Guest essay by Eric Worrall

The Guardian is upset that the British Government foreign minister Boris Johnson has cut the number of staff tasked with negotiating international acceptance of global climate treaties and initiatives.

Foreign Office climate staff cut by 25% under Boris Johnson Damian Carrington Environment editor Exclusive: The prime minister says the UK leads the world on climate action, but Foreign Office officials dedicated to the issue have plunged since 2016 The number of full-time officials dedicated to climate change in the Foreign Office has dropped by almost 25% in the two years since Boris Johnson became foreign secretary, according to data released under freedom of information (FoI) rules. … “It is extremely disappointing,” said Prof Sir David King, who was the foreign secretary’s special envoy for climate change from September 2013 until March 2017. “Yes, we have the Paris agreement, but everybody knows the difference between what the agreement says – if possible no more than 1.5C rise – and what countries have promised is enormous,” he said. “There is a very big amount of work to be done. Other countries have had an enormous amount of respect for what Britain has delivered. If you then cut back the British effort then of course there is a real danger that the focus drifts away.” …

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/25/foreign-office-climate-staff-cut-by-25-under-boris-johnson

The Guardian also notes that Boris Johnson poked fun at climate change in 2015.

I can’t stand this December heat, but it has nothing to do with global warming By Boris Johnson We may all be sweating in the winter air, but remember, we humans have always put ourselves at the centre of cosmic events … Imagine if we have nothing in these long, dark months save a muggy and melancholy mildness, soft, damp and unwholesome; nothing but rain and a louring grey sky pressing down on our hungover eyeballs. The thought made me feel almost unwell. In my despair, I rang the great physicist and meteorologist Piers Corbyn. You know Piers: he is the older brother of Jezza, and he is famous for believing that the world – on the whole – is getting colder, and that the whole global warming theory is unsound, to say the least. Piers thinks that whatever the role of humanity in affecting the temperature of the planet, that role is pitifully trivial next to the Sun, the supercolossal boiling ball of gas about which we revolve and which enables life on Earth. …

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/weather/12060976/I-cant-stand-this-December-heat-but-it-has-nothing-to-do-with-global-warming.html

Boris Johnson came close to being Britain’s Prime Minister in 2016, but his leadership campaign was derailed when one of his key political allies, current British Environment Minister Michael Gove, abruptly withdrew his support for Johnson’s candidacy.

… “This was a carefully planned assassination,” an ally said. “It was systematic and calculated to do the maximum damage to Boris. “When he saw his opportunity for an act of midnight treachery he took it.” …

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/30/boris-johnsons-allies-accuse-michael-gove-of-systematic-and-calc/

I doubt Boris Johnson is a serious climate skeptic. Boris Johnson has poked fun at climate dogma a few times, which greens obviously find unforgivable; but Boris Johnson also seems content to be a senior figure in a one of the deepest green governments in Britain’s history.

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