Climate

Boris Johnson has lashed out at world leaders for failing to make the commitments needed to halt the climate emergency, as he spoke at the close of the G20 summit.A visibly frustrated prime minister admitted the Rome gathering had fallen short of what was required to put the Cop26 summit on course for success in Glasgow.Promises made to tackle the climate crisis are “starting to sound hollow”, Mr Johnson told a press conference – when the “solution is clear”.And he agreed a pledge for all the biggest economies to achieve net zero emissions was “vague”, after the G20 failed to set a target date of 2050.The commitments made at the G20 were “drops in a rapidly warming ocean when you consider the challenge we’ve all admitted is ahead of us”, the prime minister warned.“We have made reasonable progress at the G20, all things considered – but it is not enough,” Mr Johnson admitted.For the first time, he named-and-shamed the US for not contributing enough money to the $100bn climate crisis fund for poor nations, saying it was “well down”.And on the prospects for Cop26, the prime minister said: “If Glasgow fails then the whole thing fails. The Paris Agreement will have crumpled at the first reckoning.”It would be “holed beneath the waterline”, he warned, calling it “just a piece of paper” and adding: “We need to fill that piece of paper – to populate it with real progress.”Mr Johnson was speaking after G20 leaders agreed merely to “enhance when necessary” plans to cut carbon emissions by 2030 – the cut-off point for averting disaster, scientists say.Far from agreeing to “consign coal to history” – the UK’s aim for the Glasgow summit – it sets no date for phasing out the fossil fuel, which will happen only “as soon as possible”.There is also no deadline for ending fossil fuel subsidies, which would have soared since the easing of the Covid pandemic, with an aim to achieve that only “over the medium term”.In the run-up to Cop26, the UK had urged all countries to follow it in committing to net zero emissions by 2050 – but the communique also fails to do that.The omission reflects the reality that China, the world’s biggest carbon emitter, has set a target date of 2060, while India and Russia are also not committed to the 2050 date.Greenpeace attacked the lack of progress, warning that “if the G20 was a dress rehearsal for Cop26, then world leaders fluffed their lines”.“Their communique was weak, lacking both ambition and vision, and simply failed to meet the moment,” said Jennifer Morgan, the organisation’s executive director.Mohamed Adow, director of the think tank Power Shift Africa, said: “This weak statement from the G20 is what happens when developing countries who are bearing the full force of the climate crisis are shut out of the room.“The world’s biggest economies comprehensively failed to put climate change on the top of the agenda ahead of Cop26 in Glasgow.”A downbeat Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, tweeted: “I leave Rome with my hopes unfulfilled – but at least they are not buried.”Mr Johnson said: “Just 12 G20 members have committed to reach net zero by 2050 or earlier.“Barely half of us have submitted improved plans for how we will cut carbon emissions since the Paris Summit in 2015.“And we have also failed to meet our commitment to provide $100bn a year to support developing countries to grow in a clean and sustainable way.“The UN says emissions will rise by 15 per cent by 2030 – and they need to halve by then.”Accusing the world’s first industrialised nations of “not doing their fair share of the work”, Mr Johnson added: “If we are going to prevent Cop26 from being a failure then that must change.” More

Cop26 president Alok Sharma has swerved questions over the prospect of the Cambo oilfield receiving approval, saying: “That’s not my decision, that’s not my role.”It comes after Mr Sharma’s speech at the climate summit in Glasgow was interrupted by activists – branding him a “hypocrite” for the government’s support of the oilfield to the west of the Shetland islands.If approved, the project would produce up to 170 million barrels of oil between 2025 and 2050 and the government has faced intense pressure to scrap the plans, or risk damaging it’s efforts to lead the Cop26 conference.Appearing on the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme, Mr Sharma defended the UK’s efforts to decarbonise the economy as he dodged a question over whether giving the Cambo oil field the green light will help Britain demonstrate its “moral authority”.“In terms of oil and gas, we’ve been very clear, we’ve said in terms of granting any future licences there will be a climate compatibility checkpoint,” he stressed.“Any licences that are granted will have to be compatible with our legal requirement to be net zero by 2050.”Quizzed about an International Energy Agency (IEA) report that said no new oil or gas establishments could be set up after this year if the UK was to achieve its net zero target, Mr Sharma added: “The IEA report also makes clear that, even in a net zero scenario, there is some element of oil and gas in that.”When pressed on whether it was within his power to stop the development, Mr Sharma said his role, as Cop26 president, was to “bring together consensus” amongst 200 countries attending the summit for the next two weeks in Glasgow.“That is something that is being considered – there was a consultation and inquiry around all of that – I’m not going to go into that particular issue,” he added.“When there is an announcement, an agreement, I’m very happy to come back and talk to you.”Lord Deben, the chair of the UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC), has previously suggested of Cambo: “We really do have to face up to the issue that there may be some occasions where we think that development could be of a kind which would help our move towards net zero to such a degree that it’s worth doing. “But we always have to remember that the moment you do any of that, you’re setting an example that will be quoted throughout the world as showing this kind of development is acceptable.”Asked about the remarks, Mr Sharma told the BBC: “Well, as I said, that’s no my decision, that’s not my role.“When a decision is made I’m very happy to come back and discuss it. They’ve [CCC] also said the net zero strategy that we have produced is a landmark strategy globally and it’s one other countries will look at and take head of.”Responding to the interview, senior Labour frontbencher David Lammy said: “Bullshit is a major contributor to climate change so it’s exasperating to see this response from Alok Sharma. “This crisis demands leadership and action, not more hot air. Labour would lead by example setting a hard-edged timetable to end oil and gas exploration.”The Green MP Caroline Lucas added: “Alok Sharma unable to defend the indefensible – he was doing well on Marr until he had to answer why his government is going ahead with a new oil field at Cambs.” More

