UK chief negotiator says COP 26 must be face-to-face and inclusive | Globalism

“We look forward to an ambitious and inclusive face-to-face conference at the COP in Glasgow in November,” Archie Young, the UK’s chief negotiator, told reporters.

Young, who has been in office since 2016, echoed what COP26 President Alok Sharma said – that the climate conference would be face-to-face and inclusive – but there are growing disagreements among the poorest. The event’s health insecurity also created political tension.

He discarded the hypothesis of a hybrid event, in which delegates act personally and civil society with virtual events, as an option to provide greater security for participants. “We’ve heard from everyone that the COP has to be personal and that’s what we intend to do,” he said.

With nearly every country in Latin America, and many Africans and some Asians on the UK’s red list, which forces delegates, environmentalists, politicians and businessmen to quarantine even if they are fully vaccinated, the sense that the COP favors Europeans, businessmen and the wealthy in general, was growing.

The United States has 160,000 cases of COVID-19 at the moment, while the average in Brazil is less than 30,000. The UK itself with 34,000 cases per day.

“This point goes beyond COP 26. There are a number of factors that drive different quarantine arrangements for different countries,” Young said. “I’ll leave that more to the government department that deals with quarantine and borders.”

However, he said the British government is sending out doses of vaccines so delegates from many countries can properly protect themselves and that quarantine time has been reduced.

He also added that health and sanitary protocols will soon be released on the CoP 26 website.

Young said the UK’s expectation of this event is to achieve the four goals reiterated by UK COP26 President Alok Sharma: Keeping the 1.5°C limit alive with lower emissions, increasing adaptation efforts to better deal with climate impacts, mobilizing financial resources and increasing cooperation among all sectors of society to transform the global economy.

He said the rich countries’ promise to mobilize $100 billion annually starting in 2020 is a difficult goal, but one that will be fulfilled.

According to him, the latest figures point to 80 billion US dollars in 2018. The governments of Canada and Germany are set to help out of the impasse.

“Resolving Article 6 is critical, but I see consensus on this issue,” Young said. “Everyone wants an effective mechanism. There are different points of view, but we no longer need to listen to everyone’s opinions, we need solutions,” he commented, on one of the most important topics of the COP in Glasgow, the solution to how carbon markets work.

On September 20, the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, are planning to hold an event with some heads of state on climate, behind closed doors..

Young does not understand the initiative as inclusive and a bit transparent, noting that climate issues are being moved to other forums with a few countries, such as the G7 and G20, for example.

He also said that Brazil is of crucial importance, not only in the fight against deforestation, but also for the rich multilateral cooperation.. The private sector is also key.