Climate

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

Boris Johnson says Cop26 will have failed unless the world has committed to “halve emissions by the end of this decade”, toughening his aims for the crucial climate summit.Ahead of leaders gathering in Glasgow in Sunday, a Downing Street spokesman said: “This is the decade action needs to be taken – it’s no longer something that can be talked about in broad terms.”In recent days, Mr Johnson has spoken about net zero targets for 2050 – rather than to slash carbon emissions by 2030 – prompting suggestions he was laying the ground for effective failure.But the spokesman, asked what “success” would look like, said it must be 2030 commitments to “keep alive” the aim of preventing global temperature rises of more than 1.5C since industrialisation.Currently, the planet is “way off track”, the United Nations has warned, on a path to 2.7C – and, experts say, 2.1C even if existing CO2-cutting commitments are kept.Just 7.5 per cent would be chopped off predicted annual greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 – far from the 47 per cent reduction that is needed.“We must halve emissions by the end of this decade,” the spokesman said, ahead of Mr Johnson putting G20 summit leaders in Rome, to pile on more pressure for deeper CO2 cuts.“Countries around the world, particularly developing countries, are already seeing the real world impacts of this. They know what limiting 1.5 means in the real world, because they are seeing the impact of temperature rise – flooding, or droughts – already.”However, the spokesman said Cop26 would not attempt to agree a specific figure for reducing expected gigatonnes of carbon dioxide emitted by 2030, insisting that was not its role.And he declined to say whether a tougher “rachet” mechanism – to force countries to prove progress towards announced goals every two years, instead of five – would be set down.But No 10 insisted the UK, as the Cop26 host, would not be “marking its own homework” on success or failure, when the summit concludes in two weeks’ time.It would be up to the UN and others to judge whether the agreements reached are “sufficient that we remain on track” to a temperature rise of 1.5C.What No 10 is calling an “extremely ambitious goal” for Glasgow comes despite gloom that China has failed to shift in its long-awaited “nationally determined contribution” (NDC).Emissions by the world’s biggest current contributor to the climate emergency would still only peak by 2030 and be reduced to net zero only three decades later.Mr Johnson will badger other G20 leaders to go faster and further despite the failure to boost spending on the UK’s – largely unfunded – net zero plan, in Wednesday’s Budget.Instead, the chancellor Rishi Sunak was sharply criticised for making flying and driving cheaper, widening the divide with sky-high train fares.Nevertheless, the spokesman said: “The success of Cop26 still hangs in the balance. Too many countries are still doing too little. It’s going to be challenging.”Speaking on the flight to Rome, Mr Johnson called Cop26 “the last opportunity for the planet“, but also struck a more cautious note.“We are not going to stop global warming in Rome or in this meeting in Cop” he said.“The most we can hope to do is slow the increase. What we need to do is to take steps now that give us the ability in future to come back and make further commitments.”In Rome – as well as meeting Emmanuel Macron, to try to calm the fierce post-Brexit fishing dispute – Mr Johnson will come under pressure to go further on vaccine donations to poor nations.No 10 says it is on course to have handed over 30 million “surplus” doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab by the end of the year – with a total of 100 million pledged by the middle of 2022.But Gordon Brown has organised a letter, signed by 160 former world leaders and global figures, demanding an emergency military airlift of far more.Ahead of the G20, Mr Johnson also announced £160m to build floating offshore wind ports and factories around the UK, to help hit a target of providing 1GW of energy by 2030 – nearly 9 times the current volume worldwide. More

