COP26: Experts concerned France-UK fishing dispute will overshadow Glasgow Summit

Amid the ongoing feud over post-Brexit fishing rights between the United Kingdom and France, several top scientists and environmentalists have urged UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French president Emmanuel Macron to proclaim an urgent truce in their dispute, as they worry that this dispute along with the UK's differences with its EU neighbours will overshadow the vital COP26 climate change summit. 

Ahead of the international conference hosting 120 world leaders in the UK's Glasgow, PM Johnson claimed that the Summit will be "the world's moment of truth" and may signify "the beginning of the end of climate change," The Guardian reported. However, environmental activists and scientists expressed their displeasure over the fishing rights dispute among the UK and French governments, especially during the time when the UK is also posing a threat to invoke Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, potentially triggering a new trade tension with the EU. 

Furthermore, the Brexit minister of the UK, Lord Frost, warned on Saturday that action will be taken against France after French Prime Minister Jean Castex wrote a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen saying that the UK has demonstrated that leaving the EU has caused more damage than staying in. He even added that the British government was “actively considering launching dispute settlement proceedings as set out in article 738 (of the trade and cooperation agreement)”, which might result in the imposition of duties on French goods if adjudication was unsuccessful, The Guardian reported.   

'I think that we need to sort it out': Boris Johnson on post-Brexit fishing rights dispute

UK PM Boris Johnson has even expressed his sentiments to Von der Leyen during the G20 in Rome, stating that French threats to halt British exports in reaction to a disagreement over the fishing licenses were totally unjustifiable. When questioned whether he felt France had broken international regulations, Johnson answered by saying that he believes that they might have.

“I am looking at what is going on at the moment, and I think that we need to sort it out, but that is quite frankly small beer – trivial by comparison with the threat to humanity that we face,” The Guardian quoted the British Prime Minister as saying. 

Meanwhile, the scientific and environmental communities were baffled by Paris and London's fierce debates amid the climate change meeting which is widely considered as the most significant summit of global leaders. Professor Lord Nicholas Stern, whose seminal government study in 2006 of the postponing action on climate change which might cause the disastrous consequences, stated that the UK and France should cooperate together instead of a dispute over a comparatively minor problem. 

(Image: AP)