COP26

From Tokyo, Japan and Sterling in the United Kingdom. This is Down to Business English with your hosts Skip Montreux and Des Morgan.

Skip. I have a golden opportunity at the moment.

A golden opportunity. What are you talking about, Des? Do you have a hot stock tip for us? Are we all gonna get rich?

No, not that kind of golden, sadly. And it's only me that lucked out. Oh.

Well, I won't say that I'm not disappointed. But do tell, what is this golden opportunity you have?

I have two days off that wasn't expected, two days that weren't on the calendar at the start of the year.

You haven't been suspended from your teaching job, have you? Were you smoking in the toilets, or did you blow up the chemistry lab?

Heh no nothing like that. The school where I work is located right in central Glasgow, and is one of five schools that's had to shut their doors because all the roads are closed.

Does this have anything to do with the COP26, the United Nations meeting on climate change that is taking place in Glasgow at the moment?

That is precisely the reason.

I was wondering how close you were to that event. It sounds like you are right in the middle of it.

I seem to be.

So is that our story for today? Will you be able to give us a report on what is happening?

They would be happy to

Fantastic.

Okay, let's do it. Let's get D2B down to business with the COP26 conference. Who's attending? What's being discussed? And what effect is the conference having, not just on the climate, but on the people of Glasgow?

Who is here?

Let's start off with answering that question. President Biden is here. He flew into Rome a few days ago to meet the Pope. He's not staying in Glasgow though.

Really? Where is he spending his night?

He's staying at Holyrood House in Edinburgh, which is the Queen's official residence when she's in Scotland.

Oh nice. And how about the Queen? Is she attending?

She was planning to, but her doctors advised against it. Prince Charles is, though, more than

Makes sense. So is it very far between the two cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow?

About an hour by car. Well there's there's no way that President Biden could arrive by helicopter at a conference on climate change.

Very true, that would be quite hypocritical.

Most other world leaders will be there as well. France's Emanuel Macron, India's Narenda Modi, and your favourite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Well he is not my favourite prime minister. N nowhere close. It just happens that he is the Prime Minister of my home country. That's it.

And not forgetting my faithful leaders, Britain's Boris Johnson and Scotland's first minister, Nicholas Sturgeon. Not a lot of love lost between those two.

I can imagine what with the vote for independence in Scotland in twenty fourteen and then Brexit which Scott were mostly against the

Yes, it's unlikely they'll be having drinks together.

So those are some of the political leaders. What about activists? I read that David Attenborough was in attendance.

Yeah, he sure is here. And Greta Thunberg as well. She arrived by train on Sunday and was welcomed by crowds of fans. Wow.

You know, Des, it it just goes to show you how important the issue of climate change is when a ninety-five year old Attenborough and an eighteen year old Thunberg are both attending. And are on the same side of the issue.

Interesting observation, however, and this is a big however. Neither Chinese President Xi Jinping nor Russian President Vladimir Putin will be in attendance.

Leaders from two of the world's biggest nations nod in attendance. Isn't that a bit like having the World Cup without Brazil and Italy showing up?

Good analogy! But Xi Jinping will be speaking via video link, apparently.

Well, okay, in that case I could stretch the analogy a bit. Brazil won't be at the World Cup, but will be joining on the PlayStation.

Let's not stretch that analogy any further.

Okay, I I got it.

Speaking of Brazil, uh President Bolsonaro is another leader not in attendance. I'm not exactly sure if Japan's new Prime Minister, uh Kishida, is attending or not.

He is a very new Prime Minister indeed. He only took over from Prime Minister Suda about a month ago, and he just won his first election this past Sunday.

Do you know is he coming over here to Scotland?

actually does. I was reading in the news this morning that he did indeed depart for COP twenty six late Tuesday night.

So he has just arrived or is on his way?

And apparently he is just going to attend a few meetings and then jump right back on his plane and come back to Japan. He's not even going to spend a single night remote.

Really? Uh seems like a pretty big carbon footprint he's creating just to pop in and say hi.

I agree. So that gets us up to speed on who is a ten. Can you tell us a bit about what is being discussed at COP twenty six?

