The Climate Diplomat, by Peter Betts – A greener life, a greener world

By Jeremy Williams

Peter Betts was involved in climate negotiations for longer than almost anyone in the British government, from COP4 in 1998 onwards.

At times, he was a negotiator, at other times an advisor. He worked with a succession of governments and ministers, had been at the table for several key moments in the UN, including acting as the EU’s chief negotiator for the Paris Agreement.

Peter Betts’ long history in global climate negotiations

He knew everybody. When he was diagnosed with a brain tumour and given 15 months to live, he decided he’d better write it all down.

He did, finishing the final chapters while paralysed and dictating to his wife. Family and friends helped to get the final edit over the line, and it has been published posthumously, giving the rest of us the benefit of Betts’ experience over his long career in climate diplomacy.

The book skips the usual indulgences of a memoir and gets straight to his work in the civil service, as Betts took a job in the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He worked in Brussels and then moved specifically into climate. We hear about the author’s own role, but also what diplomats actually do, how negotiations work and how they differ between the EU, the G7 and the UN.

The UNFCC is a uniquely complicated forum for getting things done. It’s so big, and common ground can’t be assumed in the way it can elsewhere. It’s disorderly and easily hijacked by those who want to obstruct discussions.

Whole weeks at climate talks can be wasted on nitpicking over process – challenging the right of the chair, or the order of business, or the wording of agenda items. Some countries, most notoriously Saudi Arabia, have specialised in these sorts of delaying tactics for decades. It sounds absolutely infuriating, and it takes the patience of Job to work productively in the face of this stalling.

Betts has tips for understanding who is obstructing and who has legitimate concerns, where arguments are ideologically motivated. A recurring theme is the importance of building relationships with people, taking the time to listen and build trust and rapport. Some of the advice here is very practical: COPs are exhausting, and sometimes the food is rubbish. Pace yourself and take the time to eat properly, or you’ll be burnt out before you get to the important bits.

That’s Peter proving the point at 3 am on the second day of overrunning talks in 2011, seated at the centre of the ‘Durban Huddle’ that resolved a last-minute dispute between the EU and India. The photo was in newspapers all over the world the following day, and Betts wryly comments that this moment of global attention “is when I found out I was going bald.”

As readers, we get a front row seat to these sorts of conversations, both breakthroughs and setbacks. After the failure of the Copenhagen talks, there was a serious discussion in government about whether to abandon the UNFCC entirely and pursue change through alternative means – through trade agreements, by sector, or subsets of willing countries. They decided to stick with it, ultimately securing the Paris Agreement. Betts is honest about the limits of the agreement and knows the compromises better than anyone. He also defends it as the best that could be done at the time.

In between international events, we also see how things changed within the civil service as the Labour government became the Conservative and Lib Dem coalition, and then the Conservative majority government. Trust eroded to the point that ministers were openly hostile to their own departmental staff – something friends of mine in the civil service also attest to.

It is this increasing dysfunction and breakup of consensus that leads Betts to a heartfelt conclusion: “the message I want most to share in these final days is a plea to both left and right, especially in the UK, not to make climate an ideological or culture war issue. It is simply too urgent for that.”

Should you read The Climate Diplomat?

The Climate Diplomat is not for everyone. We’re talking high-level climate geekery, and you will need the glossary of acronyms. But it’s for more of us than you might think, because it’s so unique.

Nobody else could have written this book, and it shines a valuable light on the patient, unsung work of diplomacy. I finished the book thankful for the largely invisible work of people like Peter Betts, who have dedicated their careers to difficult conversations on behalf of us all. And what a final act of generosity it is to spend your last months writing down what you’ve learned and passing it on.

First published in The Earthbound Report.