It is summer solstice today, as I write this. This has been a weird spring, and the beginning of summer seems to be vying with it in its unseasonality. Longest day it may be, but I can see that lights will have to be switched on hours before sunset time today. There has been no shortage of blooms this year, let us hope for a bumper harvest too.
Last month saw the 100th Anniversary of the partition of the island of Ireland. But the ‘troubles’ continued until in 1998 the Good Friday Agreement was signed and the violence almost died down dramatically. Let us hope that the disturbances we saw recently as a result of the Brexit protocol will be a temporary blip and peaceful coexistence will resume soon.
Talking of hope, let us not forget the UN Conference on Climate Change about to take place in Glasgow. The Paris meeting, COP21, was a momentous event, where for the first time all the countries agreed to work together to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees and aim for 1.5 degrees. Under the Paris Agreement, each nation committed to setting out plans for reducing emissions and to come together again in five years. Covid-19 stretched this a bit and now we are approaching COP26, COP meaning ‘Conference of the Parties’ that signed the first UN Convention on Climate Change in 1994.
In Glasgow at COP26, countries will be coming forward with ambitious plans to keep alive the target of 1.5 degree limit for global warming by 2030. They will try to achieve this mainly by quickly phasing out coal, cutting deforestation, switching to electric vehicles and encouraging investment in renewable energy. If any of this brings us inconvenience, let us put that into context with the consequences of doing nothing, or too little.
I hope all our readers will have a wonderful summer.
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