Sure, but let's clear up what COP26 actually stands for.

Oh good idea.

Back in nineteen ninety five, the United Nations created a framework convention on climate change. where member nations of the UN could meet annually in a conference of the parties, or COP, to discuss the current state of climate change and what should be done to slow the process down.

That is what COP stands for. Conference of the party. And this is the twenty sixth such meeting.

Correct. It was due to happen last year, but because of COVID-19 was postponed.

Why is this one so important? I don't remember hearing much about COP twenty four or twenty five, but COP twenty six seems to be getting a lot of attention in the media.

Well the first reason is related to the reason it was cancelled last year. The pandemic has led governments to focus more on health and the environment than perhaps they would have done ordinarily.

As countries try to rebuild their economies, they are focusing on greener ways to achieve this.

In a nutshell. Yes. That is how the conference is being viewed. A further reason is do you remember the Paris Accord on Climate Change signed in twenty fifteen at COP twenty one?

Yes, of course I do. The one that former President Trump pulled the US out of in twenty seventeen.

One and the same. COP26 is seen as the venue for nations to evaluate and perhaps amend the Paris Accord. The Paris Accord has been in effect for six years, so nations see now as a good time to assess what has and hasn't been achieved and how to move forward.

And where do things stand in terms of achievement?

Well, the general consensus, at least in Europe, is that not enough has been done, but it's not too late. The aim is for Europe and the rest of the world to be carbon neutral by twenty fifty. In order to achieve this, The EU has set aims to reduce carbon emissions by fifty-five percent of the nineteen ninety levels by twenty thirty.

very ambitious targets.

Britain has similar targets with no new petrol driven cars to be made after twenty thirty as an example policy.

Wow, that's a lot of talk. What about the knots and bulls? Exactly what are nations hoping to have in the agreement?

Uh well, as I said, carbon neutrality by twenty fifty and a raise of no more than one point five degrees in the world climate by the same mid century market.

You think is that realistic?

Mm. At the moment the the UN predictions are that temperatures will rise by two point seven degrees if no changes are made. In order to achieve the 1.5 degree targets, nations will have to accelerate their phase out of coal, curtail deforestation, speed up the switch to electric vehicles, and encourage more investment in renewables.

That's quite a list. A very long list. Looking at the second item on that list, however, I can see why President Bolsonaro is not attending. Isn't he all for deforestation?

That is my understanding. However, even if we do cut emissions as planned, the climate will continue to change. So further aims are to protect and restore ecosystems. Build defences, warning systems, and resilient infrastructure and agriculture to avoid loss of homes, livelihoods, and the and even lives.

Again, again, this is a lot of good talk. But the fact of the matter is the entire world needs to pull together and accomplish these things. It needs to be a collective effort.

Another part that governments in first world countries probably won't like Developed nations must make good on their promise to mobilise at least one hundred billion dollars per year in climate finance if these goals are to be achieved.

That is certainly going to be a hurdle for many countries to get past.

As we are recording today's episode at the start of the conference, I can't tell you how much has been achieved so far, unfortunately.

In that case, maybe you can tell us what the mood has been like on the ground.

With the local population.

Yes, how are people reacting to COP26 being held in their neighborhood?

Mixed actually. The local garbage or rubbish collectors have seen this as a great time to go on strike, and the train drivers were also threatening strike action, but it looks like that strike has been averted.

Hm capitalizing on the local government's need to look good and get people to and from the city.

That's it. Lots of parks and most museums are closed, so that hasn't gone down too well with the people either. Plus, lots of roads have been closed and with additional police coming in from all over the UK, there's certainly a stronger police presence than usual.

But people must be proud to be hosting a conference of this magnitude.

Yeah, I'm sure they are to some degree. I'll see what it's like getting to work next week because that is what most people are worried about. On the upside, I was forced to drive home a different way the other night and it was actually faster.

Well there you go, Des. Always the optimist.

Ahead of the conference, Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, is not very optimistic. He has stated that based on early negotiations, he only sees a six out of ten chance for the meetings to be successful.

Hmm, a sixty percent chance. That doesn't sound too bad.

It doesn't sound too good either considering what's at stake, but let's keep an open mind for now.

