It is a COP out for us

apparently. There are wails and gnashing of teeth and claims of "it's not fair". We lost the "right" to host the next big climate talk-fest.

I am so upset - not. It is something we should not even have considered bidding for, let alone spent almost $4m on with no result. I am never ceased to be alarmed and concerned by the apparent inability of the "leaders" of this country to recognise that we are very small fish in a very large pond.

Why on earth did anyone even believe that we might be able to host the next "climate" conference in this country. Yes, it is a large land mass. Yes, it is the biggest island or the smallest continent but perhaps its claims to fame should end there. For the most part it is so sparsely inhabited it is really scarcely inhabited at all. I can remember when the last tribe of people who had no contact with white civilisation finally came into view. Their isolation was partly due to distance but might also have had something to do with desire.

The population of this country is far less than the state of California. Our trade with the rest of the world is small. We are isolated in many ways. It is something which causes many problems even in an age where communication appears to be almost instantaneous.

Why anyone would believe we were able to host a conference of the likely size of COP31 in a city many people, even the proposed delegates, could not find on a map is beyond me. Would we be able to house them, feed them, transport them and find suitable conference facilities for them? We were told we could by those putting in the bid but I doubt it. Even getting people here could have proved a challenge. Put on extra flights - the very thing they are telling us we should cut back on? Allow the state's main airport to open outside curfew hours? 

The cost would have been huge. I am told it was all about "putting us on the map" and providing business, especially climate related business, with "opportunities". I am told it would end up "paying for itself". I do not believe that.

Now I am told that our Minister for Climate Change and Energy is to be in charge of a major part of the next COP in Turkey - the country to which we lost out. He is widely seen as inept, so inept they kept him in the background at the last election. Yes, he is a power player of some sort inside his own party. He must be in order to retain his position. Is he good at it? No. Is he the best they have? No. There are now some who hope he might be booted from his position on the grounds he has to concentrate on his new role. All I can say is that the next COP will go even further downhill than this one.

Please, could we just forget any sort of COP? We need action now.