Climate change: COP26 head must be made full-time role to tackle global emergency, Amber Rudd says
Amber Rudd says she thinks Alok Sharma could do a great job, but he is tied up helping businesses through Brexit and coronavirus.
Wednesday 9 December 2020 20:20, UK
Britain's former climate secretary, Amber Rudd, has said the presidency of the landmark COP26 climate conference is so critical for tackling the global climate emergency that it must become a full-time role.
The current COP president, Alok Sharma, is also the business secretary.
The COP26 conference is being hosted by the UK in Glasgow, but has been delayed until November next year because of the pandemic.
Ms Rudd spoke to Sky News a few days before a virtual climate ambition summit to mark five years since the signing of the Paris Agreement.
After the warmest decade on record, the commitments made to limit global warming and reduce emissions will be sealed at the COP, but the next 12 months will be critical diplomatically.
Ms Rudd said: "My own view is that whoever is the president of the COP - and Alok absolutely could do a great job at this - should be doing nothing else.
"This is not a side hustle, it's the most important event taking place next year. We can't afford to make this a part-time job."
In what's known as its Nationally Determined Contribution - or NDC - Britain has vowed to cut emissions by 68% of its 1990 levels by 2030 and hopes to persuade others to follow suit.
Ahead of the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015, in which countries said they would try to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre industrial levels, Ms Rudd said she witnessed first-hand how much diplomacy is required to make the conference a success.
She said: "I do know that this requires 100% commitment from somebody who does nothing else.
"I give you as an example, in Paris, the weekend before the COP, Laurent Fabius (then-French foreign minister) flew literally around three continents to make sure that each country within that continent that he was targeting knew what the ambition was for Paris."
Ms Rudd said Mr Fabius "did nothing else for a year".
"If we want to have the success in Glasgow that Paris had five years ago, we need somebody on this full-time," she said.
"I know a little bit about a full agenda at the top of government - and however hard you work, there are only so many hours in the day.
"I think Alok could be a great president of COP, but worry he's also trying to work with businesses while we're in the middle of Brexit and COVID."
But Ms Rudd is not just questioning the role of COP president.
She also shares concerns about the "absence" of women at a high level in the COP team.
"I'm one of many people trying to put this to the PM to make sure he puts that right," she said.
This sentiment was echoed by environmental lawyer Farhana Yamin, an architect of the Paris Agreement who has been involved in top-level climate talks for 30 years.
She said: "The entire senior management of the COP unit is male - except for one recent appointee.
"They don't seem to have really grasped the issue of gender equality and that not having the views and the representation of half the world's population isn't an inclusive look."