Boris Johnson’s government will struggle to reach its net zero target unless local councils get involved in making homes more energy efficient, MPs have warned.Ahead of the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, UK ministers have set out proposals to encourage green home improvements as part of a wider plan to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.But MPs on the housing committee said the government’s strategy lacks proper funding for local authorities to help make Britain’s homes more energy efficient.Labour MP Clive Betts, the chair of the housing select committee, said councils must be given support to help deliver change. “The government must learn the lessons of past failed nationally delivered ‘green’ schemes,” he said.Mr Betts added: “To meet the scale of the challenge and enable local councils to make long-term decisions on behalf of their communities, the government should also come forward with a long-term funding plan for local authority climate action.”The government’s plan to hand out £5,000 grants to help residents replace their gas boilers with green heat pumps over the next three years has been branded “inadequate” by environmentalists.Only 90,000 of the UK’s 22 million gas-heated households will benefit from the £450m commitment, according to Friends of the Earth. Greenpeace also warned it “stopped short of what is required”.The report published by the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee on Friday also claimed the government’s strategy lacked ambition.The MPs said there was a risk a large number of existing gas boilers will simply be replaced with new gas boilers unless families were given a greater incentive to make changes.“Moving to lower or zero emissions from new homes is important,” said Mr Betts. “But to reach net zero, it’s crucial that insulation is improved in existing homes and that householders are offered viable choices and incentives to replace their gas boilers and decarbonise their heating.”The MPs report also urged the government to set funding plans to decarbonise heating beyond 2025, and bring in a new target of moving to zero carbon homes by 2030.The Local Government Association (LGA), the body representing local authorities across England, said council bosses would have to be “at the core” of the country’s efforts to hit the net zero target.“It is absolutely crucial that councils are at the forefront of the national response to climate change,” said councillor Darren Rodwell, the LGA’s environment spokesperson. “We need the government to work in partnership with local authorities to … help to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 or sooner.” More

“Insufficient care” in changes to how farmers receive subsidies has led to a “haphazard” transition process, risking livelihoods, MPs have warned.After Brexit, the government is replacing the EU’s agricultural subsidies with a new payment system designed to help farmers while also boosting biodiversity, protecting soils and improving access to land.While the old EU system largely paid farmers based on the area of land they farmed, there are concerns the new system, known as the Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme, could inadvertently put greater pressures on farmers to extract money from their land – possibly through increased use of unsustainable practices.The Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) Committee warned the government’s handling of the transition means farmers are now left with considerable uncertainty about how the seven-year transition to the new system would affect their businesses.The committee said the government department responsible for implementing the process – Defra – has put “insufficient emphasis and care” into managing the transition, risking a “haphazard” process with unintended consequences.The report criticised the government’s communication with farmers, saying Defra must “develop a clear engagement strategy which connects with the full range of farmers and land managers, or its plans will risk falling at the first hurdle.”As well as there having been delays in communicating the new policy to farmers, the committee also highlighted particular challenges the system presents to those farming the uplands.“Defra must avoid ‘squandering’ the potential of uplands, tenant farms and common land to deliver public goods such as carbon capture and storage,” the report said.The ELM payments should follow the same path as the previous EU subsidies did, the committee said – where farmers were not rewarded for taking action to revitalise the environment – and they said the new payments must fairly and fully represent the costs of delivering green action.Defra must publish an impact assessment detailing the consequences of the transition for different agricultural sectors and regions, develop a clear engagement strategy with farmers, and publish precise and measurable objectives for ELM.The committee also urged the government to retain the current budget for agricultural payments until at least 2029.Neil Parish, chairman of the Efra select committee, said: “This is the most fundamental change to agricultural funding in a generation, and the impact of this huge change on farmers’ incomes and entire ways of life cannot be underestimated.“The plan to support farmers through this transition must be robust, and it must be able to adapt to unforeseen circumstances.”He accused the government of being determined to plough ahead with phasing out the old payments without considering how it would affect farmers’ livelihoods and the environment.“It is essential that the government undertake the necessary work to understand exactly what the consequences of this transition will be.”He added: “These schemes will only be successful if uptake is high- and this can only happen if land managers are clear on how ELM will work for them.“It is essential that Defra engage effectively with the full range of land managers and farmers to communicate its plans, and that it funds peer-to-peer learning, which will build the confidence needed for the English farming sector to fully embrace the change.”A Defra spokesperson said: “Our future agricultural policy will move away from the arbitrary land subsidies and top-down bureaucracy that epitomised the EU era and incentivise farmers to farm more sustainably, create space for nature and enhance animal welfare outcomes. We are supporting the choices that farmers make for their own holdings.“Since January, in England, we have increased the money going to Countryside Stewardship, we have consulted on an exit scheme and we will be setting out plans to support new entrants.”Additional reporting by PA. More

