Monckton recounted a conversation when Sir David King, William Hague’s United Kingdom “climate change ambassador” was asked by the Environmentalist Committee of the House of Commons in May 2014 “whether all the nations of the world were in principle ready to sign their peoples rights away in such a treaty,” to which he replied “Oh yes, but there are two stand-outs. One is Canada, but don’t worry about Canada. They’ve got an election in the spring of 2015 and we and the U.N. will make sure that the present government is removed.” Monckton recalled his absolute bluntness about the matter.
The other holdout was Australia which was in an arguably stronger position as there was no election until after the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference. With Tony Abbott as leader there was no chance that Australia would be signing the treaty. In 2014, Abbott had taken the unusual step of sending an additional minister to accompany foreign minister Julie Bishop to ensure that she did not vote for the treaty at the 2014 Climate Change Conference in Lima.
