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Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planetGet our free Climate emailRishi Sunak defended watering down his zero policy policies, as he insisted that the UK is still “leading the charge” in tackling climate change at the Cop28 summit in Dubai.Mr Sunak told the crucial global conference that “climate politics is close to breaking point” – but also claimed he would only cut emissions in a way that “benefits the British people”.The Tory leader claimed it was “entirely sensible” to worry about taxpayers’ money when trying to meet targets. Yet he was forced to defend his decision to fly on a private jet to the summit for only one day.Mr Sunak was grilled by reporters on whether he was really taking Cop28 “seriously” – given he would be spending more time on travelling to and from the UAE than at the summit itself.The PM – spending less than 24 hours in Dubai – fired back at the “hugely simplistic” idea. “I wouldn’t measure our impact it by hours spent – I would measure in by the actually things we are doing to make a difference.”Flying back on Friday, Mr Sunak insisted that the UK government can still “stand tall” at Cop28 and remains a “leader” on climate change – despite his own rollback of net zero ambitions at home.Insisting he would not be “in hock to ideological zealots”, the PM has scaled back a host of net zero targets and vowed to “max out” UK oil and gas reserves by granting new North Sea drilling licences.Mr Sunak promised “hand on heart” that no global figure had raised his recent moves to scale back targets in Britain. “Not a single leader I’ve met today has spoken about that. Do you know why? Most of their targets are less ambitious that the UK.”Rishi Sunak (right) speaks to King Charles at Cop28 summit “Any which way I look at it, we are a leader on this issue,” the PM he told reporters. “So I will walk around very proudly tomorrow championing the UK’s achievements in this space.”The Tory leader has announced £1.6bn for international climate finance – including to support projects to halt deforestation and accelerate the transition to renewable energy.But ActionAid UK said Mr Sunak’s £1.6bn pledge was simply a “smoke and mirrors accounting trick” based on “reheated pledges from years gone by”.Zahra Hdidou, the charity’s senior climate adviser, said the sum was “neither new nor additional”. The campaigner said the PM was “refusing to act meaningfully on climate action”.Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is also at the UAE event to position himself as a PM-in-waiting and stress that Britain would be open to major green investment if he wins power.Mr Sunak accused Sir Keir of “just trying to catch up”, as he claimed the Tories have a “fantastic track record” on tackling climate change. He used his Cop28 appearance to announce a deal between Masdar and RWE to invest up to £11bn in the UK’s new wind farm at Dogger Bank.But Mr Starmer hit back by saying a Labour government would “turbocharge” sluggish growth in green tech, and lead a “clean power alliance” to cut energy prices with international partners.Rishi Sunak speaking to media at the climate change summit The new row comes as King Charles III has warned that the world remains “dreadfully far off track” in key climate targets in the opening speech at Cop28.The monarch warned of the “vast, frightening experiment” in rising temperatures. And he said he prayed for “transformation action” from global leaders – arguing that “our own survivability will be imperilled” unless carbon emissions are cut.On Friday world leaders agreed a new declaration aimed at transforming the global food system – with new pledges on sustainable agriculture and more resilient food chains. It follows a commitment to a £340m fund for nations suffering the most from the effects of climate change.Cop28 president Sultan al-Jaber, who is also chief executive of state oil giant Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, has been accused of seeking to use the conference to strike oil and gas deals – which he has denied.Mr Sunak denied the allegations undermine the UAE’s position leading the negotiations, Mr Sunak saying he “commended” the host nation’s leadership. The UAE’s president Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has announced a £23.7bn fund for “global climate solutions”.Zac Goldsmith – who quit as an environment minister accusing Mr Sunak of being “uninterested” in the issue – told Sky News that the UK was no longer seen as “a reliable or serious partner” on climate change.Senior Tory MP Chris Skidmore – the former government net zero tsar – said the country could not wait for the “technologies of tomorrow” to decarbonise its industries.Mr Skidmore said UK industrial emissions could be more than halved using technology available “today, right at our fingertips” as he launched a series of proposals – including greater investment hydrogen and carbon capture and storage technology. More

Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planetGet our free Climate emailAs world leaders meet for the Cop28 climate conference, The Independent reports that the world has only a handful of years left to rein in emissions before we exhaust the planet’s ability to cope.The two-week summit in Dubai opened to a “deafening cacophony of broken records”, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said on Thursday.With King Charles set to use his opening address today to call for a “critical turning point towards genuine transformational action”:UN secretary general Antonio Guterres warned unprecedented global heat “should send shivers down the spines of world leaders”Hosts UAE insisted no issue would be left off the table during talksLatest projections showed there was just a 14 per cent chance of limiting warming to the 1.5C targetA landmark deal was finalised to support vulnerable nations already suffering irrevocable loss from the climate crisisRishi Sunak said he was “proud” of his record on tackling climate change – despite fierce criticism from UK campaigners over his net zero U-turnsUS climate envoy John Kerry said Washington would target reductions of the potent but lesser-mentioned greenhouse gas, methaneThe King is expected to tell leaders and climate delegates that the “hope of the world” rests on their decisions, and argue that, despite some progress, repeated warning signs of climate change are being ignored.It is understood he will outline five key questions he hopes the summit will address, adding: “The Earth does not belong to us, we belong to the Earth.”The summit began yesterday with the WMO’s announcement that 2023 will be the hottest year in recorded history, while sea level rise is also at a record high, extreme weather is spiralling, and Antarctic sea ice is disappearing at alarming rates.“We are living through climate collapse in real time,” said Mr Guterres, calling for the spiralling crisis to be a “trigger” for world leaders to act.Yet even in the face of a mountain of findings from the WMO, and dozens of other scientific bodies, progress has been far, far too slow; the UN Environment Programme has predicted that, rather than staying within the bounds of a somewhat safe 1.5C temperature rise, we are on track for a three-degree world this century.“Science tells us we have around six years before we exhaust the planet’s ability to cope with our emissions,” Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said yesterday.But instead of trending downwards, fossil fuel emissions rose 1.2 per cent in 2023. Oil companies made $200bn in 2022, and many more billions this year, helped along by government subsidies to the tune of $7 trillion in 2022.Key absencesUS president Joe Biden, Chinese president Xi Jinping and Russian president Vladimir Putin, leaders of the world’s biggest carbon-polluting nations, are all giving the summit a miss amid ongoing geopolitical tensions.However, the US is sending its vice president, Kamala Harris, to make a brief visit. Mr Sunak and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi will be in Dubai.John Kerry, US special presidential envoy for climate, at the Cop28 venue on ThursdayAs he prepared to fly to Cop28, Mr Sunak, criticised for watering down net zero measures on cars and boilers and making a renewed push to drill for North Sea oil and gas, denied Britain had abandoned its flagship pledges.“I’m not in hock to ideological zealots on this topic. Of course we’re going to get to net zero, of course it’s important, but we can do that in a sensible way that saves people money,” said the Tory leader.Foreign secretary David Cameron is also in Dubai for several events; the government has faced criticism for all three men flying to the conference on separate private jets.Meanwhile, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer prepared to meet financiers in Dubai to discuss his plans to “turbo-charge” growth by making London the world’s green finance capital.‘No issue left off the table’Getting a grip on the situation is one of “heavy responsibility”, the UN’s Simon Stiell remarked, particularly for the Emirati hosts.Oil-dependent UAE is tasked with shepherding through a meaningful agreement in two weeks’ time, which vulnerable countries and their allies say must include a call to phase out all fossil fuels for the first time.There was some early momentum yesterday when a fund to help the poorest and most impacted places cope with the irrevocable losses of climate change was finalised.That deal was met with a standing ovation by delegates in the plenary hall, although experts warned that the fund must be closely monitored to ensure the most vulnerable can easily access it.The announcement was accompanied by substantial financial pledges including  $100m (£79m) apiece from the UAE and Germany and $76m from the UK. The US pledged $17.5m.Cop28 president Sultan al-Jaber at the opening session in Dubai on Thursday While the sums were welcomed, it remains a drop in the ocean to tackle to scale of climate disasters – some estimates say vulnerable countries need $400bn annually to cover their losses.The summit was convened by Sultan al-Jaber – a controversial choice because of his job as CEO of the UAE national oil company, Adnoc. And this was before the BBC and the investigative Centre for Climate Reporting revealed that the UAE planned to use its role as Cop28 host to strike oil and gas deals. (“The documents referred to in the BBC article are inaccurate and were not used by Cop28 in meetings. It is extremely disappointing to see the BBC use unverified documents in their reporting,” a summit spokesperson told The Independent.)During his opening remarks, Jaber acknowledged there were “strong views” about the idea of including language on fossil fuels and renewables in the final Cop communique. “It is essential that no issue is left off the table. And yes, as I have been saying, we must look for ways and ensure the inclusion of the role of fossil fuels,” he said. More