Rishi Sunak’s cut to tax on internal UK flights in Wednesday’s Budget was an example of the government trying to prove Brexit was a good idea, a top climate adviser has claimed.The big-spending chancellor, in whose largesse many observers detected the hand of his boss, Boris Johnson, cut air passenger duty for domestic flights and offset that by hiking charges on long-haul international trips.He was swiftly accused of undermining Britain’s climate credentials ahead of Cop26, with Friends of the Earth branding his decision “retrograde”.On Sunday the head of the government’s advisory climate change committee, Lord Deben, claimed the tax was calculated to cast the UK’s decision to leave the European Union in a positive light.He told Sky’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday: “I’m afraid the government is hung up in trying to prove that leaving the European Union was a good idea.“And that’s quite difficult. So one of the things it can do is to reduce the taxes internally and not across the whole of Europe. So, he decided to do that.“Actually, it doesn’t make any difference. As a matter of technicality, because the way that internal flights are accounted for under climate change will mean that they’ll just have to pay more in carbon.”The Conservative peer added: “So, it’s not carbon tax. So, actually, it’s not going to make all that difference. But it was perhaps not the right thing to do. I think it’s less important than remembering that they have increased the cost of long-haul flights.“And remembering also that the biggest mistake that was made was to cut our overseas aid to 0.5 from 0.7, which doesn’t give people confidence that we are going to help people in the way we’ve promised to do. That, for me, was a really deeply immoral and unacceptable act.”Lord Deben was speaking on the opening day of Cop26, the UN climate summit being hosted in Glasgow. Earlier on Sunday he had described the two-week convention as “the one chance we have to save the world”.Additional reporting by PA Media More

Activists have interrupted a speech by Alok Sharma, the government minister who is president of the Cop26 conference.He was speaking at the closing ceremony of the COY16 youth conference on Saturday evening when a group of delegates stood up and branded him a “hypocrite” for the UK Government’s support of the Cambo oil field.The young delegates led chants from the crowd before walking out of the auditorium at Strathclyde University.They held up a green “Fridays for Future” flag, while one read out a statement.“Alok Sharma and the UK government are hypocrites,” said the activist.“They are opening the new Cambo oil field, they subsidise billions into fossil fuels yet won’t look after the workers who need a just transition.“Where is the support for countries in crisis as a result of our colonial history?”Environmental campaigners have called for plans to begin extraction at the Cambo oil field, to the west of the Shetland Islands, to be scrapped.COY16 was the official youth event for Cop26, bringing together young climate delegates from around the world.It began on Thursday, and at the closing ceremony on Friday Mr Sharma was presented with a Global Youth Statement.During his speech, Mr Sharma said: “I do see myself as part of this collective movement with you.“What we are trying to achieve is to get world leaders to commit to limiting global warming.“In simple terms, that’s what we’re trying to do.” More

