Playing the green card a cynical move by climate denying PM

Boris Johnson has spent the past decade decrying the science, writes Martyn Mclaughlin

It may be expressly targeted at reducing carbon dioxide emissions, but it is hard to judge the UK Government’s announcement, that a ban on selling new petrol, diesel or hybrid cars is to be brought forward five years to 2035, as anything other than a smokescreen.

The revised policy, unveiled by Boris Johnson at a speech to launch the UN climate change conference, COP26, in Glasgow later this year is a step in the right direction, though hardly a radical measure.

At least seven countries have vowed to enact a similar ban by 2030, while Norway is leading the way, having set its red line for 2025.

However, the announcement likely had the desired effect of distracting attention from Claire O’neill, who only last week was ousted as the president of COP26, a decision which encouraged her to tell some home truths about Mr Johnson and his environmental credentials.

The former Conservative minister warned that there was a “huge lack of leadership and engagement” from the UK Government, and that Mr Johnson himself was an unconvincing champion of COP26.

“The Prime Minister has made incredibly warm statements about this over the years,” Ms O’neill said. “He’s also admitted to me that he doesn’t really understand it. He ‘doesn’t really get it’, I think that is what he said.”

Ms O’neill’s dire warnings about Mr Johnson’s ignorance and apparent apathy regarding the greatest crisis facing our planet should come as no surprise.

A letter she sent to the Prime Minister indicated he had toyed with relocating COP26 to England due to animosity with Nicola Sturgeon. With hotels already booked and an extensive security operation under way, that is unlikely to come to pass. But the fact Ms O’neill gave voice to such fears suggests Mr Johnson is sufficiently spiteful and short-sighted to prioritise constitutional squabbles over the climate. After all, the future of the Union is the single biggest threat to his premiership.

But there is another, uncomplicated reason to explain his unenlightened position – Mr Johnson is the most prominent climate denier in the country. A cursory examination of his actions and remarks over the past decade offers an instructive, if depressing insight, into his thinking on the issue.

Ten years ago, he penned a column for the Daily Telegraph, introducing its readers to the work of Piers Corbyn, the astrophysicist and brother of the Labour leader.

The less well-known Mr Corbyn describes himself as a “world-leading weather and climate forecaster” and runs a firm called Weatheraction, which flexes its meteorological muscle by including on its website – a headache-inducing Geocities nightmare – mocked-up Charlie Brown cartoons poking fun at “liberal” scientists.

He specialises in long-range forecasts using what he describes as a “revolutionary world-leading solar-based method”. Mr Johnson is among his supporters, describing him as someone who “gets it right again and again”.

“He seems to get it right about 85 per cent of the time and serious business people – notably in farming – are starting to invest in his forecasts,” Mr Johnson wrote.

Two years later, he returned to the topic, more enthused than ever by “the world’s foremost meteorological soothsayer”. Mr Johnson relayed his predictions, which included a