The Sunday Times - UK (2021-11-14)

The Sunday Times November 14, 2021 2GN 11

NEWS

KEEPING 1.5C ALIVE

Glasgow was billed as the “last, best

hope” of averting disastrous climate

change. It aimed to “keep alive” the

target of limiting global warming to 1.5C

above temperature levels before the

industrial revolution.

“Some countries would literally disap-

pear if global temperature rises above

that point,” Alok Sharma, the Cop presi-

dent, said last week. “It is literally about

allowing them to continue to exist.”

But setting out to curb climate change

is far easier than agreeing how to do it.

The Glasgow Cop was the 26th in a series

dating back to 1995. And only once, in

Paris in 2015 when the first global treaty

on climate change was signed, has the

process really worked.

Cop26 was meant to be the “imple-

mentation summit”, the conference that

filled in the details for the agreement

sealed in Paris. But persuading 197 coun-

tries, with wildly different ideologies and

economies, to come to a consensus is

fiendishly difficult.

Late on Wednesday evening in Glas-

gow, having already been up most of the

previous night producing the first draft

deal, Archie Young, the UK’s chief negoti-

ator, held a meeting of the heads of each

delegation to run through any objections.

The representative of the Solomon

Botticelli painting finally gets the frame he designed five centuries ago

The painting, on a wood

panel, is thought to have been

produced between 1491 and

1494 for the Sant’ Elisabetta

convent in Florence.

The sketches are thought

to have been by Botticelli

himself as a guide for a

carver. They showed the

design for the frame in which

he wanted the painting to be

displayed, above the altar in

the convent’s chapel. The

drawings show columns

running up each side of the

painting and the shape of the

cross in the middle.

Karen Serres, the gallery’s

paintings curator, said the

find was “super-interesting”

and “it felt like we were

participating in this dialogue

that was happening in the

studio”.

commissioned a new frame

based on Botticelli’s designs,

which Serres said looked

almost like a doorway to a

vision of Christ on the cross.

“Today we just think of

paintings as isolated things

and then they can just go

anywhere, but in the

commission of an altarpiece,

especially, the framing was

really, really crucial,” Serres

said.

The new frame was made

to Botticelli’s specification by

Timothy Newbery, a

craftsman and historian

based in Castle Douglas,

Dumfries and Galloway.

Newbery, who has been

making frames since 1978,

said that the sketches, as well

as seeing other frames from

the time, helped him to “get

the picture to look as it had

originally, which is very

difficult”.

He used about 550 sheets

of 23.5 carat gold leaf during

its construction. Unlike

Botticelli’s original frame,

which was likely to have been

made from poplar, the new

one is jelutong, a soft wood

from southeast Asia that is

increasingly used by

woodcarvers and frame

makers.

The painting, regarded as

the most important Botticelli

altarpiece in the UK, is one of

the star attractions at the

Courtauld Gallery, which

reopens to visitors on Friday

after a three-year

refurbishment at Somerset

House in central London.

@IAmLiamKelly

Sandro Botticelli is regarded

as one of the greatest

Renaissance artists, but it

appears that he took just as

much care about the frames

in which his paintings were

displayed as the composition

of the works themselves.

Experts at the Courtauld

Gallery have discovered

sketches on the reverse of

one of his paintings of a

design for a frame. After

spotting faint outlines, they

used infrared cameras that

showed the drawings, hidden

under a layer of wax on the

back of one of his altarpieces,

The Holy Trinity with Saints

Mary Magdalen and John the

Baptist.

Liam Kelly

Arts Correspondent

work. Serres said it was

“beyond awful”, as it was the

wrong shape for the painting

and obscured about 5cm of

the composition, and had

patterns of angels and

centaurs running around the

edges that appear upside

down at the bottom.

“When we took the frame

off, it was like, ‘Oh, there are

all these things that are

covered’,” said Serres. “It was

not appropriate for it at all.”

The Courtauld’s experts

started conservation work

three years ago to repair

cracks in the wood panel, the

first time the painting had

been treated for a century.

The wax on the reverse had

been added during an earlier

restoration.