Campaigners have criticised the government for scrapping a planned fuel duty rise, saying the freeze on petrol and diesel taxes for the twelfthyear in a row amounted to a subsidy for drivers of polluting vehicles just days before the UK hosts a major climate summit. Rishi Sunak announced in the Budget on Wednesday that the planned rise in fuel duty would be cancelled because of high pump prices.The chancellor said he was “not prepared to add to the squeeze on families and small businesses”.The move, which will cost the taxpayer nearly £8bn over the next five years, drew sharp criticism from clean air and active travel advocates, coming just days before the UK hosts the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow. Jemima Hartshorn, founder of clean air pressure group Mums for Lungs, told The Independent: “The chancellor clearly hasn’t made the connection between the climate emergency, public health, the pandemic and the need for combining all of these in a responsible Budget that addresses future challenges but also ensures the health of children now.”The UK continues to suffer from illegal levels of pollution linked to emissions from the high numbers of cars, taxis and lorries on the roads. Ms Hartshorn said motor vehicle owners “receive much more generous subsidies compared with sustainable means of travel, such as public transport. This needed to be addressed in the Budget so that investment and subsidies from the government ensure that everyone is encouraged to travel in a way that is not polluting and harming our children.”Simon Munk, campaigns manager at the London Cycling Campaign, also criticised the government for the fuel duty U-turn and said the government should focus on discouraging unnecessary car journeys rather than making it cheaper to drive. “We understand that many people are struggling with the cost of living, but with Cop26 looming, and the planetary climate crisis rightly in starker focus than ever before, this announcement is the polar opposite of what the government needs to do to help save our planet and our country from runaway climate change,” he said.“We urgently need to swap the government’s £27bn roads building programme to building active travel and convenient, affordable public transport schemes, and move towards a system of charges that discourages avoidable trips by car, and helps people switch to good, sustainable alternatives. “In London that means a long-term funding deal on active travel and public transport for TfL and the Mayor, and them having the ability to implement ‘smart road-user pricing’ inside the M25.”Paul Johnson, the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said the fuel duty freeze was a “big tax loss” for the Treasury and “hardly consistent with climate change objectives”.However, warnings about the climate and health impacts of the policy were brushed aside by motorists. At one forecourt in London, drivers told The Independent they welcomed any move to keep prices down. Liz Durham, a dog walker from Clapham Junction, said petrol had become much more expensive since the pandemic. “Filling up my tank cost £58 today,” she said at the Jet petrol station in Loughborough Junction, south London. “When I bought this car three years ago it would never have cost me this much. Prices have gone up a lot recently and the whole thing is such a mess. “Cutting fuel duty will be beneficial to anyone who has to drive, like me. I have to drive for work, the dogs don’t collect themselves.” Samantha Stewart, who lives in nearby Brixton, also backed the fuel duty freeze. “Driving has been very expensive since the whole petrol-gate thing,” she said, referencing the shortages of drivers last month which led many petrol stations to temporarily close after running out of fuel. “I have noticed prices shooting up. If fuel duty had risen it would have affected us financially. £40 on petrol used to go a long way, but not anymore. Those that are less vulnerable should drive less, and more people should walk, but I have long Covid so it is more difficult for me.”RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: “We welcome the chancellor’s confirmation that duty will continue to remain frozen at 57.95p a litre until next year. With pump prices at record highs, now would have been the worst possible time to change tack and hike up costs still further at the forecourt.” More