Yes, let's do that.

So that is about all I have on the COP twenty six conference for now. It will be over by the next time we touch base, so I'll fill listeners in on the rest of the story then.

Which means that it's now time for us to get D2V down to vocabulary.

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I will get the ball rolling with the verb to suspend. When something is suspended, it has been stopped for a period of time. In the story, I joked that Des had been suspended from his job, meaning that he had done something wrong and his bosses wouldn't allow him back to the school for a short period of time.

It's quite common for offices to suspend the dress code for the hotter summer months to save energy and also for the staff to feel more comfortable. Do you have casual summer wear at your company, Skip?

Absolutely. The entire country of Japan follows the cool biz dress code for the summer months. Short sleeves shirts and no neckties.

Even if you're meeting a client,

Even if you're meeting a client, yeah. In fact, Cool Biz just ended at the end of October. So I wore a tie for the very first time in a long time just the other day.

Well, that's a new development since I was living there. I think

I think Cool Biz may have just been coming in when you were here. And it has really expanded a lot since then.

Anyway, I'll now discuss the adjective hypocritical. This word means to have dual standards, when a person says one thing but acts in another way. In the story, Skip remarked that it would be hypocritical for anyone to arrive at a conference on climate change in a carbon-producing, climate-destroying helicopter.

And the noun you can use to refer to a person that does this kind of thing, the noun is a hypocrite.

That is a word you don't want to be called.

A long time ago, I had a boss who was always complaining that no one did any work, and yet he himself always took three-hour lunches. and was always practicing his golf swing in his office. He was sure a hypocrite.

Sounds really annoying.

It sure was.

I think we may have had the same boss.

We might have, yeah. Moving on, let's look at the expression in a nutshell. And a nutshell means to explain something in the shortest way possible. In the story, I asked Des if countries were looking for greener ways to rebuild their economies, and Des responded that, in a nutshell, that was the case.

This expression is useful at the end of a presentation when you want to recap or summarize on the key points you've just finished making. You can end your presentation by saying, in a nutshell, the main point of the presentation was, and then repeat your key points. If you end your presentation this way, your audience knows that you're telling them the whole message in as short a form as you can.

In a nutshell, D2B is a great way to improve your business English.

would certainly agree. Next up I have another expression, the nuts and bolts of a topic.

I like this expression.

It means the actual details of how something is going to be achieved. In the story, Skip asked me to give everyone the nuts and bolts of what COP26 hoped to achieve. In other words, he was asking me for the details of what the delegates will actually be discussing.

Car design is a great example of the nuts and bulls. An industrial designer draws the look of the car in a blueprint form, and then engineers have to get down to the nuts and bolts of how the car will actually be made or Literally bolted together.

I'm pretty sure the expression comes from the engineering world, but it can now be used in any situation.

Let's finish up D2V today with the verb to capitalize on something. When you capitalize on something, you are using a situation to your best advantage. In the story, I commented that the workers who went on strike in Glasgow were capitalizing on the publicity around the city to get their grievances considered.

Do you remember Windows Vista? Barely. Well, it was an operating system that pretty much everyone hated, and Apple certainly capitalized on this error from their key competitor.

All is fair in love, war, and the tech industry.

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Thanks so much for that on the ground report on COP26 DES. I hope that the conference doesn't interfere with

I'm sure everything will be fine, I just hope that my garbage will be picked up on time tomorrow.

Well, if the garbage collectors are still on strike, you know what you should do?

What's that?

You should capitalize on the situation and start reducing the amount of waste you and your family produce.

I suppose we could try that, but honestly speaking, we're already quite environmentally friendly. I'm not really sure what else we could be doing.

Stop driving your car everywhere. Use a bicycle instead. Don't turn on any lights in your house until the sun goes down. Suspend your household internet connection for four or five hours a day.

So in a nutshell you're telling me to get completely off the grid.

It is one way to help reduce carbon emissions.

Well, I'd like to see you try and live off the grid. Who me?

I would never even try.

Well, that's a little hypocritical of you to suggest it for me then. I see.

Suppose so. Thanks for listening everyone. See you next time.

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