By Robert Bradley Jr. — September 8, 2021
“Vaccine inequity, unaffordable accommodation, travel challenges and new surges in the Covid19 pandemic will lock out huge numbers of developing country delegates from the UN climate talks set to take place in November.” (Climate Action Network, September 7, 2021)
Add “incremental emissions” to the above, and it is quandary time in Glasgow, UK.
Last March, the resurgence of the Pandemic led to talk about a second postponement. Now, the wolf is at the door. With a global fossil-fuel boom in evidence, and international cooperation to reduce CO2 in disarray, this is an opportunity for COP26 to go “net zero.”
The following statement from Climate Action Network International, “COP26 Must the Postponed,” was just released:
Climate Action Network (CAN), a global network of more than 1500 civil society organisations in over 130 countries working together to fight the climate emergency, has today called for the UN climate talks – COP26 – to be postponed. The conference is set to take place in early November.
With just two months to go, it is evident that a safe, inclusive and just global climate conference is impossible given the failure to support the access to vaccines to millions of people in poor countries, the rising costs of travel and accommodation, and the uncertainty in the course of the Covid19 pandemic.
An in-person COP in early November would de facto exclude many government delegates, civil society campaigners and journalists, particularly from Global South countries, many of which are on the UK’s Covid19 ‘red list’.
This exclusion poses serious and long-lasting implications for issues that will be under deliberation at this COP and that are extremely important to developing countries, including on climate finance, loss and damage and carbon market rules, among others.
The full and meaningful representation of those on the frontlines of the climate emergency is critical to produce a credible political outcome from COP26.
”Our concern is that those countries most deeply affected by the climate crisis and those countries suffering from the lack of support by rich nations in providing vaccines will be left out of the talks and be conspicuous by their absence at COP26. There has always been an inherent power imbalance within the UN climate talks, between rich and poor nations, and this is now compounded by the health crisis. Looking at the current timeline for COP26, it is difficult to imagine there can be fair participation from the Global South under safe conditions and it should therefore be postponed,” said Tasneem Essop, Executive Director, Climate Action Network.
“This issue of participation at COP26 is a microcosm of the larger patterns of global injustice and exclusion that we see playing out. CAN has advocated for vaccine equity and a TRIPS waiver on Covid19 vaccines since the start of this year and called out the UK for failing to support a patent waiver at the G7 Summit back in June. Today, 57% of Europe is fully vaccinated while just about 3% of Africa is. Our fight for climate justice and our efforts to hold those in power accountable cannot be delinked from the root causes that continue to perpetuate such inequality and injustice. The climate talks are important but against the current context of vaccine apartheid they simply cannot proceed by locking out the voices of those who especially need to be heard at this time,” added Essop.
While the UK COP26 Presidency promised to fast-track vaccines to delegates in need of them, those who applied for this are yet to receive their first jabs as of today. We note that the UK COP Presidency has now announced that delegates will be vaccinated this week.
Repeated requests to the UK Presidency for clarity around support for logistics and quarantine costs have also not been forthcoming or made public.
“The UK has been too slow in delivering its vaccines support to delegates in vulnerable countries and their quarantine requirements come with some eye-watering hotel costs. Some delegates are finding they cannot transit because some of the major travel hubs are closed and the alternative travel costs are beyond the reach of poorer governments and smaller civil society organisations. If COP26 goes ahead as currently planned, I fear it is only the rich countries and NGOs from those countries that would be able to attend.
This flies in the face of the principles of the UN process and opens the door for a rich-nations stitch-up of the talks. A climate summit without the voices of those most affected by climate change is not fit for its purpose,” said Mohamed Adow, long-time observer of the talks and Director of the Nairobi-based think tank Power Shift Africa.
“Authentic climate solutions exist but what is missing is genuine solidarity. Like the pandemic, the climate and biodiversity emergency knows no boundaries or nationalities, but it is those least responsible who are the worst impacted. Equity, safety, action and accountability – all of the ingredients for solidarity – must be central to COP26 being the success it has to be. This can only be achieved through timely vaccine access and financial support for quarantine expenses – these elements are all lacking.Rebuilding the essential multilateral trust required for a successful COP26 also means supporting the TRIPS waiver for a People’s Vaccine, delivering on commitments for climate finance for the most vulnerable countries, and kicking fossil fuels out of politics once and for all,” said Jennifer Morgan, Executive Director, Greenpeace International
CAN acknowledges the difficulties in holding a COP during a pandemic. This call to postpone COP26 does not in any way imply a postponement of urgent climate action or a boycott of the climate talks. As accredited observers to the UN climate negotiations, CAN has been a key player in every COP since 1995, advocating for the strongest response from governments to the climate emergency.
