Alok Sharma – All countries must ‘stand up and be counted’ at Cop 26
The much anticipated Cop 26 is getting underway in Glasgow, and there is a lot riding on the government having a successful couple of weeks. The Prince of Wales has already given an address on climate change to the G20 summit in Rome this morning, in hope of inspiring fruitful negotiations as governments aim to keep global temperature rises below 1.5 degrees. The President-Designate of Cop 26, Alok Sharma, joined Trevor Phillips and imposed that this conference was a critical juncture, adding that getting satisfactory agreement would be ‘tougher’ that at the Paris talks of 6 years earlier:
AS: This is a chance, quite frankly, for all of these countries to show leadership. This is the point where they all have to stand up and be counted.
‘We’ll see what the decision is’ on Cambo oilfield
Andrew Marr challenged Sharma over the Cambo oilfield development off the west coast of the Shetland Islands, on which progress has been delayed until next year. Marr asked how the government could allow the development to proceed any further while the UK was trying to take the moral high ground on reaching ‘net-zero’:
AS: Any licences that are granted will have to be compatible with our legal requirement to be net zero by 2050… We’ll see what the decision is.
Ed Miliband – We should reduce domestic flights ‘as much as we possibly can’
Marr also spoke to the Shadow Business Secretary Ed Miliband. One feature of last week’s budget was the announcement of a significant cut to air passenger duty for domestic flights. Miliband told Marr that he thought flying was the wrong way to go:
AM: …Do you think we have to get rid of domestic internal flights more or less completely?
EM: Not completely, but as much as we possibly can… We’ve got to give people alternatives.
Labour would consider ‘short-term nationalisation’ for energy companies
Marr questioned Miliband about whether he had misunderstood his party leader Keir Starmer’s previous positive noises towards ‘common ownership’ of energy companies. Miliband appeared to have previously taken this as read that this would mean nationalisation, at least until Starmer gave a less than full-throated response at the Labour party conference. Miliband attempted to clarify the confusion on this issue:
EM: As a last resort, we [could] have a special administration regime… It would be [nationalisation] in the short term, and then they would go back into the marketplace.
Tina Stege – Beyond 1.5 degrees is ‘unimaginable for my country’
Tina Stege, the climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, spelled out in detail to Trevor Phillips exactly what the effects of climate change could mean for her country:
TS: Beyond 1.5 is unimaginable for my country… We don’t even have hills. It’s a nation of coastlines… That means yearly inundations… We’re on the front of the front lines.
‘We need our partners to support us’
Stege continued by expressing her regret at how other world leaders had pledged to deliver a fund of $100 billion every year to aid smaller countries with climate change related issues:
TS: It’s a huge disappointment. It’s very difficult when you’re told that resources are being put in place and to not see that happen… We need our partners to support us.
Kemi Badenoch – ‘We should be looking at what brings us together’
And finally, the Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch spoke to Phillips as October, aka ‘Black History Month’, draws to a close:
KB: Black history is British history… I don’t want [my daughter] to have this split identity. I think it’s not helpful… We should be looking at what brings us all together.
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