Why isn't Rishi Sunak attending COP27?

Hugh Blaza, consultant for Thames Tap and senior consultant at Sandstone Law, is unimpressed at the withdrawal of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak from COP27.

He cannot be serious! As the newly anointed head of a G20 nation, there can be no excuses for Rishi Sunak not attending COP27 in Egypt.

The leading countries of the world have to set an example in adopting and furthering the Paris treaty. The world is teetering on the brink of disaster as achieving the 1.5 degree target seems to be looking increasingly unlikely.

Of course, the UK is by no means alone in not coming up with the goods. And with the Courts ruling that the government’s net zero carbon strategy is unlawful, there is a lot of ground to recover.

But the UK Government has spent the last four months embroiled in internal wrangling. The result of all this is that the electorate hasn’t been given the opportunity to review all of the parties’ manifestos, and so no-one has the foggiest idea what Government policy will be on environmental, or many other issues, let alone vote on them!

Frack or no frack, anyone? Solar or gas? Wind or coal? It may actually not be that surprising that Sunak won’t attend; what would he have to say..? The time for glib platitudes is over.

And time is running out. Never has there been a moment where clarity and commitment are needed. We can but hope that the partially defenestrated Alok Sharma (freed, perhaps, from cabinet responsibility) will be able to adopt the commitments required of the first world countries. Whether this Government will commit to them and implement them is, of course, another matter.

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