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said the outcome of the Cop26 climate summit will be “life or death for millions of people” living in countries most effected by extreme weather.Justin Welby said the talks, due to begin in Glasgow on Sunday, are “emergency surgery” for the world.The former oil executive, who in 1987 resigned from the fossil fuel industry after 11 years to train for Anglican priesthood, added that leaders must deliver for “the whole human family”.Dr Welby is due to visit the summit on Monday. Ahead of his visit, he warned that radical action is needed but said there is still time to “save our world from the worst of the catastrophe”.He said: “The Cop26 climate talks are emergency surgery for our world and its people.“The outcome will be life or death for millions of people. That’s how seriously we must take this moment.“The eyes of the world are on Glasgow: leaders must deliver for the whole human family. “We can, and must, choose life, so that our children may live.“If these talks do not deliver, we face a dark, disturbing future – but there is still time, just, to save our world from the worst of the catastrophe.“This is a chance to start living in a way that is healthier, kinder, and better for everyone.”The Church of England has divested from coal companies and says it will pull investment by 2023 from oil and gas firms that are not on a pathway to zero emissions.It has also led the way on an initiative now supported by investors with funds worth about £30 trillion to assess companies’ climate performance.Dr Welby said he hopes the plight of communities most affected by climate change will be highlighted at Cop26.“It is their voices that I hope are heard, along with those of everyone on the burning front lines of climate injustice: the poorest, most vulnerable, and marginalised people already living with droughts, floods and vanishing natural resources,” he said.“People who face ruined lives and livelihoods, mass migration, instability, famine, war, and death.“People who see our prosperity, our vaccines against all manner of diseases including Covid-19, and yet do not share in their benefit.“We can no longer ignore the cries of people who are oppressed and of the groans of our Earth.”Earlier this month, Dr Welby was one of dozens of faith leaders including Pope Francis to have made a joint appeal to governments to commit to ambitious climate change targets at the upcoming Cop26 conference. More

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that Cop26 will be the “world’s moment of truth” as he urged leaders not to let the opportunity to bring about an end to climate change “slip away”.Downing Street said the United Nations’ Cop26 summit starting on Sunday will be one of the biggest events the UK has ever hosted, with 25,000 delegates expected from 196 countries and the European Union.Ministers, climate negotiators, civil society and business leaders are set to take part in talks and debates over the course of the two-week conference.Mr Johnson, who is due to fly from the G20 in Rome to Glasgow on Sunday evening, said: “Cop26 will be the world’s moment of truth.“The question everyone is asking is whether we seize this moment or let it slip away.“I hope world leaders will hear them and come to Glasgow ready to answer them with decisive action.“Together, we can mark the beginning of the end of climate change – and end the uncertainty once and for all.”Pictures show Mr Johnson bumping fists with French president Emmanuel Macron, after Mr Johnson had said that the pair could discuss the UK-France fishing dispute during the summit.The ongoing post-Brexit conflict has seen France ask the European Union to inflict trade sanctions on the UK over the latter refusing to award a certain number of licences to French fishermen to operate in British waters around Jersey and Guernsey.Mr Johnson has brushed off the row, saying that “there are bigger fish to fry, everybody knows that.” It comes after he had threatened to do “whatever it takes” to protect the UK’s interests.Now, although he is urging global leaders to deliver plans to prevent global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5C degrees above pre-industrial levels, he has also expressed doubts over the Cop26 summit’s success.While in Rome, he said during interviews that he still rated the chance of success as no more than six out of 10.The Cop26 summit is aiming to encourage countries to advance their net-zero commitments to the middle of the century and reduce emissions rapidly over the next decade through commitments on phasing out coal, switching to electric cars and planting trees.Developed nations are also being urged to pay £73 billion per year to help poorer nations deal with the effects of climate change.Mr Johnson will host an opening ceremony attended by dignitaries, alongside the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall, before giving a speech on Monday.Prince Charles and Sir David Attenborough, the Cop26 People’s Advocate, will be among those to also address world leaders as environmental advocates for Britain.The Queen will address the delegates in a pre-recorded video after she was told by doctors to avoid the summit and rest following a visit to hospital last week. More

