For the first time, the UK will host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), which will take place in Glasgow, Scotland at the Scottish Exhibition Centre (SEC) on 9 – 20 November 2020, according to Climate Action.
Prime Minister Johnson told the crowd: “Hosting COP26 is an important opportunity for the UK and nations across the globe to step up in the fight against climate change. As we set out our plans to hit our ambitious 2050 net-zero targets across this year, so we shall urge others to join us in pledging net zero emissions.”
Johnson is already running into trouble in the UK over his lack of knowledge on climate science, and that is just a start, according to the BBC. And it started when Claire O’Neill,, the head of the summit, was sacked on Friday by Johnson’s key adviser, Dominic Cummings
O’Neill had plenty to talk about on the BBC Radio 4’s Today program, starting with How Johnson has shown a “huge lack of leadership and engagement” over the UK’s hosting of the summit. She also described the problems with the choice of Glasgow as the host city, with spiraling costs and disputes between the UK and Scottish governments.
“The playground politics – the yah boo politics – has got to stop,” she said.
As for Boris Johnson himself – O’Neill didn’t hold back, reports The Guardian. She said: “My advice to anybody to whom Boris is making promises – whether it is voters, world leaders, ministers, employees or indeed, to family members – is to get it in writing, get a lawyer to look at it and make sure the money is in the bank.”
Politics and climate don’t mix
It seems that O’Neill, in a letter to Johnson after she was fired, called him out on his ongoing “political stand-off” with the Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Johnson refused to give Sturgeon a role in the November Climate Summit and was considering moving the event to the English countryside.
The animosity between Sturgeon and Johnson stems from Johnson’s refusal to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence. O’Neill is fearful that the political backbiting will endanger the success of the summit in November. But that date is still a long way off, and a lot can happen in between now and then.
O’Neill is also concerned about Johnson’s lack of understanding of climate science. She said her job had been a “lonely place” and that Johnson had “admitted to me he doesn’t really understand it”, although others around him did.
