Day: October 12, 2021

COP 26: “We have no choice but to deliver” – Alok Sharma

World leaders must come together for our planet and deliver in Glasgow on the promise made at COP21 in Paris, COP26 President-Designate Alok Sharma will say today (Tuesday 12th October) in a major speech at the UNESCO World Heritage Centre in the French capital.

The landmark Paris Agreement was reached at COP in 2015, which committed countries to avoid the worst effects of climate change by limiting global temperature rises well below 2C, aiming for 1.5C.

Mr Sharma will point to progress made since the Paris Agreement and outline the importance of leaders taking ambitious action at COP26 in the UK later this month. The Summit will open in Glasgow on 31st October.

The COP26 President will highlight four elements for COP26 to deliver the level of ambition required:

1) climate action plans to significantly reduce emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by mid-century, and to support adaptation to tackle climate threats

2) concrete action to deliver these plans, including agreements on reducing coal, electric cars, protecting trees and reducing methane emissions

3) to honour the $100bn dollar pledge, and

4) a negotiated outcome that paves the way for a decade of ever-increasing ambition.

Mr Sharma will echo the call from the countries most vulnerable to climate change for all G20 countries and major emitters of greenhouse gases to come forward with enhanced, ambitious 2030 climate action plans, known as Nationally Determined Contributions. The leaders of the G20 countries will meet in Rome at the end of this month.

He will also urge world leaders to take the lead from those climate vulnerable countries which are taking action in the most difficult circumstances to protect the planet and its people.

COP26 President-Designate Mr Sharma is expected to warn leaders: “COP26 is not a photo op or a talking shop. It must be the forum where we put the world on track to deliver on climate. And that is down to leaders. It is leaders who made a promise to the world in this great city six years ago. And it is leaders that must honour it.

“Responsibility rests with each and every country. And we must all play our part. Because on climate, the world will succeed, or fail as one.”

The President will be clear that we must see new commitments on public and private finance to support the countries most vulnerable to climate change and progress on adaptation to the effects of our changing climate, accounting for the loss and damage that it can cause.

He will also speak about the work done ahead of COP26 to make it the most inclusive COP to date, despite the unprecedented challenges the world faces in hosting an event during the COVID-19 pandemic. He will set out the measures in place to make the Summit safe, including the vaccine offer to developing countries, daily testing regime and social distancing in the venue.

On this, Alok Shama is will say: “It will be an extraordinary COP in extraordinary times. But collectively, we must pull together to make it work. Forging unity from the unfamiliar. Because we have no choice but to deliver.

“Each country must step-up. And as COP26 President I will ensure that every voice is heard. That the smallest nations are sitting face to face with the world’s great powers. As equal parties to the process.”

UK Coronavirus response: “some big achievements with some big mistakes”

MPs publish Coronavirus: Lessons Learned To Date report

Covid vaccine programme “one of most effective initiatives in UK history” but delay to first lockdown a “serious error” that should have been challenged

The House of Commons and Science and Technology Committee and Health and Social Care Committee have published their Report, Coronavirus: lessons learned to date, examining the initial UK response to the covid pandemic.

The 150-page Report contains 38 recommendations to the Government and public bodies, and draws on evidence from over 50 witnesses—including Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP, Professor Chris Whitty, Sir Patrick Vallance, Sir Simon Stevens, Dame Kate Bingham, Baroness Harding of Winscombe and Dominic Cummings—as well as over 400 written submissions.

The Report was agreed unanimously by members of both Select Committees, which consist of 22 MPs from three political parties—Conservative, Labour and SNP.

The joint inquiry, which began in October 2020, examined six key areas of the response to covid-19: the country’s preparedness for a pandemic; the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions such as border controls, social distancing and lockdowns to control the pandemic; the use of test, trace and isolate strategies; the impact of the pandemic on social care; the impact of the pandemic on specific communities; and the procurement and roll-out of covid-19 vaccines.

The inquiry concluded that some initiatives were examples of global best practice but others represented mistakes. Both must be reflected on to ensure that lessons are applied to better inform future responses to emergencies.

In particular:

  • The forward-planning, agility and decisive organisation of the vaccine development and deployment effort will save millions of lives globally and should be a guide to future Government practice;
  • The delays in establishing an adequate test, trace and isolate system hampered efforts to understand and contain the outbreak and it failed in its stated purpose to avoid lockdowns;
  • The initial decision to delay a comprehensive lockdown—despite practice elsewhere in the world—reflected a fatalism about the spread of covid that should have been robustly challenged at the time;
  • Social care was not given sufficient priority in the early stages of the pandemic;
  • The experience of the covid pandemic underlines the need for an urgent and long term strategy to tackle health inequalities; and
  • The UK’s preparedness for a pandemic had been widely acclaimed in advance, but performed less well than many other countries in practice.

The 38 recommendations made, if implemented by the Government and by public bodies such as the NHS, would ensure that during the remaining period of the pandemic and in any new emergency, the UK could perform better by having distilled lessons—positive and negative—from the UK’s initial response to covid.

In a joint statement on the publication of the Coronavirus: lessons learned to date Report, Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, and Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, Chair of the Science and Technology Committee, said:  “The UK response has combined some big achievements with some big mistakes. It is vital to learn from both to ensure that we perform as best as we possibly can during the remainder of the pandemic and in the future. 

“Our vaccine programme was boldly planned and effectively executed. Our test and trace programme took too long to become effective. The Government took seriously scientific advice but there should have been more challenge from all to the early UK consensus that delayed a more comprehensive lockdown when countries like South Korea showed a different approach was possible.

“In responding to an emergency, when much is unknown, it is impossible to get everything right. We record our gratitude to all those—NHS and care workers, scientists, officials in national and local government, workers in our public services and in private businesses and millions of volunteers—who responded to the challenge with dedication, compassion and hard work to help the whole nation at one of our darkest times.” 

The Report includes an Executive Summary with conclusions, recommendations and lessons learned at the end of each Chapter. 

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