The gallery also

She said: “You can just

imagine that Botticelli is there

with the person who’s made

the panel, and they’re also

working out what the frame

should look like. It’s all kind

of doodly.”

The painting was bought

from a framemaker in 1924 by

Viscount Lee, the former

soldier and politician who left

his country house, Chequers,

to the nation as the prime

ministerial retreat after he

died. He was a co-founder of

the Courtauld Institute in

1932. Lee discovered it in the
      basement of the unknown
      framemaker’s shop.
      The previous frame, which
      was made from dark wood,
      was probably put on the
      painting by the framemaker
      from whom Lee bought the The new frame has been made to the artist’s specifications

DAVID LEVENE

Standing at a lectern in a suit and tie,

knee deep in seawater, Simon Kofe had a

message for world leaders gathered in

Glasgow. “We cannot wait for speeches,”

Tuvalu’s foreign minister said in a video

address to the Cop26 summit. “The sea is

rising around us all the time.”

The point at which he stood, a few

yards off the coast of his low-lying Pacific

island, was once dry land. “We are living

the realities of climate change,” Kofe said.

“We are sinking.” His country of 11,

people, spread over nine islands, has a

high point just 15 feet above sea level. For

Tuvalu and other island states, climate

change is an existential threat.

Last night, at the biggest political sum-

mit held in Britain, talks crawled to the

finish line. In all, 40,000 delegates, world

leaders and royalty descended on Cop

— while 100,000 protesters, including the

inevitable Greta Thunberg, were also in

Glasgow to have their say. But after two

weeks of talks, threats and marches, what

exactly has been achieved?

40,000 attendees, 15 days —

but was it all a waste of time?

Islands said the text was not ambitious

enough. Saudi Arabia wanted any men-

tion of fossil fuels scrapped. The Bolivian

delegate asked for the deletion of an

entire page of the seven-page document,

including the meeting’s core demands on

emission reductions. The Mexican repre-

sentative offered Young a bottle of tequila

if the meeting finished on time on Friday;

Russia offered to provide a round of

vodka shots.

More than 48 hours later — Friday’s

6pm deadline in tatters and the chance of

a drink long forgotten — Young worked

through the night again, meeting individ-

ual delegates in an attempt to coax them

into agreement while Sharma met the

heads of the negotiating blocs. Key disa-

greements centred on single verbs in the

text. Should countries be “requested” to

intensify their efforts? Or would “urged”

be sufficient? Could “encourages” be

switched for “calls upon”?

BLAH BLAH BLAH?

So has this tortuous diplomacy done its

job? Delegates agreed to come back

before the Cop27 meeting in Egypt next

year with better pledges. Critics accuse

the organisers of “kicking the climate can

down the road”.

Others, however, say any agreement to

“ratchet” up action within 12 months

would be a big win. After all, before

Glasgow, countries would not have had to

resubmit new climate plans until 2025,

leaving a shrinking window in which to

slow the pace of warming.

By the time delegates reconvene in

Sharm el-Sheikh next year, the Covid

recovery should have progressed and the

energy crisis receded. Living to fight

another day may give diplomats space to

come up with something better.

CASH, COAL, CARS AND TREES

The core UN climate negotiations in Glas-

gow were slow and frustrating. But the

UK hosts attempted something that had

never been done before. Rather than

focusing solely on the circuitous formal

talks, they arranged a series of side deals

on international finance, coal, electric

vehicles and deforestation.

These agreements, announced in the

first week of the summit, created a buzz

that had been lacking in previous meet-

ings. The deforestation deal, signed by

more than 100 countries, was greeted as

a breakthrough. Agreements to cut meth-

ane emissions and end coal financing

were welcomed as genuine advances.

The UK was criticised in some quarters

for conducting “policy by press release”

after some of the initial claims were

found not to match the details. But Sepi

Golzari-Munro, the acting director of the

Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit and

a former UK climate negotiator, said:

“They didn’t need all the razzmatazz

because behind the glitz and the glamour

was some pretty awesome stuff.”

LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE

So has the Glasgow summit succeeded?