Boris Johnson is trying to “move the goalposts” on climate change in order to be able to present an underwhelming outcome at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow as a triumph, Ed Miliband has warned.Speaking to The Independent on the eve of the crucial United Nations conference, Labour’s Cop26 spokesperson said the prime minister had failed to hold fellow leaders’ feet to the fire to secure the swift action needed if the world is to have any hope of limiting global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.As summit host, Mr Johnson must not be allowed to offer polluting countries a “get out of jail free card” by presenting net-zero pledges for 2050 or later as a victory, when the world needs action now to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, he said.While countries like Australia and China have grabbed headlines by promising net zero carbon emissions in several decades’ time, actual pledges of cuts so far amount to just 4bn tonnes by 2030, far short of the 28bn required to keep 1.5C alive as a goal, said Mr Miliband.“That is miles from where we need to be,” said the shadow business secretary, who represented the UK as climate change secretary at the 2009 Cop summit in Copenhagen.“What would success at Glasgow look like? Success would look like getting halfway to the 28bn figure. That wouldn’t be enough, but it would at least be substantial progress. If we don’t make substantial progress, the chances of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees have diminished.”And he added: “I want this summit to succeed, but I’m not going to allow Boris Johnson to move the goalposts.“You can hear the sound of the goalposts being moved right now, and the biggest goalpost-moving attempt going on is to make the summit about targets for 2050, not targets for 2030.“It’s good if countries set net-zero targets for 2050. That is welcome.“But it is not a substitute in any way, shape or form for targets for 2030. It’s in this decisive decade, that the fate of the coming decades and coming generations will be determined. If we carry on as we are up to 2030 and then say we’re going to start taking action up to 2050, it’ll be too late.”Mr Miliband said the prime minister had undermined the UK’s own negotiating position in the run-up to the Cop26 summit by slashing the UK’s aid budget, removing climate provisions from a trade deal with Australia, attempting to open a new coal mine in Cumbria and allowing chancellor Rishi Sunak to freeze petrol taxes and cut duties on domestic air travel, in a move expected to generate 400,000 additional flights.“It’s almost like sticking up two fingers to the COP,” he said of Wednesday’s “shocking” Budget announcements. “I don’t know how Johnson has allowed this to happen.“Anyone who was serious about the climate crisis would not have allowed this to happen – frankly, anyone who’s serious about the climate crisis wouldn’t have gone on holiday two weeks before the summit was due to start.”Mr Miliband said he was concerned that Mr Johnson will use the world leaders’ summit which will bring more than 120 prime ministers and presidents – including Joe Biden and India’s Narendra Modi, but not China’s Xi Jinping or Russia’s Vladimir Putin – to Glasgow on Monday and Tuesday as a glorified photo-call and an opportunity for “vacuous backslapping”.Instead, his role as host gives the prime minister a responsibility to use the occasion as a “global embarrassment mechanism”, holding to account leaders who have failed to deliver on commitments from the 2015 Paris summit to raise their game on climate change.“He should be calling out our friends and our allies as well as countries that aren’t necessarily our friends and allies,” said Mr Miliband.“The Chinese target is nowhere near good enough. We should be saying that. That is part of the role of being the host.“The point of these summits is to put world leaders on the spot. It’s a global embarrassment mechanism to say to world leaders ‘This is what the science says. What are you going to do and is what you do consistent with the science?’ Our role is to be the holders of the science and the integrity of these negotiations, not to pretend countries are doing enough when they’re not.”Mr Miliband said he feared that Mr Johnson had underestimated the difficulty of his role as summit host.“This has got to be a serious negotiation where Boris Johnson says to countries: ‘It’s not enough. You’ve got to do more’,” he said.“He’s got to say to countries like Australia: ‘2050 is all very well, but you’ve got to deliver for 2030. What are you going to deliver?’“It’s about tough negotiations. It’s about it’s about hard conversations. It’s not about vacuous back-slapping. I worry that he’s in the vacuous back-slapping mentality.”The former Labour leader said that the lack of seriousness with which Mr Johnson is approaching the summit was reflected in Downing Street’s failure to confirm that he will attend sessions following the opening leaders’ days, or even travel to Glasgow for the conclusion of talks expected on 12 November.He said Mr Johnson must be judged not only on whether he secures substantial additional pledges for 2030, but also on whether he accelerates the “ratchet” mechanism agreed at Paris under which countries’ promises are reassessed every five years.After Glasgow’s postponement from 2020 due to the Covid pandemic, there was no doubt that the next major summit cannot wait until 2025, he said.“That’s got to be one of the key demands and key outcomes that this summit produces,” said Mr Miliband. “We cannot say, ‘Job done, let’s come back in four years’ time’. That would be wholly wrong. We absolutely cannot leave this till 2025.”And he said he feared the Conservative government’s commitment to climate action will evaporate once the Cop spotlight is taken off the UK.“I think there is a danger that the government thinks that once the Cop is out of the way, they can move things on elsewhere,” he said. “We can’t let that happen. The climate crisis isn’t going away after Glasgow.” Mr Miliband added: “Whatever the outcome of Glasgow, I would urge your readers, we should not despair. Because whatever happens at Glasgow, we’ve got to wake up the next morning, and keep going further, faster, with more of a sense of urgency.“You know, we know, we’ve got the task for this decade. And we’ve got to keep going. That is so important.” More