Alok Sharma: The Minister with Nine Months to Prepare UK for Global Climate Talks

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Alok Sharma has today been appointed President of COP26, the UN climate negotiations taking place in Glasgow later this year, following Claire Oโ€™Neillโ€™s removal from the post lastย month.

Sharma, who has served as an MP for Reading West since 2010 and was previously Secretary of State for International Development, will also lead the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), replacing Andrea Leadsom. He previously served as the Minister for Employment and Housing in Theresa Mayโ€™s government and was the Conservative Party Vice-Chairman from 2012 toย 2015.

The promotion took place during Prime Minister Boris Johnsonโ€™s first cabinet reshuffle since his general election victory in December lastย year.


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It had been unclear who would lead the important UN conference following Oโ€™Neillโ€™s abrupt sacking. A number of high-profile Tories including David Cameron and William Hagueย hadย turned down the role.

The former International Development Secretary is an unexpected choice to lead COP26, although he has demonstrated an interest in the conference. In September 2019, he tweeted that the summit is โ€œan important moment to turbo charge ambition to tackle climateย changeโ€.

He now has only nine months to prepare for the conference, at which nations are expected to deliver updated climate action plans. After his appointment, Sharma said on twitter that he was โ€œlooking forward to an exciting yearย ahead.โ€

Response

Mohamed Adow, Director of energy and climate think tank Power Shift Africa, said he was worried that so little time remains until the conference. In a press statement, he said: โ€œItโ€™s a relief to finally have a COP president in post. But now the hard work must startโ€ฆ This is the UKโ€™s first real test post-Brexit and so far Britain has not looked like a serious player on the globalย stage.โ€

Kat Kramer of Christian Aid welcomed the appointment of Sharma as COP26 president and urged Johnson and the government to support his leadership. She said: โ€œIt is now vital they work very closely with the backing of the Prime Minister to both get other countries to commit to new pledges to tackle the climate crisis but also put the UKโ€™s own house in order and enact policies to accelerate UKย decarbonisation.โ€

There were also strong opinions from Labour Party MPs. Clive Lewis, who represents Norwich South, tweeted: โ€œAlok Sharma has an abysmal voting record on all things climate. This Governmentโ€™s blatant disregard for tackling the biggest issue of our time isย galling.โ€

The Conservativesโ€™ former COP president, Claire Oโ€™Neill, was more encouraging. She tweeted: โ€œAlok is a very good person who I am sure will get to grips quickly with theย challengeโ€.

Voting Record andย Donations

Sharmaโ€™s voting record on environmental issues has beenย mixed.

As of October 2019, TheyWorkForYou, a site which tracks the voting records of MPs, said that Sharma โ€œgenerally voted against measures to prevent climateย changeโ€.

A Guardian analysis, which considers the voting records on 16 measures that could reduce emissions, scored Sharma 15 percent. The MP was โ€œpresent for 13 votes and voted positively in 2,โ€ the Guardian notes, casting pro-environment votes on the 2013 energy bill and nuclear subsidies, and negative votes on proposals such as fracking permits, vehicle emissions tax and onshore windย subsidies.

Sharma received a ยฃ15,000 donation from Offshore Group Newcastle, a steel manufacturer for oil platforms, the database shows, of which Ukranian businessman and major Tory donor Alexander Temerko was aย Director.

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmregmem/200210/sharma_alok.htm

Temerko has a range of energy interests,ย including holding positions with oil and gas companies. Last month, Sharma received a ยฃ10,000 donation from Temerko’s AQUINDย Limited, which is building an electricity interconnector between theย UKย and mainlandย Europe.

Affiliations

Sharma has been a chairman of and served on the Council for the Bow Group, a free market think-tank closely linked to a number of organisations that have lobbied against strong climateย action.

The Bow Group describes itself as โ€œone of the most influential centre right think-tanks in Britainโ€ and claims to exist to โ€œdevelop policy, public research and stimulate debate within the Conservativeย Partyโ€.

A number of MPs with questionable climate change recordsย have sat alongside Sharma on the committee, including MEP Campbell Bannerman, who once called European environmentalists โ€œthe EU Green Talibanโ€, and MP John Redwood, who said he was pleased to hear of a proposal that would remove global warming from the national curriculum and has previously asserted that climate change was a natural phenomenonย for which humans were notย responsible.

Some members of the Bow Group, including John Redwood and Martin McElwee, have also been involved with the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Taxpayerโ€™s Alliance โ€“ two organisations known to lobby against strong environmentalย regulation.

Sharma has also been accused of having ties with the Kremlin. In 2017, an article by Carole Cadwalladr, the journalist who exposed the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal, discussed how Sharma had several confirmed meetings with Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese academic embroiled in the controversy over the Trump campaignโ€™s ties to Russia. Mifsudโ€™s current whereabouts areย unknown.

Heathrow Airportย Expansion

Sharma originally opposed the expansion of Heathrow Airport, but has supported the project since becoming an MP.

As a Conservative parliamentary candidate in 2009, he attended a community event in an orchard that was threatened by Heathrowโ€™s prospective third runway. He spoke of the damage the third runway would cause and said: โ€œIt is time for the government to abandon its plans for a third runway and, if a Conservative Government is elected, we will certainly stop this environmentalย disaster.โ€

His opposition did not last long. Writing in a Conservative Home article in 2013, he favoured the expansion of Heathrow and said that โ€œa lack of hub capacity in particular is costing the UK jobs and investmentโ€. In 2014, the Reading Chronicle reported that Sharma welcomed a โ€œvital multi-billion pound planโ€ to expand Heathrow and, in June 2018, he voted with his party in favour of the thirdย runway.

Disclaimer: Mohamed Adow is on DeSmog UK Ltd’s Board ofย Directors

Image credit: UKย Parliament

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