The government will just about be able to

claim they have “kept 1.5 alive”.

Analysis by Climate Action Tracker, a

respected research group, suggests that if

every country meets these commitments

in full, global warming might be limited

to 1.8C. The addition of the side deals

agreed in Glasgow would make that fig-

ure even lower. Chris Stark, chief execu-

tive of the Climate Change Committee,

said: “An outcome that is close to 1.5 is

still in play.”

Will that be good enough for Tuvalu?

They are taking no chances.

Kofe, speaking a few days after his

address, revealed the country is investi-

gating legal ways to retain ownership of

its maritime zones if its islands disappear

under the sea. “We’re actually imagining

a worst-case scenario where we are

forced to relocate or our lands are sub-

merged,” he said.

Editorial, page 24

As the Cop26 talks to limit global warming end, there are fears that the failure to agree to phase out coal has scuppered the summit

BEN

SPENCER

Science Editor

Clockwise from

left: China’s chief

negotiator, Xie

Zhenhua; Boris

Johnson; US

envoy John

Kerry; delegates

let their hair

down; and

Tuvalu’s

Simon Kofe

ALASTAIR GRANT/AP; GEOFF PUGH/POOL/PA; PHIL NOBLE/REUTERS; JEFF J MITCHELL/GETTY IMAGES

Has Sharma earned a department of his own?

A Whitehall power struggle

has broken out over

proposals to set up a

government department to

work towards net-zero

emissions, pitching Boris

Johnson into a new conflict

with members of his cabinet.

Senior Tories say Johnson

promised to create a

department for Alok Sharma,

the president of the Cop

climate talks, once the

conference was over.

But the idea has run into

intense opposition from

Kwasi Kwarteng, Sharma’s

successor as business

secretary, who risks losing a

large chunk of his

department if it goes ahead.

Liz Truss, the foreign

secretary, is also opposed,

and Rishi Sunak, the

chancellor, is expected to

resist any moves to create

what one insider called “the

biggest begging bowl in

Whitehall outside the NHS”.

The plan has the support

of those in government who

want Britain to continue a

leadership role on climate

change after Cop26 and want

to “keep Alok happy”.

But critics have lined up to

denounce the idea as “clearly

mad” and one suggested

Sharma should be given an

international diplomatic role

rather than a prize post in

cabinet. They warned that

such a department would be

“captured by the green

lobby”, claiming that was

what happened to the short-

lived department for energy

and climate change (DECC)

between 2008 and 2016.

“At the moment green

policy is decided with a

business perspective,” one

opponent of the plan said. “It

is about developing green

growth, jobs and new

technology. If we recreate

DECC in some form, it will

quickly become hijacked by

the worst forms of ecoism.”

One source even cited Bill

Gates, the billionaire

philanthropist, who said last

week he had been “worried”

when Britain subsumed

climate change policy into the

business department, but

added: “In fact the right thing

happened, which is that more

business-oriented analytical

thinking came together with

people who understood the

climate.”

“No Drama” Sharma, who

revels in the nickname

referring to his low-key

approach, was not previously

seen as a Whitehall power

player. But he won plaudits

from diplomats and green

groups for his role as

president of Cop26.

Allies of Sharma, 54, said

Tim Shipman

he had hoped Johnson would

delay his cabinet reshuffle

until after Cop26, so he could

become foreign secretary. But

Johnson “will still want to

reward Alok”, one said.

Sharma is supposed to

spend the next 12 months as

president of Cop until Egypt

hosts Cop27.

“His stock is high at the

moment, but this is when he

is at his strongest,” said one

friend. “He needs to make the

most of it now.”

Sharma is also believed to

be entertaining the idea of a

job at the UN. “Good luck to

him,” said one opponent. “He

should f*** off around the

world for a year.”

‘ELSIE MCSELFIE’, IRN BRU DIPLOMAT

Nicola Sturgeon welcomes, clockwise from top left, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,Al Gore,

Greta Thunberg, Angela Merkel, Joe Biden and Sir David Attenborough at the summit.

Scotland’s first minister is known for her snap-happy approach to meeting global figures