Sir Ed Davey: China will dictate the success of Glasgow’s COP26

Sir Ed Davey (Dominic Lipinski/PA)
PA Wire
Ed Davey1 November 2021
WEST END FINAL

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You don’t have to be a protester, face glued to a motorway, to know that if COP26 goes badly, life on our planet will get sticky. And my biggest fear now for the climate talks is China.

We all know the goal: we must stop global warming exceeding 1.5C. Otherwise, we’re all finished. And that means every country must agree to work to a common goal and play their part. Especially the biggest polluters, like the US and China.

Having led the UK’s negotiations at three previous COPs, I know the Chinese are tough. In my time we used air pollution to reel China into the fold. Smog is a national crisis in China, killing hundreds of thousands every year, if not millions.

When I appeared on China’s equivalent of BBC’s Question Time, solving air pollution was the only question. How had we eradicated London’s smogs? So we made the link: tackle local air pollution and, at the same time, global air pollution. China was won over for the Paris Treaty. But what we need this time is far, far bigger. For Glasgow to succeed, the UK must lead the task to persuade China to go much further — to reduce and end coal usage far earlier and far faster than it currently plans.

That requires the West to pull together like never before and use not just carrots but sticks too, to move China. It is already a superpower and is fast catching up with the US economically. The Chinese government, like past emerging superpowers, is extending its tentacles of influence across the world — increasing its negotiating strength at the UN.

So the West may need to act, to remind China of its responsibility to the world. We could, for instance, agree to a carbon border levy; essentially pointy-headed jargon for “making it impossible for China to sell to the West if they don’t get their (green)house (gasses) in order”.

People often ask me: what’s the difference between a good COP and a bad COP. Well, a good COP is one we can tell our grandchildren about. A bad COP is one we can tell our grandchildren about while we’re living on a boat. For all our sakes, let’s hope Glasgow’s COP is the former.

Sir Ed Davey is leader of the Liberal Democrats and was Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2012 to 2015

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