Ukraine and the ‘Molecules of Freedom’: What’s Behind Sunak’s COP27 Climate Conversion?
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during the COP27 U.N. Climate Summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
James TweedieThe British prime minister’s reluctant appearance at the UN climate summit in Egypt has left some asking what is behind his sudden interest in green issues.World leaders have jetted off to the luxury resort community of Sharm el-Sheikh on Egypt’s Red Sea coast for COP27, the 27th annual ‘Conference of the Parties’ to the 1992 UN climate change accord.British mainstream media speculated that Sunak only went to avoid being upstaged by Boris Johnson, his former boss, against whom he led a Brutus-like palace coup in July, and environmentalist monarch King Charles III who pulled out ostensibly for reasons of “logistics”. Johnson, who championed the ‘net zero’ CO2 emissions policy that now looks unwise amid the current energy crisis, turned up at COP27 apparently representing just his suburban London seat.But it was the new PM who got to speak from the stage on behalf of the UK. While saying it was “morally right” that Britain honors its commitments on global warming, he explicitly linked the drive towards renewable energy with the economic war on Russia.”Climate and energy security go hand-in-hand,” Sunak insisted. “Putin’s abhorrent war in Ukraine and rising energy prices across the world are not a reason to go slow on climate change. They are a reason to act faster.”But his opposition to fossil fuels rang hollow in light of Downing Street’s enthusiastic huffing on CO2-emitting Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) from the US.Two sources told a major British newspaper that the government is in talks with Washington — begun by Sunak’s short-lived predecessor Liz Truss — on a deal it hopes will see 10 billion cubic meters of gas imported by tanker ships.One Whitehall insider said the deal, which would be sold to the public as an “energy security partnership”, could mean the gas is delivered “over the next year” — well beyond the winter season when energy authorities have warned of shortages and even electricity power cuts. The deal could also include cooperation on nuclear energy, especially the Small Modular Reactor plan under development by Rolls Royce that was one of Johnson’s pet projects. The US and UK are already in a partnership to build nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy — which scrapped a deal between Canberra and Paris for a fleet of diesel-electric subs.Sunak has already reinstated Johnson’s moratorium on new onshore gas fracking projects, which Truss lifted in a bid to increase the UK’s energy self-sufficiency.
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Profit Opportunity
By comparison with the 10 million cubic meters the UK is seeking, the US pledged to sell 15 billion to the entire European Union (EU) this spring after the bloc began to impose sanctions and energy import embargoes on its main supplier Russia over its military operation in Ukraine.But the terms of the deal have raised hackles among the nations of Europe, with French President Emmanuel Macron questioning why US energy firms are selling LNG in Europe for four times the price they charge at home.A trade war between the NATO allies may also be brewing over Washington’s bid to entice European manufacturers to relocate across the Atlantic on the promise of cheap energy. France and Germany have threatened to take the US to the World Trade Organization (WTO) over subsidies in its so-called Inflation Reduction Act.The UK gets around half its natural gas from fields in its North Sea exclusive economic zone, and much of the rest from Norway via the extensive network of pipelines connecting the British Isles with the coastal northern European nations. But it is also home to Europe’s largest LNG terminal at South Hook, near the Welsh town of Milford Haven, which is two-thirds owned but QatarEnergy, the Gulf Arab state’s national oil and gas giant.That could put Britain in a position to profit from the sanctions and the September 26 sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 Russian gas pipelines across the Baltic Sea, by collecting handling and transit fees for US gas destined for the EU.
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