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IT’S the end of the second day of COP26 in Glasgow and the remaining world leaders, among them Taoiseach Micheál Martin, have delivered their national statements. Already there is disappointment that the pledge to stop the destruction of forests around the globe hasn’t lived up to the hype.
ere are seven things we learned today:
1. The world is ruled by men
Nine of the 120 heads of state who spoke were women – 10 if you include Ursula von der Leyen, who was invited as president of the European Commission. But it’s only eight if you take account of the fact that Angela Merkel stepped down as chancellor of Germany in September and is only still in charge because her likely successor hasn’t yet formed a coalition government. For your next pub quiz, the other matriarchies are Bangladesh, Barbados, Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Moldova, Slovakia and Tanzania.
2. Micheál Martin is a closet Green
The Taoiseach borrowed so liberally from Eamon Ryan’s stock of prepared arguments for climate action that, at times, it was necessary to check for bicycle clips on his trousers. After a spate of such incidents in the run-up to delivering his speech, it was necessary to broach the subject of his apparent identity crisis. He said he was complimented by the comparison.
3. It’s all about the detail
Brazil’s climate outlaw president Jair Bolsonaro didn’t attend the summit, but he joined a pledge launched on Monday to stop and reverse global deforestation by 2030. Any pleasant surprise created by this move, from the man who has presided over the destruction of the Amazon rainforests, quickly dissipated when it emerged he pledged to stop “illegal” deforestation. Business as usual so.
4. China loves long titles
You think we have it hard with terminology such as carbon budgets and sectoral emissions ceilings? Chinese president Xi Jinping didn’t attend but sent a written address in which he referred to one of his recent directives – take a breath – the ‘Working Guidance for Carbon Dioxide Peaking and Carbon Neutrality in Full and Faithful Implementation of the New Development Philosophy’.
5. World leaders get star-struck too
The reverence shown to David Attenborough when he took the podium for the opening ceremony and delivered a passionate appeal for action, was evident in the faces of the exalted attendance who were, for a while, transfixed. Also, not all world leaders get star-struck. Boris Johnson didn’t have the courtesy, never mind the compliance with summit regulations, to wear a face mask while sitting beside the 95-year-old.
6. Some still don’t get it
Australian prime minister Scott Morrison declared technology was the answer to the climate crisis. He said it would not be the leaders in the room that provided the solutions but scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, industrialists and financiers. He seems to have forgotten that without leaders having the courage to make policies, rules and laws, scientists get ignored, technology gets over-hyped and big business and moneymen choose the profit route.
7. Some put us to shame.
Mohamed Bazoum is president of Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries in the Sahel region of west Africa. Drought makes it ever harder to differentiate the agricultural land on which the people depend from the Sahara along its border. He spoke of farms, buried in sand, of displaced people, of growing terrorism “largely linked to climate change”. And then he thanked everyone “for their kind attention”. Of which he and nations like his have had much too little.
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