Good Cop: Bad Cop?

Journalist, Fiona Harvey has urged the UK government to resist any attempt to make the Glasgow Cop26 'meeting' a virtual event (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/12/boris-johnsons-advisers-virtual-cop26-glasgow). Harvey suggests there will be pressure to make Cop26 Zoom-based. An online 'meeting' would get around Covid pandemic-restrictions on travel and accommodation arrangements. There would be time, even for countries with currently poor IT, to have connections put into place. A Zoom event would, therefore, be a way of maximising participation, even if new, unpredictable problems arose (like a UK rise in viral varients 'of concern'). Such a meeting would also be considerably cheaper and would reduce air travel to Glasgow (reducing 'greenhouse gas' emissions). Harvey thinks, however, that 'going virtual' would be a bad move. The problem of climate change requires urgent action and worldwide participation to counter global heating. Harvey points out that Zoom meetings (there have already been several on climate change), lend themselves to heads of government making prepared, positive-sounding speeches. Those same heads often go offline, to apparently do very little. In some cases, they have reneged on their 'promises' almost immediately. Harvey also details examples, from earlier cop meetings, where the physical presence of the participants and their interactions seemed to be a key factor. It has, on occasions, illustrated to some governments, how 'out of step' they were with majority opinion. In other cases, smooth political operators have managed to convince laggards to 'do the right thing'. I think I am with Harvey on this one. Some decisions are so important (and the survival of the planet as a liveable location for humans, must be pretty high on the agenda), they require face-to-face dialogue and a meeting of minds.