I've learned (it was hardly a secret) that a decision to postpone COP 26 (or not) will be decided not by our many governments, the Lord Mayor of Glasgow, or the brigadier responsible of coming to the aid of civil powers, but by the Secretariat of the UNFCCC. We might decide we'd rather not host it given the circumstances (just as Chile did for COP25), but that's another matter. The UNFCCC Secretariat is meeting today. Given Japan's recent announcement that it will not be enhancing its proposals to reduce carbon emissions (as it is bound to do under commitments made in the Paris Agreement), the date seems sadly appropriate.
Might there be a virtual COP, some ask. Does the world have enough bandwidth, I wonder. And is it sufficiently well (fairly) distributed?
There must be good arguments for what I'm going to term virtuosity – good carbon ones at any rate, although it will be regretted by those international NGOs who seem to like nothing more than to travel internationally in a pack to talk about the need for other people to travel less.
It would be instructive to see what progress could be made through virtuosity and so I hope it happens. COVID-19 is supposed to lead to new ways of working, after all. Anyway, could it be worse than what happened in Madrid at COP 25?, and the UK taxpayer will save £zillions on police overtime.
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