We will continue our work to push political leaders to deliver ambitious national climate targets, fulfil their responsibilities on climate finance, phase out fossil fuels and address the needs of the most vulnerable people experiencing loss and damage.
Escalating climate impacts all over the world and the most recent IPCC report are a reminder that consistent, urgent and transformative action on the ground to avert the worst of the climate crisis is needed everyday, day after day.
We continue to hold those in power accountable to this.
Postponement 1: 2020
In April 2020, the BBC stated in Cop26: Why experts hope cancelling the climate event could help the planet:
And some officials have said there could be a positive to COP26 being cancelled…. because it’s a real opportunity for governments to spend that money on lots of sustainable and renewable projects that can be discussed there.
Said Stephanie Pfeifer from the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC):
Moving the summit back improves the likelihood of a strong outcome and ensuring that the world is put on a path to tackle the climate crisis.
Turning bad news into good is part of the COP26 spin, as it has been for nearly 30 years with the United Nations effort to dislodge from modern mineral energies chosen by free consumers.
Meanwhile, fossil fuels and the planet move on.
I agree. COP26 should be postponed until everybody is certain to be absolutely safe. I suggest the conference should take place in 2050.
It used to be called the “uncertainty principle” that justified massive change due to climate alarmism. But the alarmists have now move far beyond uncertainly, and are claiming absolute rock solid certainty that we’re all going to die due to climate change tomorrow if we don’t eff up society today.
If we’re not careful, we’ll likely accomplish both goals.
I doubt anyone will die of climate change: plenty from energy poverty though
I think that’s the plan ; too many peasants on the planet!
“Precautionary principle”. magnitude of action = lack of problem x improbability of it happening.
Uncertainty principle (h/t Heisenberg) is the more accurately you measure a physical property of a quantum system, the less accurately you can measure others. Not sure of the analogy with Climate Change.
Shouldn’t that calculation be ‘lack of problem’ divided by ‘improbability ot it happening’?
At least that is how alarmists are pushing the precautionary principle where “oh no! It’s worse than we expect.” translates into trillion dollar legal requirements.
Sounds like some mad cows got into conferencing too!
No, that’s far too soon. Postpone it to 2150. At least.
Disputin / Bill
I agree.
And Glasgow isn’t the right place.
Much safer in the South Sandwich Islands.
I kid you not. One of the twelve “Green” destinations first conceded to by the UK Genius Beloved Leaders as ‘safe’ for UK plebs to visit. (Most of which wouldn’t allow you in, anyway.)
Safer for delegates anyway. No danger in 2150 of me giving these parasitic clowns the kind of “jab” I’d like to provide.
I agree, South Georgia Island is the perfect location:
“Discovered by Europeans in 1675, South Georgia had no indigenous population due to harsh climate and remoteness. Captain James Cook in HMS Resolution made the first landing, survey and mapping of the island…” — wikipedia, so caution is advised.
What’s wrong with an asteroid? We should be all over the asteroid belt by then, especially if the seas keep rising.
I don’t think that the seas are going to rise that high.
My thoughts exactly, not if you were planning to go by boat, that is.
They could have a whale of a time at Grytviken. It would have been much more fun a year earlier though.
https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/?v=-5605376,1579300.5714285714,-10240,4069668.5714285714&p=antarctic&as=2020-11-02-T00%3A00%3A00Z&ae=2020-11-28-T00%3A00%3A00Z&l=Coastlines_15m,VIIRS_NOAA20_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor,VIIRS_SNPP_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor,MODIS_Aqua_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor,MODIS_Terra_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor&lg=false&ab=on&t=2020-11-02-T18%3A00%3A00Z
Do we really need COPxyz ?
No, why let take it place whenever ?There is no need at all.
By then it will be a retro climate con convention.
That is, a climate con con.
The kids will love it. They’ll wear imagined old clothes and makeup resembling the climate heroes and villains.
By then, all pseudo science should be stricken from databases.
Krish: given that nothing useful came out of the first 25 meetings, I think that’s enough data points to establish a trend.
They will postpone it till the day arctic ice melts away/glaciers disappear/maledives drown…
It’s AGW all over again and as AGW it helps the same tiny group of people to push their agenda.
Incredible coincidences always help the same group of people.
Probably could cancel the entire event. Hurricane Larry is weakening — obviously due to global cooling … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVPsAM4nyhU
Larry is weakening because the convective pressure the drives it is weakening, and local conditions weakening, and, part of that weakening is caused by Hurricane OLAF in the East Pacific is adsorbing that pressure pulse.
