Watching the Tour de France riders speed up steep slopes in the hot sunshine I am filled with admiration. Every time I find myself dismounting when faced with a moderate climb I wonder at how they manage to keep going. Okay, usually I have a couple of panniers full,of shopping weighing me down a little and, yes, they are a whole lot younger and fitter than I am, so maybe I shouldn’t be too hard on myself. But it must be very difficult to keep going in the unusual heat they are having in Southern Europe at the moment.
It’s all that climate change stuff again, of course. And now it seems that there’s some doubt about our prime minister keeping to his £11.6bn commitment on climate finance. MPs have signed a cross-party letter urging him to recommit to the target and so “avoid doing further damage to the UK’s climate leadership, and help to build a safe and more prosperous future”.
Chris Skidmore, the MP who authored the government’s net zero review, is among 51 parliamentarians, including four Tories, who have written to the prime minister urging him not to let down developing countries.
Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, who also signed the letter, told the Guardian: “The government’s commitment to £11.6bn in climate finance isn’t a ‘nice-to-have’ – it’s an absolutely critical part of the global effort to tackle the accelerating climate emergency, and a solemn promise to the international community that cannot simply be abandoned on a whim.
“It must be new and additional money, too. Giving with one hand and taking with another, by diverting cash from an already depleted aid budget, won’t help those on the frontline of this crisis. Any backsliding on this commitment would leave any remaining semblance of the UK’s global climate leadership in tatters.”
There you go!
Across the Channel in France, Monsieur Macron is planning on offering refunds to people who have clothes and shoes and household appliances repaired instead of throwing stuff away and buying new. There is talk of limits on single-use plastic in fast-food and other restaurants and punitive parking fees for SUV owners. But environmental campaigners and critics say that this is putting the onus on consumers and that the government is not really doing enough. They accuse their president of greenwashing: a PR tactic used to make a company or product appear environmentally friendly, without meaningfully reducing its environmental impact.
Oh dear! It’s a hard job running a country!
It’s raining here, by the way!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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