Sacked minister pours cold water on PM’s climate push
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has begun a ‘‘year of climate action’’ just hours after the former president of a major United Nations climate conference said the British leader doesn’t ‘‘get’’ climate change.
The United Kingdom will hold the international climate summit in Glasgow in November – considered the most significant gathering of world leaders since the 2015 climate meeting in Paris – and Britain is keen to strengthen its claim to leadership in the area, especially as it prepares for its place on the world stage postBrexit.
Johnson officially launched COP26, as the climate talks are known, at London’s Science Museum yesterday. Appearing alongside revered naturalist Sir David Attenborough, he declared that Britain, as the ‘‘first country to industrialise’’, had ‘‘a responsibility to lead the way’’.
Johnson urged other countries to match Britain’s pledge – made by his predecessor Theresa May last year – to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.
He also announced that Britain would ban new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars by 2035, cutting the current target of 2040 by five years. Other countries, such as Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands, are banning fossil fuel vehicles by 2030.
Climate campaigners said the target was not ambitious enough.
Johnson came under broader criticism from Claire O’Neill, a former energy minister who was heading up the climate conference until Johnson’s government fired her last week.
O’Neill told the BBC that although Johnson had made ‘‘incredibly warm statements about [climate change] over the years, he’s also admitted to me that he doesn’t really understand it . . . but others around him do’’.
In a scathing letter to Johnson published by the Financial Times,
O’Neill said that she wasn’t given enough resources to do the job, and that Britain’s plans for the summit were ‘‘miles off track’’ from where they needed to be.
Climate campaigners are watching Johnson’s government to see if it backs up words with action. In the lead-up to the December general election, Johnson failed to impress climate activists when he did not show up for a televised leaders’ debate about climate change – broadcaster Channel 4 put a melting ice sculpture in his place.
– Washington Post