Alok Sharma to Take On Full Time COP26 Responsibilities
On 8 January 2021 the UK government announced that Alok Sharma would step down as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in order to concentrate full time on his responsibilities as the incoming president of COP26. He will remain a full member of the Cabinet, based at the Cabinet Office. His place as Business Secretary will be taken by Kwasi Kwarteng MP.
The announcement has been broadly welcomed. Many have contrasted the massive diplomatic effort and resources that the French government committed to the successful outcome of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2015 with the UK government’s efforts to prepare for COP26 while Alok Sharma also held wide responsibilities as Business Secretary.
Reflecting on his appointment, Alok Sharma said –
“The biggest challenge of our time is climate change and we need to work together to deliver a cleaner, greener world and build back better for present and future generations.
Through the UK’s Presidency of COP26 we have a unique opportunity, working with friends and partners around the world, to deliver on this goal.
Given the vital importance of tackling climate change I am delighted to have been asked by the Prime Minister to dedicate all my energies to this urgent task.”
This is a time when the UK civil service is distracted by the massive upheaval of the end of the Transition Period with the EU, with huge administrative and legislative changes to undertake. And of course, every aspect of government is heavily affected by the effects and resulting workload from the COVID-19 pandemic, still raging throughout the UK.
It is hard to see how anyone could manage their part of all of that and still stay focussed on the equally pressing need to conclude a successful outcome to COP26. Yet as the government notes, COP26 will be the largest international conference that the UK has ever held, with leaders from nearly 200 countries and as many as 30,000 delegates, campaigners and other participants.
There are three key challenges for Alok Sharma in his newly enhanced role.
COP26 itself
First, to make a success of the COP26 conference itself, to reconcile the clear warnings from climate scientists with the lower emissions targets of the Paris Agreement, which will require all of Alok Sharma’s understated but considerable diplomatic skills. After 20th January 2021 he can expect powerful support from President-elect Joe Biden’s Climate Secretary John Kerry. It is heartening that China has committed to become “carbon neutral” by 2060, and equally welcome that the EU, after all-night negotiations in time for the Climate Ambition Summit which Alok Sharma co-chaired with France, Italy and Chile, committed to 55% reductions by 2030 and net-zero by 2050.
Climate Action Implementation Committee
Alok Sharma will also chair this key committee, to coordinate government action towards net zero in 2050. This will become increasingly critical in the near future. The Committee on Climate Change has published its Sixth Carbon Budget about the steps and policies which it recommends the UK government should take to deliver its existing legal commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, and its new ‘Nationally Determined Contribution’ pledged in advance of the Climate Ambition Summit of 12th December 2020 of achieving 68% reductions of emissions of greenhouse gases by 2030.
Needless to say, this is easier to declare, or even to legislate for, than to deliver, but these are commitments that will come to affect so many aspects of everyday life for so many people. The UK government needs to address the gap between international commitments and having domestic legislation that actually works.
To take just one example, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently said, in the context of the UK’s commitment to reduce emissions by 68% by 2030 that he wanted to see 600,000 new heat pumps installed every year, to replace domestic gas boilers. Yet as the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee Chair Phillip Dunne MP has pointed out, there are not enough qualified installers to deliver this policy, and the programmes and incentives have not yet caught up with the political ambitions.
Public acceptance
The third great challenge facing Alok Sharma will be ensuring that he takes the time to take the public with him. The biggest mistake that climate activists and political leaders could make is to assume that everyone will agree with them without their making the effort to make it so, when it comes to making individual sacrifices that will constrain the way that people live, heat their homes, organise their transport, even what they eat. The Committee on Climate Change, for example, recommends that we should all eat a fifth less meat and dairy, to help the UK to reach net-zero; they may be right, for many reasons, but taking public opinion for granted, on this or any other aspect of climate change, would be a profound mistake.
We are told that addressing climate change effectively will require a “whole of society” change – in which case we had better make sure that the whole of society comes to feel properly consulted, as full participants in the national debate.
Taking the high road to Glasgow
In a year when the UK government is very likely to be at loggerheads with the Scottish Government over the issue of Scottish independence, it would be a welcome signal if both governments agreed to suspend this confrontation for the duration of the COP26 conference, and were seen to stand together for this issue of vital interest to the younger generation
Alok Sharma has won many friends around the world. He seems to have the gift of encouraging without antagonising, which will be much needed in the course of this year. We wish him every possible success.