When you see three kites flying like in 2017 the convective pressure pulse was significant, plus local conditions.
Is “Larry” the result of Global Warming or Global Cooling?
John
Tropical cyclones exist in both states. The same motivator is present.
“The same motivator is present.”
Al Gore?
Make it a time capsule.
Only include names and what their beliefs are.
e.g., mickey manniacal – hokeystick.
No, they can’t postpone it at this late date! Just think of all the wasted propaganda they’ve produced already. And there’s much more in the propaganda pipeline scheduled to be metered out in increasing quantity over the next 2 months. It will all be stale and useless if the COP is delayed again. And by the time they get around to actually meeting the 6th IPCC assessment report will already be old news and thoroughly shredded by actual scientific analysis. Postponement would be a disaster for climate hysterics and their travel budgets.
Right! So it should be postponed!
Glasgow will be in the grip of an ice age by then; if it isn’t already!
We should all be hoping they proceed with it. It is certain to fail in a very public way. They will announce some sort of victory at the close of the meeting, but it will rapidly be torn apart by disappointed greens for not going far enough. The rest of us can sit and watch them demolish themselves.
And I think they are smart to meet in Glasgow in November. All of us make fun of them for picking COP locations that are boondoggle destination trips for government functionaries. This is their chance to show that they are serious about climate change, not getting a free vacay. They’ll soon be back to meeting in Rio, but hereafter they can point to the time they went to the frozen north for their confab.
Hopefully no doubt Al Gore will be there and the weather will be icy as usual where ever he goes .
Whenever he opens his mouth, a glacier loses gigatons of ice.
Surely at least 2060 when China ‘will be ‘ at at zero emissions ‘ as promised by Xi ‘ .
Then the World will have been saved and no more COP’s will be required .
They will then have COP Reunion meetings and COP Legend meetings and COP Travel Rewards beach meetings
why not 2150?
then the parties can sort out empirical temperature readings and averages for an entire century
China and other developing nations extended to 2100.
“With a global fossil-fuel boom in evidence, and international cooperation to reduce CO2 in disarray, this is an opportunity for COP26 to go “net zero.” “
Is it?
Or is it a good “justification” to chicken out of that uncomfortable discussion without losing face?
I concur, this is what I suggested a few days ago, fear of Covid will start a stampede to cancel COP26 at the Eleventh hour. They really should hold it on Zoom anyway as that will open it up to a whole lot more excuses for nothing being accomplished.
In NZ our Minister for Climate, who happens to be a Green MP has stated that there will be no Zoom meeting option at COP(out) 26 so he has to attend in person. Bloody hypocrite!
At Paris 2016 it was a national party minister who signed the country up to the Paris Climate Treaty….which was supported by Green Party.
Not only a bloody hypocrite but a bloody fool as well! Leaving NZ in the spring to go to Glasgow in November is not a brilliant move. Or maybe the covid restrictions have given him such a case of cabin fever that going anywhere that is not NZ is something to look forward to….
But, but, but …. by attending he and the others will help release an extra couple 100,000 tons of life-giving CO2 into the air. Cumulatively the 26 COPs have likely provided 2 million or more tons of CO2!
If they postpone it long enough, we will find out if they were right, when they said we only had 12 years (or whatever) to ‘save’ the earth. By 2050 we should have a pretty good idea.
Catastrophic climate change is like fusion power. It’s always 10 years away. Or as IIRC the red queen might have said ‘it’s climate change every other day, but never climate change today‘.
Save the Earth from what ? The Earth will be here for millions of more years .
We need to save our people from our politicians and leaders who cannot control the unnecessary population explosions in certain demographic areas .
It seems to have been a hundred months.I followed this because it was so laughable. 100 months to save the world | Environment | The Guardian
Remote! It’s good enough for out children. It should be good enough for COP.
Whenever the COP26 takes place, the conference needs to focus on an answer to what will replace crude oil.
Before the 1900’s we had NONE of the 6,000 products from oil and petroleum products. By ceasing oil production and fracking, the supply chain to refineries will be severed and there will no need for refineries as they will have no crude oil to manufacture fuels and derivatives. Without crude oil, manufacturing the various fuels for transportation infrastructures and the military, and manufacturing the derivatives that make the thousands of products used in our daily lives would be terminated.
Without crude oil, how will the world “clone” those oil derivatives that provide the thousands of products from petroleum that are essential to our medical industry, electronics, communications, transportation infrastructure, our electricity generation, our cooling, heating, manufacturing, and agriculture—indeed, virtually every aspect of our daily lives and lifestyles?
Without petroleum and coal for heavy vehicles and steel, they can’t have their turbines and panels. An interesting conundrum.
