A 14 EZ RE the washington post.thursday, november 11 , 2021
COP
countries, states, cities and auto-
makers signing an agreement to
make all new vehicles carbon-neu-
tral by 2040 or sooner. Though
California, Washington, Ford and
General Motors all came on board,
the United States was missing
from the deal.
At a later event, Transportation
Secretary Pete Buttigieg an-
nounced the United States aimed
to help the aviation sector reach
net-zero by 2050. Outside the con-
ference center, activists rang bicy-
cle bells to protest the absence of
cycling from the agenda.
Complaints came from some
corners that the United States and
the European Union weren’t doing
enough to shape an agreement for
more aggressive climate action.
There were whispers that nations
that have traditionally balked at
phasing out fossil fuels, such as
Saudi Arabia, Russia and others,
would do so again. Questions
swelled over whether small and
economically fragile nations,which often negotiate as a bloc at
these talks, would torpedo any deal
that doesn’t include more financial
aid from the developed world.
Britain’s Alok Sharma, the pres-
ident of COP26, has maintained
that he wants the summit to set
the world on a more sustainable
path. On Wednesday, he insisted
that any final deal must be cred-
ible and meaningful.
“We all know what is at stake in
these negotiations and the urgen-
cy of our task. In very human
terms, what we agree in Glasgow
will set the future for our children
and grandchildren. And I know
that we will not want to fail them,”
Sharma said. “So I request us all
collectively to please roll up our
sleeves and get to work.”
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]Michael Birnbaum, Dan Zak and
Maxine Joselow contributed to this
report.BY BRADY DENNIS,
SARAH KAPLAN
AND STEVEN MUFSONGLASGOW, Scotland — An end
to coal use and fossil fuel subsi-
dies. An accelerated timeline for
boosting carbon-cutting pledges.
A call for wealthy countries to do
more to help their more vulner-
able counterparts cope with the
toll of climate change — with few
details to back it up.
These were among the most
notable provisions of a seven-page
draft agreement circulated at the
COP26 climate summit Wednes-
day, and likely sources of conten-
tion as the Glasgow conference
shifts into its hectic final days.
The explicit reference to coal
and fossil fuels — a first for any
U.N. agreement — was a welcome
breakthrough for most activists.
And the proposal to speed up
emissions reductions was seen as
a necessary response to recent re-
search showing that current
pledges put the Earth on path to
warm 2.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 de-
grees Fahrenheit), a full degree
above the Paris agreement’s most
ambitious goal.
But both provisions could get
watered down, or eliminated en-
tirely, as diplomats huddle behind
closed doors to shape an agree-
ment all 196 countries would sign.
Outside the negotiating rooms,
disappointment with the draft’s
climate finance provisions domi-
nated many discussions Wednes-
day.
Though the document called for
developed countries to double
funds to help with adaptation, it
did not mention a clear financial
mechanism for addressing irre-versible harm caused by climate
change. Nor did it offer details on
what support rich nations would
be expected to deliver beyond 2025
— a shortfall that could prove a key
sticking point for countries most
threatened by rising temperatures.
“We should have been talking
about increasing climate finance
to align with the need, which is
trillions of dollars,” said Brian
O’Callaghan, leader of the Oxford
University Economic Recovery
Project, which advocates for a sus-
tainable response to the coronavi-
rus pandemic. The draft text, he
said, offers “only peanuts for de-
veloping countries.”
One Biden administration offi-
cial, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity because that person
was not authorized to speak pub-
licly, said there had been progress
on ensuring that wealthy coun-tries deliver on the long-standing
but unfulfilled promise to deliver
$100 billion a year to help develop-
ing nations adapt to climate im-
pacts and build greener econo-
mies.
The draft agreement came on a
day when Greta Thunberg and
other young activists implored the
United Nations to declare a “Level
3 emergency” on climate change
— the same level of urgency it gave
to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Many of us — especially those
from small island states and indig-
enous communities — fear we will
have become climate refugees by
that time,” wrote the group of peti-
tioners, many of whom had filed a
separate 2019 petition seeking ac-
tion, which was later dismissed.
“We have no time to wait.”
