ChatterBank10 mins ago
Why Bother With Cop 29 Or Indeed Cop Anything?
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If USA, India and China aren't going then it's pointless. It's just a beano for the leaders to try and see who can pointlessly bankrupt their country the quickest.
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“Nov down to 4.25% from 5%”
Down to 4.75% actually, but I’ll not quibble.
More importantly, leaving aside that the rates are set by the (supposedly) independent Monetary Policy Committee, do you honestly believe that those changes were as a result of anything the current government has done? The first of the two was announced when they had been in power for just 27 days?
A second question is that do you believe these reductions will continue, bearing in mind the recent budget is liable to lead to considerable price rises and government borrowing?
“It's just a beano for the leaders…”
Not just for the leaders, Tora. More than 66,000 people have registered to attend this jamboree. This includes over 1,300 “observers” from the UN and 3,500 media representatives.
Meanwhile, Mr Starmer has this afternoon committed the UK to an astonishing 81% reduction in carbon emissions by 2035 but has added that he will not “be telling people how o live” in order to achieve that target. Stand by for us to be told precisely how he aims to achieve it.
In other news, the following leaders have all decided to give the meeting a miss:
Ursula von der Leyen’s has sent her apologies for absence, raising questions about Europe’s commitment to the climate crisis. The EU confirmed that its president would not attend saying “The commission is in a transition phase and the president will therefore focus on her institutional duties,”
French President Emmanuel Macron is also due to miss the climate summit because he doesn’t like Azerbaijan.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced that he won’t travel to COP29 since his coalition government collapsed last week.
With COP29 taking place just a few days after the US election, President Joe Biden will not be attending. It is the second year in a row that he has skipped the global climate talks.
Following a head injury last month, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has cancelled his trip to Baku. The country is due to host COP30 in Belem next year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is not going. Ukraine’s EU ambassador, Vsevolod Chentsov said that the international community should shun the talks if he did attend.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, China’s President Xi Jinping, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are all among the missing.
Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape announced that the country would not attend COP29, declaring it a “total waste of time”.
A tiny note of realism was injected into the fanfare by Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan. He hit back at western criticism of his nation's hosting of the event, saying that oil and gas are a “gift from God” needed by the global market.
The good news is that all those absentees mean the number of private jets flying to Baku have been somewhat reduced. His should free up a few “carbon credits” for those of us wanting a week in Benidorm next summer.
"...but if they [China] cut back as much as you or anyone else wanted, 40% of businesses would go out of business in this country alone."
So why is it OK for them (33% of global emissions) to carry on but not for the UK (1%)? Far more businesses will suffer in the UK as a result of this country's manic obsession with net zero.
Is it OK for the UK to "offshore" its emissions (and in other news, is it OK to pee in the shallow end of a swimming pool?).
"A second question is that do you believe these reductions will continue, bearing in mind the recent budget is liable to lead to considerable price rises and government borrowing?"
My second question seems already to have been answered:
"A string of big lenders have announced interest rate hikes one after the other - as the mortgage market takes a turn for the worse.
HSBC, Santander, Nationwide, TSB and Virgin have all announced hikes today and in recent days.
It follows a budget that analysts fear could prove to be inflationary."
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