A British scientist who helped negotiate the Paris Agreement on climate change has urged leaders attending Cop28 in Dubai later this year to keep the door open to carbon removal from the air, after the 2015 deal failed to slow emissions as much as hoped.
Sir David King, the UK’s former top negotiator at global climate talks, said the Cop28 summit should trumpet clean power sources that could be a lifeline in the race to save the planet by 2050.
Speaking to The National, Sir David accused Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of undermining British diplomats in climate talks by taking an axe to the UK’s own net-zero commitments.
Cop28, opening on November 30 at Dubai’s Expo City, will see leaders complete the first ever “global stocktake” of whether they are living up to the 2015 deal in Paris.
That agreement set the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial times, calling on countries to achieve this by slashing greenhouse gas emissions.
But the historic deal “hasn’t produced the kind of reduction in emissions we were hoping for”, said Sir David, who as UK special climate envoy made 96 foreign visits in two years to help get a deal in Paris.
“We have put so much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere today that even if we stopped all emissions tomorrow, we are still faced with these extreme weather events getting worse and worse,” he said.
A key UN report underpinning the stocktake says all countries “need to undertake rapid and deep reductions” in emissions. A backup option is to undo the damage by removing CO2 from the atmosphere.
Carbon removal and capture is a hotly debated topic among environmentalists, some of whom see it as a distraction tactic that lets polluters kick emissions cuts into the long grass. Methods can include planting trees or more sophisticated “direct air capture” systems.
The head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, on Tuesday warned against making the road to 1.5°C “dependent on the massive deployment of carbon removal technologies, which are expensive and unproven at scale”.
Sir David, having once shared similar sentiments, is now in the camp that says carbon removal should be part of the solution. The UK has plans to use carbon capture but faces an estimated £45 billion ($56.5 billion) funding gap.
The current greenhouse gas concentration in the air is “unmanageable for humanity going forward” and “we need to get to net zero and then bring it down”, said Sir David.
“There’s a bit of opposition to what is termed geoengineering. There are even groups of people saying we shouldn’t do experiments in that area. This is totally counterproductive.”
At the talks in Dubai, he said he did not “expect 195 nations to simply give it the green light”.
“I just want to stop them, if we can, from being negative about this.”
Clean energy
A new International Energy Agency forecast says the path to 1.5°C is being “kept open” by record growth in solar power and electric car sales, charting a path away from polluting fossil fuels.
The cost of clean tech has fallen and Dr Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Cop28 President-designate, has made “fast-tracking the energy transition” one of the four pillars of his summit plan.
“The message from the IEA – and this is the important message to get across in Cop28 – is ‘move into the future’,” Sir David said. “Whether you’re a country or a company, becoming future-proof means reducing your dependence on fossil fuels.”
Sir David, a former chief scientific adviser who has worked for four UK prime ministers from Tony Blair to Theresa May, says Britain is no longer the leader on climate action he believes it was in his day.
He said his well-funded round-the-world diplomacy before Cop21 in Paris made him “convinced we were going to get an agreement” despite what he calls the “stodgy” and “unwieldy” UN climate process.
Now, he has criticised Mr Sunak for rowing back key net-zero policies in a pre-election gamble. The move saw Britain’s ban on petrol and diesel cars postponed from 2030 to 2035 and the phasing out of gas boilers has also been delayed.
“Britain was leading the way. Unfortunately our prime minister is undermining our capacity as a negotiator now,” Sir David said.
“A negotiator needs to be able to say, ‘We are doing all we can to meet the targets and we now want to hear from you’. That’s far better than saying, ‘If we do this and you do that, then we’ll all make a little progress’”.
The Paris Agreement leaves it up to each country to set its own “nationally determined contributions” to the global effort – unlike the earlier Kyoto Protocol, which mandated specific emissions cuts, but only for rich nations.
The absence of binding emissions cuts was a compromise to get the US on board, with then-president Barack Obama facing dim prospects of getting specific spending plans past a hostile Congress.
Governments are expected to update their NDCs every five years and take the global stocktake into account. But ultimately there is no way of forcing them to do anything.
“Countries have been making promises, and then not delivering, because there is no comeback.” said Sir David.
“It was a sacrifice. And I think it was worthwhile. But at the same time, it means obligations are not taken seriously.”
