UK walks diplomatic tightrope for 2020 climate summit after shaky start

The UK faces a tough diplomatic double act to propel ambitious climate action into the next decade at the UN climate talks in November while negotiating its new trading relationship with the world after Brexit.

The UK is hosting the UN climate talks in Glasgow in November.

The tension between the UK government’s priorities was on display this week as Prime Minister Boris Johnson both set out his vision for a global Britain and formally launched Cop26.

Outlining his “global Britain” campaign, Johnson declared his government was “ready for the great multi-dimensional game of chess in which we engage in more than one negotiation at once”.

Much hope rides on the expectations that the game will include climate diplomacy.

Read the story from Climate Home News by Chloé Farand - “UK walks diplomatic tightrope for 2020 climate summit after shaky start.”

Mandela leaves us lessons to combat global warming

The late Nelson Mandela.

Nelson Mandela may not have had much to do with the mitigation of climate change, but those eager to slow the warming of our planet have much to learn from him.

Mandela understood the importance of remaining close to your enemies.

Writing in “Mandela’s legacy for climate activists”, Alex Lenferna, pointed to the lessons from the struggle against Apartheid by Mandela.

He wrote that criticisms that inequality has in some cases worsened since the end of Apartheid, but he felt the radical behaviour of its ultimately successful opponents was instructive for those earnestly combatting climate change.

“Of course,” Lenferna wrote, “all out radicalism is no solution either, radicalism by its very nature is oppositional and if we are to work together to create a better future we need to know when to reign in our activism and sit down at the negotiating table”.