[Applause]
Paris five years ago in the world
finally has a plan to combat climate
change the Paris climate agreement
Glasgow five years on perhaps a last
chance to implement that agreement at
the conference of parties climate talks
the cop here in November
today the UK was due to launch its cop
vision in London extinction rebellion
outside the green great and good inside
waiting to hear an announcement about
cars as part of that vision trailed
overnight by Downing Street in the
Hurricanes and the bush fires and the
melting of the ice caps and the
acidification of the oceans the evidence
is now overwhelming but there was no
announcement on cars indeed no concrete
policy or action announced at all you
have to look on the government website
to see they plan to ban sales of new
diesel petrol and hybrid cars by 2035
now not 2040 I think it would take
something like a cut in v80 on new
electric vehicles and the inclusion of
hybrid vehicles to really make it work
without those incentives these targets
are a massive challenge before the Prime
Minister even took the stage this
morning things were already off to a bad
start with this Claire O'Neill avenging
Boris Johnson for sacking her as
president of cop 26 this year's vital
climate conference just nine months away
now in Glasgow he's also admitted to me
that he doesn't really understand it and
you know it's good he said that he's had
all sorts of things over the years
he doesn't understand he doesn't he
doesn't really get it I think is what he
said others around him do she wasn't
done publishing her letter to the Prime
Minister there's a yawning gap between
what the world expects from us and where
we are it's a systemic failure of global
vision and leadership and this we are
miles off track you promised to lead
from the front and ask me what was
needed money people just tell us sadly
these promises and offers are not closed
to being met a very public spat a
looming conference in Glasgow billed as
our best chance to save the world as we
know it
and no leader in place and foreign
diplomats who were here today say that
really matters the world really needs
and urgently clear leadership as we move
towards that conference note this from a
key architect of the Paris climate
agreement
he didn't develop the policy elements or
particular views on the geopolitics of
climate change it was basically to say
we can make it we have to bring all
countries together showing that UK can
do it and can deliver so it was sort of
more domestic message the enveloping
sense of shambles topped off today by
Downing Street trying to ban journalists
from asking questions one for the
Italian Prime Minister Prime Minister
why did you set Claire O'Neill when are
you going to name her successor when are
you going to name her successful but no
answers he was there too issuing another
of his final final final warnings of why
the cop conference matters this is now
up to us to put before the nations of
the world what has to be done we don't
need to emphasize to them or to you that
the longer we leave it of not doing
things but going on talking about the
problems the worse it's going to get
thus the UK's presidency of the Glasgow
cop conference is now launched but
there's no captain on the bridge
and it feels rudderless Alex Thompson
reporting on our staying with climate
change the UK's aviation industry has
announced plans to reduce its net carbon
emissions to zero by 2050 it says it
will do so through cleaner biofuels and
electric planes rather than reducing the
number of flights well any I spoke to
the chief executive Heathrow Airport
John Holland ok I began by asking him
whether given the concern expressed by
some environmentalists about biofuels
the airline industry should be relying
on them to make itself carbon neutral oh
no one needs to cut down any rainforests
to keep planes flying this is about
sustainable aviation fuels so energy
from second generation biofuels from
forestry agricultural and domestic waste
and synthetic fuels which are made from
combining carbon monoxide and hydrogen
that both technologies that exist today
they are both subscale but they can be
scaled up and what we need now is
significant investment and support from
government to make sure that scaling up
happens just as we had with solar and
offshore wind we just transformed the
availability and cost of sustainable
energy in other sectors let's take just
one of the options that you've mentioned
electric flying the fact is there's not
a plane in the sky yet that is
practicing this usage of fuel there are
electric planes that exist today we tend
to think of them as being the kind of
copters that will take one or two people
up that is electric flight but you're
what we are talking about here is a
significant scaling up of short haul
flight battery-powered and we don't see
this as being a huge part of the
solution by 2050 but it will be part of
the solution and the UK government has a
fantastic opportunity at cop 26 to
champion a UK solution to a global
problem which is decarbonizing flight
and we really need to do not mention one
obvious obvious solution which is to fly
less flying less will not stop people
fly in China or India and in fact one
one issue that I often get asked about
is is about the expansion of Heathrow
now expansion of Heathrow was stopped 10
years ago by the coalition and
government with the intention of of
limiting climate change what was the
result of that more people flew from
Britain to Amsterdam to Paris and then
took another flight to get to global
destinations nor the single ounce of
carbon was saved by not expanding
Heathrow what we do have is ridiculously
cheap flights we do have far too much
flying and you won't accept any of that
you just think we can go on as we are
but we'll just find another way of doing
it
I a VA ssin is a fantastic thing it is a
blessing for this world that we can now
go to other parts of the world meet
other cultures that we can trade which
is a big part of what Aviation is about
so we should be proud that we are coming
up with a real solution to a real-world
issue not just telling people they can't
fly but coming up with a real practical
solution John Holland Kay thank you very
much for joining us