Ramblings of a 70-year old: rishi sunak

Showing posts with label rishi sunak. Show all posts

Monday, November 7, 2022

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cautions planet Earth is on "the highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator"

The COP27 summit kicked off in Egypt and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cautioned that planet Earth is on shaky ground. He used strong words and said our planet is on “the highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator." This summit is follows a year of violent effects of climate change. He quoted the examples of catastrophic flooding that killed more than 1,700 people in Pakistan and uprooted 1.3 million from their homes in Nigeria. He also mentioned about drought and withered crops in Europe, large scale starvation in Africa, and loss of fish from California to France to China. These are results of rise in emissions and global warming. In his words - "Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish." Those present in the room included heads of state. They were Europe's Ursula von der Leyen, France's Emmanuel Macron and Colombia's Gustavo Francisco. The main purpose of the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh was to inject momentum into the two-week talks. Nearly 200 countries hope to agree on the collective steps necessary to slow climate breakdown. Antonio Guterres said - failing to work together will amount to a "collective suicide pact." COP27: Agree on climate action or face a 'collective suicide pact' - UN chief's ultimatum to world leaders.

Already the world faces fierce geopolitical tensions. These are due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, followed by subsequent food, energy and cost of living crises, and arguments over who should pay for the increasingly damaging impacts of climate change. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the conflict and soaring energy prices are "not a reason to go slow on climate change, they are a reason to act faster." In his words - "Climate security goes hand in hand with energy security." The PM did publicly thank Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el Sisi for his "leadership" at the talks. Simultaneously, he is pressing the Egyptian leader to release imprisoned British-Egyptian political activist Alaa Abd el Fattah. President Sisi was one of many to urge an end to the war in Ukraine. "This war must stop," he said in an emotive plea, adding that not just Egypt but likely the "entire world" was suffering as a result. However, the talks did offer some rays of hope. This is the first time that the concept of compensation made it to the agenda. This was to compensate countries for irreversible losses inflicted by climate change. Examples are - the loss of lives, collapse of jobs and sinking of islands.

Monday, October 31, 2022

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak could attend the COP27 climate summit

Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister of Britain, had pulled out of COP27 Climate Talks in Egypt. The reason cited was “pressing domestic commitments” related to November 17 Autumn Statement. However, he could after all make a U-turn and attend following a major Tory backlash. It seems his rival Boris Johnson, who took a leading role at last year’s COP26 in Glasgow - was planning to go. Sources in No 10 says Rishi Sunak could make it to Egypt “if he gets enough work done.” Environment Department minister Mark Spencer told a section of the media - “He’s come into office, he’s got an inbox which is full to the brim. Clearly, he wants to concentrate on the financial statement and that’s what he’s doing. But if he’s able to get through all of that, you know, COP is very important. It’s important to the government, it’s important to our future, and so we’ll send out senior ministers. That’s yet to be decided who’s going to go.” These developments came after COP26 President Alok Sharma, a Tory minister, said he was “disappointed” while ex-Chancellor George Osborne said the PM had “mishandled” the situation. Rishi Sunak could attend COP27 climate summit in major U-turn after Tory backlash.

Mr Sunak has vowed to protect the environment as he sent congratulations to left-winger Lula da Silva for triumphing in Brazil’s presidential election. The PM tweeted they would work on “growing the global economy to protecting the planet’s natural resources and promoting democratic values.” Incidentally, King Charles agreed to host a climate change reception at Buckingham Palace after he was stopped from attending a summit in Egypt. The monarch had pulled out of the COP27 meeting on the advice of the government. It takes off in Sharm El-Sheikh next weekend. However, there was an announcement that he will hold his own gathering on Friday. Its purpose would be to bring together hundreds of business leaders and climate campaigners. The reception of the King at Buckingham Palace on November 4 will be on the eve of the UN conference in Egypt. The Palace said it will "bring together over 200 international business leaders, decision makers and NGOs to mark the end of the United Kingdom's presidency of Cop26 and look ahead to the Cop27 summit in Egypt."

Thursday, October 27, 2022

Climate change a matter of concern for the security of Britain

Britain is worried. Its national security appears on shaky ground. This is believed to be a fallout of the failure of the government. A parliamentary report cautions that the reasons for such a situation could be attributed extreme weather events caused by climate change. The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy consists of senior MPs and peers. It has urged the government to take control of the major security risks posed by the effects of climate change on critical national infrastructure. These include power, transport, water and communications. The world of today depends heavily on these factors. The report highlight salient issues of the recent past that could be pointers on possible repercussions in future. A few of these are – (i) loss of power to millions in parts of England and Scotland during Storm Arwen in November 2021 due to downing of power lines (ii) loss of lives in Scotland due to derailment of a train in August 2020 and (iii) heatwave of July 2022 when temperatures rose to 104F in the U.K. UK security in danger as govt fails to prepare for extreme weather sparked by climate change - report. The report mentions about finding "overwhelming evidence" that climate change is already having an impact on UK infrastructure and that "no minister has been taking responsibility" for adapting it.

The report follows a series of extreme weather events in recent years. It reveals an "extreme weakness at the centre of government." Moreover, the committee hauls up the ministers of "a severe dereliction of duty" and stresses that "even more severe weather - and consequent impacts - will be prevalent soon." These observations leads the experts to predict that high temperatures are likely to give rise to issues like sagging of electricity cables, softening of roads and increase in the frequency of flooding. These, in turn, might result in frequent failure of railway embankments. Chair of the Joint Committee, Labour MP Dame Margaret Beckett, said Rishi Sunak, the new Prime Minister “must pull all the strands of government together to mitigate against potential disasters… This government must finally recognise that prevention is better than cure and move on from their dangerously reactive approach to risk management."