JAPANESE GRAND PRIX INFO
Schedule (All times UAE)
First practice: Friday, 5-6.30am
Second practice: Friday, 9-10.30am
Third practice: Saturday, 7-8am
Qualifying: Saturday, 10-11am
Race: Sunday, 9am-midday
Race venue: Suzuka International Racing Course
Circuit Length: 5.807km
Number of Laps: 53
Watch live: beIN Sports HD
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Types of policy
Term life insurance: this is the cheapest and most-popular form of life cover. You pay a regular monthly premium for a pre-agreed period, typically anything between five and 25 years, or possibly longer. If you die within that time, the policy will pay a cash lump sum, which is typically tax-free even outside the UAE. If you die after the policy ends, you do not get anything in return. There is no cash-in value at any time. Once you stop paying premiums, cover stops.
Whole-of-life insurance: as its name suggests, this type of life cover is designed to run for the rest of your life. You pay regular monthly premiums and in return, get a guaranteed cash lump sum whenever you die. As a result, premiums are typically much higher than one term life insurance, although they do not usually increase with age. In some cases, you have to keep up premiums for as long as you live, although there may be a cut-off period, say, at age 80 but it can go as high as 95. There are penalties if you don’t last the course and you may get a lot less than you paid in.
Critical illness cover: this pays a cash lump sum if you suffer from a serious illness such as cancer, heart disease or stroke. Some policies cover as many as 50 different illnesses, although cancer triggers by far the most claims. The payout is designed to cover major financial responsibilities such as a mortgage or children’s education fees if you fall ill and are unable to work. It is cost effective to combine it with life insurance, with the policy paying out once if you either die or suffer a serious illness.
Income protection: this pays a replacement income if you fall ill and are unable to continue working. On the best policies, this will continue either until you recover, or reach retirement age. Unlike critical illness cover, policies will typically pay out for stress and musculoskeletal problems such as back trouble.
Notable salonnières of the Middle East through history
Al Khasan (Okaz, Saudi Arabia)
Tamadir bint Amr Al Harith, known simply as Al Khasan, was a poet from Najd famed for elegies, earning great renown for the eulogy of her brothers Mu’awiyah and Sakhr, both killed in tribal wars. Although not a salonnière, this prestigious 7th century poet fostered a culture of literary criticism and could be found standing in the souq of Okaz and reciting her poetry, publicly pronouncing her views and inviting others to join in the debate on scholarship. She later converted to Islam.
Maryana Marrash (Aleppo)
A poet and writer, Marrash helped revive the tradition of the salon and was an active part of the Nadha movement, or Arab Renaissance. Born to an established family in Aleppo in Ottoman Syria in 1848, Marrash was educated at missionary schools in Aleppo and Beirut at a time when many women did not receive an education. After touring Europe, she began to host salons where writers played chess and cards, competed in the art of poetry, and discussed literature and politics. An accomplished singer and canon player, music and dancing were a part of these evenings.
Princess Nazil Fadil (Cairo)
Princess Nazil Fadil gathered religious, literary and political elite together at her Cairo palace, although she stopped short of inviting women. The princess, a niece of Khedive Ismail, believed that Egypt’s situation could only be solved through education and she donated her own property to help fund the first modern Egyptian University in Cairo.
Mayy Ziyadah (Cairo)
Ziyadah was the first to entertain both men and women at her Cairo salon, founded in 1913. The writer, poet, public speaker and critic, her writing explored language, religious identity, language, nationalism and hierarchy. Born in Nazareth, Palestine, to a Lebanese father and Palestinian mother, her salon was open to different social classes and earned comparisons with souq of where Al Khansa herself once recited.
The%20Sandman
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
Founder: Ayman Badawi
Date started: Test product September 2016, paid launch January 2017
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Software
Size: Seven employees
Funding: $170,000 in angel investment
Funders: friends
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
World Cricket League Division 2
In Windhoek, Namibia - Top two teams qualify for the World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe, which starts on March 4.
UAE fixtures
Thursday, February 8 v Kenya; Friday, February 9 v Canada; Sunday, February 11 v Nepal; Monday, February 12 v Oman; Wednesday, February 14 v Namibia; Thursday, February 15 final
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