The next UN climate summit has been postponed by a full year, in light of the chaos and uncertainty wrought by coronavirus.
It gives the UK host 18 months to drum up ambition, break a deadlock in carbon market negotiations and figure out how to corona-proof an international gathering with thousands of delegates.
Former Cop26 president Claire O’Neill did not have high hopes, tweeting that this UK government “could not deliver a pizza, let alone Cop26”.
Ok, so she has personal beef, having been fired by Dominic Cummings, the UK top adviser at the centre of a media storm for breaking lockdown rules. Still, with an insight into the inner workings of Whitehall and a passion for the climate cause, O’Neill is not a critic to lightly dismiss.
Alok Sharma, feel free to prove her wrong.
This week’s stories…
- EU €750 billion Covid recovery fund comes with green conditions
- Next UN climate summit to be delayed to November 2021, UK hosts propose
- Airlines could get free pass on climate for five years under industry proposal
…and climate conversations
- Clean energy is vital to the Covid-19 response in the world’s poorest countries – Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, Youba Sokona, Yacob Mulugetta
- The European Investment Bank must go further to truly become a ‘climate bank’ – Anna Roggenbuck, CEE Bankwatch
- How to raise an easy $1 billion per day for the Covid-19 recovery – Peter Wooders and Tom Moerenhout, IISD
‘Do no harm’
A €750 billion fund to revive the EU economy from its coronavirus-induced slump will come with green conditions, Frédéric Simon writes for our partner site Euractiv.
Spending will be guided by criteria that rule out environmentally damaging investments, while a quarter of the budget is earmarked for climate projects.
Moving the goalposts
Chloé Farand kept up her scrutiny of lobbying by the aviation industry to rewrite the rules of the sector’s climate deal.
The airlines want to change the baseline of an agreed carbon offsetting scheme, in light of the drastic drop in air traffic caused by the coronavirus lockdown.
Sounds like a technical detail? Analysts reckon the proposal would give airlines a five-year holiday from paying for their pollution.