We're on the brink of catastrophe, warns Tory climate chief, BUT...

[Eugene]

Source: The Observer

We’re on the brink of catastrophe, warns Tory climate chief

Cop26 meeting is last chance, says Alok Sharma as he backs UK’s plan for new oil and gas fields

Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent
Sat 7 Aug 2021 19.03 BST

The world will soon face “catastrophe” from climate breakdown if urgent action is not taken, the British president of vital UN climate talks has warned.

Alok Sharma, the UK minister in charge of the Cop26 talks to be held in Glasgow this November, told the Observer that the consequences of failure would be “catastrophic”: “I don’t think there’s any other word for it. You’re seeing on a daily basis what is happening across the world. Last year was the hottest on record, the last decade the hottest decade on record.”

But Sharma also insisted the UK could carry on with fossil-fuel projects, in the face of mounting criticism of plans to license new oil and gas fields. He defended the government’s record on plans to reach net zero emissions by 2050, which have been heavily criticised by the UK’s independent Committee on Climate Change, and dismissed controversies over his travel schedule.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s leading authority on climate science, will publish a comprehensive report on Monday showing how close humanity is to the brink of potentially irreversible disaster caused by extreme weather.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/07/were-on-the-brink-of-catastrophe-warns-tory-climate-chief

[abqtommy]

1. This is the same guy who's facing a lot of criticism for all his international travel while most

other people were grounded. He's getting hit for causing covid and climate problems.

" ‘One rule for them’: Alok Sharma criticised over flights to 30 countries" (...)

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/aug/06/one-rule-for-them-alok-sharma-criticised-over-flights-to-30-countries