March, we continued to make progress on priority issues, including: Alongside Mark Carney and the Race to Zero Campaign, we launched the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero on April 21, which unites over 160 firms (together responsible for assets in excess of US$70 trillion) from the leading net zero initiatives across the financial system to accelerate the transition to net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest. This also featured the launched of the new UN-convened Net Zero Banking Alliance, which includes 43 banks from 23 countries, covering $28.5 trillion of assets under management.  Launching the Rapid Response Facility on 12 April at the second ministerial meeting of the COP26 Energy Transition Council, which is a new technical assistance initiative to support countries' energy transitions, and holding 10 dialogues with countries in Asia and Africa to enhance international cooperation on the coal to clean power transition. Alok Sharma, alongside UK Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps, chaired the second Zero Emission Vehicles Transition Council on 26 April, welcoming new participants including the USA and Germany. The first Ministerial Roundtable for the FACT Dialogue was held on 15 April with 28 countries in attendance. The FACT (Forest, Agriculture and Commodity Trade) Dialogue is an initiative launched by COP26 Presidency and Tropical Forests Alliance, to accelerate the transition towards more sustainable land use practices in a way that opens up new opportunities for investment, for jobs and livelihoods in forests, land use and agriculture, and to ensure that the economies which have a sustainable relationship with forests are the ones that thrive and grow. To find out more about how you can get involved, please click here. On 9 April, the COP President Designate wrote to all parties setting out his expectations for the negotiated outcome and urging accelerated progress in the multilateral process. He also attended the COP Bureau on 15 June which gave the green light to a three week intersessional from 31 May to 17 June which will be vital for advancing solutions on negotiations issues. The UK's lead negotiator Archie Young and his Chilean counterpart Julio Cordano, convened this month's multilateral Heads of Delegations consultation on the 27th and 28th April. The consultations focused on Transparency and Common Time Frames, two of the key issues to be addressed at COP26 in Glasgow. Summaries of previous discussions can be found here. We have also been conducting bilateral consultations this month with negotiating groups on finance.  The COP President Designate has also been continuing to engage widely with a range of countries, businesses, civil society organisations and other stakeholders. Highlights from April included: The UAE Regional Climate Dialogue in Abu Dhabi, where COP President Designate urged partners across MENA to work together and accelerate climate action. Whilst there, he also met again with US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, to discuss their continued cooperation on the road to COP26. In South Korea, COP President Designate met with key Government ministers, businesses and youth groups to discuss opportunities for South Korea to show global leadership in reducing its emissions over the next decade on the path to net zero. We were pleased to see President Moon's commitment to end international coal financing announced later in April.  Finally in Japan, COP President Designate met Prime Minister Suga to discuss both countries' shared commitment to tackling climate change. He also met with other ministers and representatives from Japanese civil society to hear their ambitions for climate action. The UK welcomed Japan's Nationally Determined Contribution, announced ahead of the Climate Leaders Summit, which aligns with its 2050 net zero commitment.  Above: Alok Sharma meeting youth and civil society representatives during his visit to South Korea We were also encouraged to see more ambitious action and commitments from non-state actors throughout the month: Over 3,591 companies, cities, states, regions and universities have joined the Race to Zero Campaign, committing to net zero by 2050 at the latest and setting robust plans to get there. We were particularly pleased to welcome a large number of new members from the US last month, including Walmart, Netflix, Visa and Twitter. The UK joined a group of governments and companies forming the LEAF Coalition - a new public private initiative accelerating climate action by providing results-based finance to countries committed to protecting their tropical forests. The initiative will aim to mobilise at least $1 billion in support of this.  On 29 April, the UK Business Group Alliance for Net Zero launched. Coordinated by Corporate Leaders Group and involving a range of business representative organisations, the Alliance will support UK business action and grow the membership of the Race to Zero. This builds on recent successes with over one third of FTSE100 businesses and over 500 SMEs in the UK alone now being Race to Zero members.

