Mark Carney hails Greta Thunberg
Mark Carney seems to be on Greta Thunberg’s side in her spat with Donald Trump over the climate emergency.
Speaking at Bloomberg’s green event at Davos, Carney says Thunberg is right to point out that the world is rapidly using up its remaining carbon budget and that the US stance makes tackling global heating more difficult.
Asked whether a common understanding is more difficult without the US Carney says:
“It is certainly more difficult.
But, the Bank of England governor adds that some of the leading thinking on climate crisis is coming from US financial sector and tech companies.
On Thunberg Carney says:
There have been many positive contributions from Greta Thunberg.
He points to Thunberg’s argument that climate science shows that the world has only eight years of emitting carbon at its current rate if there is to be a 67% chance of limiting global temperatures increase to 1.5 degrees centigrade.
“That’s a legitimate point to make.”
Carney has been made Boris Johnson’s special adviser for the crucial COP 26 climate conference in Glasgow in December.
He tells his audience that Johnson understands the challenge:
“The prime minister is very focused on this. The full weight of the Government will be engaged with it.”
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Visiting the World Economic Forum is notoriously expensive, with hotels in very short supply.
But even so, the cost of Donald Trump’s visit is eye-watering, at over $4m according to Quartz.
That includes more than $700,000 on car rentals (including $34,000 on vehicles for Ivanka Trump alone). No wonder the streets of Davos were chockablock last night, as the world’s wealthy and important were (slowly) chauffeured home (we walked, of course).
Quartz explains:
The expenditure is posted to a publicly-accessible federal database under the heading, “WEF2020 USSS MARVEL RENTAL OF VEHICLES,” using Ivanka’s Secret Service code name. All payments are being picked up by taxpayers through the State Department budget.
Additional rental car expenses in Davos include $736,000 by the White House travel office, and two more hotel bookings for the president’s entourage—one for $286,000, and one for $29,000—have now combined to make Team Trump’s two-day jaunt to Davos the priciest yet.
The total does not include security costs, salaries, or the estimated $2.2 million necessary to fly Air Force One round-trip between the US and Zurich and the Marine One helicopter flight from Zurich to Davos.
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Introduction: Climate fears and trade war tussles
Good morning from Davos, where the second day of the World Economic Forum is getting underway.
The climate emergency is one of the big stories at Davos this year, even if the world’s most powerful man hasn’t grasped the issue.
Mark Carney, the outgoing Bank of England governor, is discussing the issue in here in Davos shortly, on a Bloomberg panel. He’s just been appointed as the UK government’s advisor for the next climate change conference (COP26), so could have some valuable insights.
Former US vice-president Al Gore is also in town, speaking with climate scientists about the urgent need to
The British Royal Family will continue its relationship with Davos, when Prince Charles will launch his Sustainable Markets Council (SMC). It’s a project to help financial markets become more sustainable.
ITV News explains:
Charles, who last attended Davos in 1992, created the SMC in June 2019, with the support of the World Economic Forum, to accelerate a transition to sustainable markets and a decarbonised global economy.
The SMC will connect business and charity leaders with philanthropists and sustainability experts to encourage greener future investments.
ITV News
(@itvnews)Prince of Wales will travel to Davos forum in electric carhttps://t.co/upeJDsygn1 pic.twitter.com/M3DcdznYWB
EC president Ursula von der Leyen is addressing delegates, as is Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez, Pakistan’s Imran Khan and Iraq’s Barham Salih.
There could also be trade developments, with France close to dropping its plan to tax big US tech companies unilaterally. In return, we hear, they’d like Washington help find a multilateral solution to the issue.
Davos has also been rattled by the news that suspected Russian agents were caught here last year, pretending to be plumbers….
Basically there’s masses going on at WEF today. Here’s the programme, and here’s what we’ll be trying to cover
The agenda:
- 8.40am Davos / 7.40am GMT: Mark Carney and Christiana Figueres on the climate emergency
- 10.15am Davos / 9.15am GMT: Google CEO Sunder Pichai on AI and quantum computing
- 11am Davos / 10.30am GMT: Special address by Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez
- 11.30am Davos / 10.30am GMT: Special address by EC president Ursula von der Leyen
- 2.40pm Davos / 1.40pm GMT: Prince Charles launches his Sustainable Markets Council
- 3.45pm Davos / 2.45pm GMT: Special address by Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan
- 4pm Davos / 3pm GMT: Protecting the Arctic, with Al Gore and Finland’s PM Sanna Marin
- 6pm Davos / 5pm GMT: Special address by Iraq’s president, Barham Salih
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