The day’s official theme was
transport, with a coalition ofDraft deal targets fossil fuel subsidies, pace of carbon cuts
BY KARLA ADAM
AND WILLIAM BOOTHGLASGOW, Scotland — Boris
Johnson returned to the COP
summit — by train this time, not
chartered jet — to try to salvage a
climate deal, and perhaps his
reputation, after a politically dif-
ficult week.
Johnson urged world leaders
to “pick up the phone” to their
negotiating teams, in these final
days of a summit that seeks to
avert catastrophic climate
change, and enable them to “get
this done here in Glasgow.”
“There really is no excuse be-
cause we know what is at stake
here,” he said. “The world knows
the mess our planet is in. The
world has heard leaders from
every country, every continent
stand here and acknowledge the
need for action. And the world
will find it absolutely incompre-
hensible if we fail to deliver that.”
Johnson did not sound like his
usual confident self. He did not
make his usual jokes. There were
no James Bond references. He
seemed serious. And perhaps
chastised?
When he left Glasgow at the
end of the leaders’ summit last
week, the prime minister was
roundly criticized for chartering
a plane back to London. It wasn’t
a good look for the host of a
conference focused on cutting
carbon emissions.
The trip is only 400 miles, and
four hours, by train.
It didn’t help that the Mirror
newspaper reported he was rush-
ing home to attend “a private
engagement” at a men’s-only
club attended by Conservative
Party peer Charles Moore, whom
the Mirror described as a “self-
confessed climate change skep-
tic.”
Moore was also Johnson’s old
boss at the Telegraph newspaper,
where for many years Johnson
toiled as a climate-skeptic colum-
nist — before his remarkable
transformation into a climate
warrior.
Last week, Johnson defendedhis flight, saying the jet’s fuel was
partly sustainable. But Wednes-
day’s choice of train travel was
notable.
He also made a point to wear a
mask — black, with a small
Union Jack — after getting heat
for being careless about covid-
at the summit last round.
Unlike Greta Thunberg, whogot a rock-star reception when
the activist first arrived at Glas-
gow Central station, Johnson was
reportedly booed Wednesday by
a small group on the platform.
This prime minister is not
well-liked in Scotland, where his
particular brand of Englishness,
and his championing of Brexit,
goes down poorly. His appear-ances north of the border are rare
and carefully orchestrated.
In his first full week as leader
of the United Kingdom, Johnson
was heckled by nationalists when
coming to see First Minister
Nicola Sturgeon in Edinburgh —
and left her residence out the
back door.
But London hasn’t been too
welcoming lately, either. John-
son’s government is under fire for
its involvement in a “sleaze”
scandal — sleaze being a word
used in Britain to describe inap-
propriate conduct involving sex,
money or ethics.
In this case, Conservative law-
maker Owen Paterson, a former
environment minister and ally of
Johnson’s, broke lobbying rules
by accepting payments from two
firms that he also promoted.
Downing Street initially
backed a move to block his sus-
pension and overhaul the polic-
ing of lawmakers’ conduct, but a
fierce backlash prompted a gov-
ernment reversal. Paterson re-
signed.
Johnson’s personal approval
ratings have now dropped to
their lowest levels on record.
And he couldn’t quite escapethe scandal in Glasgow, getting
questions from British journal-
ists.
“Those who break the rules
must be investigated and should
be punished,” Johnson said.
Johnson was also asked about
a secondary scandal involving
Geoffrey Cox, a Conservative law-
maker and former attorney gen-
eral, who has been accused of
conflicts of interest for taking on
supplementary jobs as a legal
adviser, including to law firms
based in the Cayman Islands.
This could have been John-
son’s moment, hosting 40,
delegates for a summit that the
world is depending on. Not only
is it widely seen as one of the last
chances to address the climate
emergency, it was an opportunity
for the Johnson administration
and Brexiteers to showcase their
much-touted Global Britain, tak-
ing it out for a test drive.
Instead, Johnson found him-
self telling the summit, “I genu-
inely believe that the U.K. is not
remotely a corrupt country,” add-
ing, “nor do I believe that our
institutions are corrupt.”
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[email protected]U.K.’s Johnson tries to salvage a climate deal — and perhaps his reputation
Andrew Milligan/Associated Press
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrives by train in Glasgow,
Scotland, to return to the United Nations climate summit.Premier faces criticism,
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