Officially the COP26 event was due to end yesterday and it took place on the 12th November, one day after Remembrance or Armistice Day which this year was 103 years since the end of World War 1. While COP26 is not in any way related to the issue of wars the reality is that Rememberance and Armistice days is that they are a call for the world to end wars. We are now in a position for the world to end environmental destruction of our world and while we need the Governments of the nearly 200 nations to sign up to it, it will involve many thousands and in time billions of people to participate in the issues. One of the people who has been involved in COP26 albeit outside of a Government position is my friend Ruth Valerio. This image is her posting on facebook today and it relates to something that took place at about 10pm last night. Although it is not complete in terms of the last few words, it is a very clear statement and it indicates that COP26 probably carried on till the 13th November, presumably in the early hours of today. It is clearly very vital for all of the work carried out by many hundreds and indeed thousands of people as part of COP26 and Ruth is certainly one of those. Let us hope that COP26 will be as significant as the ending of World War 1 was 103 years ago.

On another theme although there is only a superficial link, as I mentioned Ruth is a good friend of mine and she endorsed my petition which is still modestly benefited from 3,140 signatures. It desperately needs at least another 6,900 signatures before the Government will even look at it and ideally 97,000 signatures to get Parliament to consider debating it. Ruth kindly stated these words a few weeks ago

Hi friends, do have a look at this petition and sign it if you feel able to – it’s a good thing and will help food banks and Fairshare charities. Thanks

The petition can be found here online and its text is as follows

Provide additional funding for redistributing surplus food

In April the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee called on the Government to provide ongoing funding to redistribute surplus food from the farmgate and across the supply chain to food aid providers. In June the Government said there were no plans for further grants. This should change.

A Minister at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affair told the Committee “that the Government takes food waste very seriously” and that she expects “this to be an area in which we continue to work as Government”. We need the Government to provide public funding to enable the many agencies to carry out the work necessary to prevent food waste and improve food security.