Coming up 4-5 May: G7 Foreign and Development Ministerial  6-7 May: Petersberg Climate Dialogue, which will be chaired by Alok Sharma alongside German Environment Minister Svenja Schulze. This year, UNSG Antonio Guterres, PM Boris Johnson and Chancellor Merkel will provide opening remarks ahead of a busy two days of ministerial sessions focusing on Adaptation, Article 6, Climate Finance, Common Time Frames and Transparency. 8-9 May: Pacific Leaders Summit  10 May: Business 7 Summit. In partnership with the CBI, we are hosting a Climate Leaders Summit to showcase the best of recent private sector Race to Zero commitments. 11 May: REAP (Risk-Informed Early Action Partnership) Pledging Conference, a closed-door pledging conference in May 2021 to raise the ambition on achieving REAP’s targets in the run-up to UNFCCC COP26. Anne-Marie Trevelyan will co-chair this event, with Minister Rigobert from St Lucia. 11-12 May: Met Office Climate Science Conference. The first of two virtual science conferences in May, organised by the Met Office and COP26 Universities Network, in partnership with the Italian University Network for Sustainable Development (RUS). These will bring together academics, policymakers and others. 11-14 May: Latin America and Caribbean Climate Week, part of a series of Regional Climate Weeks in 2021. 14-15 May: Y7 Summit - youth delegations from each G7 country will discuss issues relating to all G7 policy tracks (including climate and environment) and develop their recommendations for G7 Ministers. Click here for more information 17-21 May: the Climate Exp0. The second virtual science conference run by the Met Office and COP26 Universities Network, in partnership with the Italian University Network for Sustainable Development (RUS). 20-21 May: G7 Climate and Environment Ministerial 24-28 May: Annual Meeting of the African Development Bank

green economics - the younger half of the world's only chance

 in the last chapter of keynes's general theory  money, interest, employmemt - keynes go further than saying you get what you measure- he says those few economists who get turned into law, exponentially lock in what futures are possible 

there will never be a sustainability generation ( a future for our species) unless we go to net zero; in 1984's 2025 report co-authored with the economist's norman macrae, the early 2000s seemed the most timely decade to take green transformation seriously worldwide- we scots really dont want to see anyone in glasgow at any time least of all november unless they share the determination to see 2020s turn round all non-green futures

we have glasgow university union ready for youth's most valuable encounters of a grren kind on middle saturday 6 nov - cop26 - can you help? more at our blog www.economistgreen.com

======================

some replays of what scots will demand at cop26

[4:27 PM, 4/22/2021] Chris Macrae: here is an extract from a long zoom session teach4theplanet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSLRfcLFKfU  last week which  which included scotland's educator john twinney- i have included some timestamps in case you want to go into the video  ...for teachers and unions to work with governments to include quality climate education for educationitself in the classroom integrated into their systems in every country that should be part of countries climate

promises and commitments on a credible time scale the united nations is organizing the cop 26 climate change conference which begins at the start of november countries will

138:06

come together and review their commitments to combat climate change and scotland is the host country

so we're joined in this next panel discussion by larry flanagan the general secretary of the educational

institute of scotland and minister john swinney the deputy first minister and cabinet secretary for

education and skills in scotland and now share with us their thoughts on why this conference cop

26 is important and what it means for  education unions

138:33

and for quality climate education welcome to both of you larry and john and maybe let me start by

asking you both what does cop26 why does it matter to the education sector

138:45

john thanks very much andrew and it's a great pleasure to take part in this conversation

through education international cop 26 matters for our education system

because fundamentally we have to ensure that young people are equipped

to meet the challenges of the ever-changing world in which we are living and climate change is one of those

fundamental challenges- the most fundamental challenge that we all face

in the forthcoming period so we have to make sure that young people are equipped with an

understanding of the issues and and from that they can form their commitments

and influence the commitments of society to tackle this very significant issue and obviously we have a unique3

relationship withthe cop 20 cop26 because

139:38

it will take place um in the city of glasgow in scotland and rescheduled 

..

but we hope it's going to be able to take place on a face-to-face basis and provide a

landmark agreement that can tackle climate change so we'll come back on those points but

larry what's your perspective so why does cop26 matter for education

140:02

i would echo john's point essentially for us here in scotland cop26 is a real opportunity to

consolidate and reinvigorate the work which has already been undertaken

because in education for sustainability has been a key part of a curriculum here in

scotland for um over a decade now the curriculum for excellence

140:28

and by having an event like cop 26 I think does allow us to use it as a catalyst for re-energizing

that agenda and i think everyone understands that education is the key to the future and tackling climate

change and is about the future so particularly in our schools with the enthusiasm of young people in

relation to the need to tackle climate change then

140:55

this is a real opportunity and for us here in scotland but also i think globally corp 26 allows us to

reset and reinvigorate the the campaign to tackle climate change as effectively as possible and we're

certainly looking forward to it i come from glasgow this is my home city and

141:15

i'm looking forward to the opportunity to host the world around this very important pool so john

as a minister what's your commitment then to make education visible at cop26 what are you going to do