I watched a TV program on how they build and maintain those offshore wind turbines. Biggest offshore platform I’ve ever seen, steel built diesel powered. Madness
Very wise observation.
If some “keep it in the ground” fanatic once has a coronary accident and has to stay in a hospital, it would be a good exercise for him or her to think how to make catheters out of corn meal, tubes for serum bottles out of organic waste from agricultural indistries, syringes out of who knows what, etc. …
Porcupine quills might serve in a pinch …
Beware! Are porcupines in risk of extintion?
Those questions will be addressed during COP 33.
Lithium batteries on ISS catch fire ?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58497899
@Mods
Spam
Nit surprising with decaying Russian junk. No doubt decaying Chinese junk will replace it in time.
The greens need to ask themselves a simple question. Why even bother?
There have been 25 COP conferences thus far. The impact these conferences have had on their key focus of attention CO2 has been zero. The graph of CO2 rising steadily and without any change over the past 25 COP events and their outcomes, show COP conferences are both pointless and ineffective at affecting CO2.
Why do they bother?
Is the allure of being in Glasgow UK in November so overwhelming, they can’t resist it?
Those who have ever been in Glasgow in November, will understand where I am coming from. 🙂
Yep, I never really understood that one either. I thought sunny climes were their usual choice.
Nah, if Al Gore is going it will snow.
Poland?
The first aim of any institution is survival. Then growth. Then to spawn similar institutions. It’s the way life works.
If an institution stops doing that it is dead. The AGW movement is made up of institutions that have fed off the energy (and money) thrown into saving the world. They need the energy to keep the institution running.
Saying, “That’s enough for now” is like saying to a shark “just drift a bit”. If they stop, they starve.
It doesn’t matter that the COPs have all achieved none of their declared objectives. The real objective is for them to exist and create hype and thus energy for the movement.
Can you imagine the disaster if they actually did save the world? What would drive the purpose and funding of Green NGOs, Climatology Departments, Environmental Journalists… And the hangers-on.
Solving the problem is the last thing they want to do.
Yes, today’s ranks of CoPers want their efforts to bear fruit, but not until after they’ve retired and start collecting their overly generous pensions.
Which means that CoPs will continue to be held for generations.
No!
If there are similar institutions there will be a turf war.
The goal of a new organization is to claim turf, then to expand that turf.
Then it is intermittent turf defense and turf expansion.
Any spawning will be of subordinate institutions, just as the IPCC is a subordinate to UNFCCC and they to the UN.
Not so different.
It’s how families work.
Look at the Godfather.
ALL these meetings have one thing in common. It’s my old saying from my Navy days, that after it’s all said and done, there’s a whole lot MORE SAID, than done! 95% of all meetings are a complete waste of time. AND MONEY, too! Prove me wrong!
But this time it’s different.
It has never been about CO₂.
It has always been about changing democracy and republics to socialism.
And to get all those private cars off the streets.
Are there any survivors?
Bending over forwards?
The North Atlantic says “bring a heavy coat”….
NOAA SST-NorthAtlantic GlobalMonthlyTempSince1979 With37monthRunningAverage.gif (880×481) (climate4you.com)
I predict its going to be cold for the next 35 years in the UK and Northern Europe. I could be wrong about the AMO’s approximately 70-year cycle.
The cold will be bad enough but the organized policy reach in the opposite direction compounds the problems. Degrading science and professional orgs is equally appalling. But then perfect storms are multi-factor problem sets.
This is also where cycle variability comes in. We went through a higher than average peak and what comes next could also be a worse than average down cycle. Never mind those ill advised detrended cycles using 2.5 turns in the data series to do it. I guess we’ll look into those reef coring data sets when it’s too late.
It’s easier to predict policy and advocacy reaction than to predict the AMO. It will be a new generation of leaders and advocates then. The Dear Leaders will use the phrase “who could have known” and shake their heads at long gone decisionmakers that came before while retaining the funding sources tied to older global warming taxes. Meanwhile advocacy armies will pivot to plastics and foods without taking blame for past misdeeds. The UN will pivot to other wealth redistribution schemes and ask for more funding. And WHO will declare they can’t find the origin of the COVID19 virus in a final final report. And COP56 will focus on advancements in fusion research and deforestation caused by wood pellet burning and ethanol production.
Nah!
Tell the attendees it will be sandals, shorts and short sleeve weather while bikinis will be at the beach.
Any warm clothing made from fossil fuels should have their price raised by 20X minimum. Natural products prices should be raised fifty times.
