COP gets going – much at stake

THE COP Conference on Climate Change began in Biene, Brazil, this week with a sadly depleted attendance in spite of instances around the world of countries and communities suffering horrifically from unprecedented floods and storms. Notably absent was US President Donald Trump, according to the BBC's climate editor, Justin Rowatt.

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This raises the question, according to Rowatt, of why have a two-week multinational gathering at all if so many leaders aren't there?

“The golden era for multilateral diplomacy is over,’ agrees Joss Garman, a former climate activist who now heads a new think tank called Loom.

“Climate politics is now more than ever about who captures and controls the economic benefits of new energy industries,” he says.

Rowatt quotes Trump: “This ‘climate change’ — it’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world,” he told the UN General Assembly. “If you don't get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail”