usual propaganda of PR not science.