141:30

i think as larry mentioned the whole issue of considering questions around

sustainability have been at the heart of scotland's curriculum you know we

made a conscious decision over a decade ago to move our curriculum

to ensure that it equipped young people with the skills the knowledge and the attributes

and the capacities that would enable them to deal with the world as they find it

141:53

and of course climate change is a central part in that challenge so the presence of cop 26 within

scotland brings that curriculum to life for young people and we've taken forward for some time a

learning for sustainability strategy and that provides opportunities for young people to learn and to understand

about questions of sustainability so that's a thread that runs through our curriculum

142:17

and we will be encouraging and motivating our focus within our schools on the issues that emerge from the that

are part of the preparation for cop 26 and what emerges from cop26 and obviously that fits in very closely with the

policy agenda of the government on tackling climate change in its widest sense and again going back over

over a decade the scottish parliament enacted by law

142:45

some of the most demanding targets for tackling climate change and they are

essentially the most demanding of any jurisdiction in the world and we are having to work hard to adapt

and change our systems to enable us to comply with those targets

143:02

so i think what cop26 provides us with an opportunity to do is to share the progress that we have

made in scotland but then also to be challenged about what more needs to be done because all

of us need to change practices and approaches to enable us to tackle

143:17

this very significant issue so john cop 26 is obviously a symbolic  event to crystallize a lot of these

discussions but will you carve out for example during the event or in some parallel

sessions the opportunities for teachers in the education community to very actively engage with the debates and

discussions

yes and we want to do that you know we have as a government and take an approach to maximize the

widest possible engagement with the issues around cop26..so we are creating opportunities

143:50

Obviously still a little bit uncertain because of the implications of covert as to what will be the physical format of those

arrangements but we are structuring a whole engagement program so that different sectors of our society

can be involved in those discussions- we want to make sure that educators and also young people

are very much at the heart of that discussion and that they have the opportunity to influence our thinking as we prepare

for cop 26 but also to interact with the colleagues from around the globe will be coming to glasgow for what will

be an absolutely central event in tackling climate change

144:29

and larry both you and john have mentioned that point about how the scottish curriculum has already been

integrating issues of sustainability and climate change for some time

144:38

that said you still see some scope for increasing that and what are the tensions you know kind of balancing it

with existing curricular and teacher priorities… larry

144:50

i think that you know there's a huge challenge around fitting everything into

the curriculum it's a constant dialogue that we're having and but i think

 the learning for sustainability is a cross-curricular feature and and it's something that we want to embed

into the daily life of our schools and there's a government agency education scotland

which oversees a curriculum and as john indicated here we're in dialogue with him so that across the

corps summit we have something taking place in every school in the country and where staff and pupils are engaged

and addressing and considering the main themes of the corps summit so

145:31

there is there's no single agency here which has possession of this precious agenda

145:38

and one of the things that we try to do in scotland is to work collaboratively and wherever

possible on agreed aims and certainly i think in terms of attacking climate change then

we're in a strong place to make sure that our education system is preparing young people for a

future in which this this particular agenda is tackled effectively so you know across a whole range of

areas and there's a lot of work on going all of which creates a synergy around a better future

for children and young people

 146.14 john anything o add on onbuilding that extra headroom tointegrate still further in advance uh

Curriculum integration around sustainability and climate change beyond what scotland's

done already

146:26

obviously we're constantly revisiting as a government in relation to our wider policy agenda

the commitments that we are making on climate change and you know as as as as each piece of

research takes its course the challenge becomes ever more significant and serious for all of us

[7:44 PM, 4/22/2021] Zasheem: Chris, it's intriguing, thus useful and impactful - education being the multiplier while inspiring and uniting the young people.

Truly it demands reflection on JSB webpage, obviously as Adam Smith inspired I will do - stamped by another Adam Smithian.

CHEERS

[7:45 PM, 4/22/2021] Chris Macrae: thanks glad you liked it

[12:52 PM, 4/23/2021] Chris Macrae: is there anyone you know who can contact isabel hilton - she is scottish and on tv very balanced in saying what each m,ajor country can help others do first on climate Isabel Hilton | ChinaFilehttps://www.chinafile.com › contributors › isabel-hilton

Isabel Hilton is a London-based international journalist and broadcaster. She studied at the Beijing Foreign Language and Culture University and at Fudan University in Shanghai before taking up a career in written and broadcast journalism, working for The Sunday Times, The Independent, The Guardian, and the New Yorker.