Then multiply by ten the price of anything warm in Glasgow. And all liquor should be 25 times the before COP26 price.
quarantine costs
Can easily be minimised if they all fail to get on the private jets and stay wherever they are.
Even that bozo Harry.
Leave our prince alone. He is there specifically to kiss frogs and release princesses from evil spells. Royal work indeed.
“Global Injustice”? Would that be like minimizing CO2 in the atmosphere and decreasing plant food productivity? No?
Exactly. The Tories can’t offload Boris until this fiasco is over. They need him to carry the can for the inevitable diplomatic failure.
But the Tories desperately need to get rid of him before he completely bankrupts the country and further befouls our foreign policy. We could all be Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’d the way he’s going.
Yet no-one wants the poison chalice of COP26.
It would be remembered that their first step on the world stage was a complete farce. So they need to get this over with.
I should think the 1st step in a post Boris UK is to locate some actual conservatives before people forget what a conservative is and what they stand for.
Well I’m hoping it will go ahead,and so is the UK government, but I think our reasons are opposing reasons.
The divide between the rich west and the so called developing world is huge, the west has not fulfilled its promises of support,and I’ve seen no indications it will.
Major powers ,Russia, China,India, don’t seem to want to play ball with co2 imissions, a major stumbling block for concensus, which is what its all about.
What watered down spin will MSM regurgitate if none of the stumbling blocks above can be overcome?
This is why I’m hoping it will go ahead not because some delegates will not be vaccinated or they can’t afford the sticky fingers of hoteliers ,thats just spin, its because they simply can’t find a concensus in a way forward , its doomed this time round ,they have not achieved much if anything since the last live cop.its going to be a publicity disaster.
Bring it on I say.
As for the UK wanting it to continue , my opinion is its business ,
Its business for sticky fingers ,its business for the investment already made in the green blob
Its about sealing deals hand shakes , and ” would you like to sign a contract sir,
Its always been business in the UK, climate and the environment are a means to a end.
BRING IT ON.
Carrie wants it to continue, so Boris will support it.
Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC)???
Oh…subsidy scammers are us.
Everyone must attend to produce “a credible political outcome”. Any questions?
Whoa!
Choose to spend all that delegate attending money on actual projects????
Insanity, and setting the most dangerous of precedents.
Life’s a bitch and then you die.
Ever thought of going into the greetings cards business?
Life’s a beach and there you fry
“efforts to hold those in power accountable”
A scent of Robin Hood lies in the air. You can only hope these brave outsiders and underdogs succeed in their effort against the “powerful”, so that they can bring the glory of net zero to us all, except for themselves and their private jets.
¨Repeated requests to the UK Presidency for clarity around support for logistics and quarantine costs have also not been forthcoming or made public. ¨
UK Presidency? Has anyone informed Buckingham?
Presidency of the COP – it’s not a real thing, it’s a bit like being milk monitor in primary school.
In parts of Glasgow, milk monitors have assault rifles.
There really is a President of COP26. His name is Alok Sharma. From Wikipedia:
“Alok Sharma (born 7 September 1967) is a British politician serving as President for COP26 and Minister of State at the Cabinet Office since 2021.”
from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alok_Sharma
Apparently the COP26 office of the president is called the “UK presidency” to help identify which country to blame.
If so many of the delegates are so afraid of big bad Covid Delta, Mu, and whatever other Greek letter FrankenFauci can assign to a “new” variant, maybe they can have a global Zoom call instead. It’s a lot cheaper, and results in much less CO2 emissions, to bounce waves off communications satellites in space than to fly hundreds of wannabe planet-savers from their home countries to Scotland and back in private jets.
Just looked at the hotel situation and there are tons of rooms available in Glasgow in early November for reasonable rates at decent business class hotels. But maybe a Marriott Courtyard is below the standards of these, in the words of Elmer Fudd, “vaway impotent peepow.”
“Vaccine inequity, unaffordable accommodation…”
Unaffordable accommodation in Glasgow used to be considered one of the social ills of the UK. And still f’ing is. Perhaps the bleating jet-setters should redirect their energies towards solving real-life problems instead of inventing imaginary new ones to ‘save the planet’?
COP out: It’s the chinese virus what done it!
Billy Connolly…
Now, that there’s funny!
From my deliberately brief experiences of Glasgow, I’d have to agree.
Hey see you Leo!
Who is Tasmeem and who pays her? Anyone remember Katowice and the snow? Anyone remember the IPCC’s SR1.5? I read some of it. We’re already one degree above preindustrial levels (assumption). Surely even climate obsessionists can’t have a problem with half a degree? Madness
Darn it! Whatever will I do with the 50-gallon drums of popcorn I ordered?