Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Cop out: Boris’s battle to save the climate summit

As so often, the Queen put it best. While opening the Welsh parliament a couple of weeks ago, she was caught on microphone discussing the COP26 summit and its frustrations. ‘Still don’t know who is coming,’ she told the Duchess of Cornwall. ‘It’s really irritating when they talk, but don’t do.’ In just a few words, she perfectly summed up the challenges facing Boris Johnson in Glasgow.

The PM wants to get countries to commit to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. But how to get a deal, if the main players aren’t at the table? Xi Jinping hasn’t left China since the Covid outbreak and will stay put now. Vladimir Putin is weeks away from opening a new pipeline supplying gas to Germany and continues to be quite the energy power broker. He’s remaining in Moscow and will send his regards via video.

Joe Biden says he’ll be there ‘with bells on’ and is set to cut the US’s net greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 — more than double Barack Obama’s target of 18 per cent. Powerful talk. But to do anything, he needs Congress to pass his $100 billion green spending package. With a 50-50 Senate, his agenda is being held up by Joe Manchin, a Democrat from conservative, coal-producing West Virginia.

Glasgow has ended up with the classic climate-change summit problem: plenty of protests, but most leaders in no position to make promises — their power limited by parliaments and public consent. To the Queen’s point, they talk — but don’t do. And without Xi or Putin, it’s hard to have talks of much consequence.

Johnson has long seen this summit as the chance to showcase his Global Britain agenda with a quasi-Olympics event, complete with a ‘happy seal’ mascot. The UN has been holding its ‘conference of parties’ — COP — climate-change talks since 1995.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in