Britain and Europe must work in tandem to tackle climate change

We need to work together on climate change, because like Covid-19 – it knows no borders. The pandemic has showed us that, when an emergency strikes suddenly, we can and should join forces – for example, to develop a vaccine.

While the climate emergency is one that has built up over time and cannot be addressed with a single treatment, countries around the world will need to work together to find solutions – because this is a global challenge.

This week I participated in London Climate Action Week – a foretaste of what we can expect from COP26 in Glasgow, whose presidency the UK will assume in partnership with Italy. London Climate Action Week showed us that, when there is a will, even a pandemic cannot stop us addressing other existential challenges. The participants did not agree on everything. But they acknowledged the scale of the problems and many understand that to overcome them, we need to work together.

For the UK, the climate emergency is not new. As an EU member state, the UK was already leading by example – it was the first major economy to enshrine in law the objective of ending its contribution to global warming by 2050. It always supported ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And huge demonstrations, led by young people, showed the strength of grassroots’ engagement.

The UK’s foundational contribution to the EU Single Market, its excellence in research and its innovation in the digital economy are well known. Our British friends have reasons to be also proud of the pioneering drive in countering climate change head on.

Today in the EU, we are united behind the idea that the green thread needs to run through all our policies – from transport to taxation, food to farming, industry to infrastructure. The European Green Deal was the first major initiative announced by Ursula von der Leyen after she became European Commission president last December. In March, we proposed the European Climate Law, the political commitment to transform Europe into the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Our post-Covid recovery plan, Next Generation EU, brings concrete ideas on harnessing funding to help member states achieve this ambition.

The EU will press on with all these initiatives. But we are very aware that climate change knows no borders. Countries and people will remain connected by deep ties that bind our future, including how we decarbonise our economies and protect our societies from climate change.

The EU and the UK, in particular given its crucial role as COP26 president, should continue to lead on the path toward climate neutrality by ensuring a strong green dimension in the post-Covid recovery measures we are putting in place and by updating emissions reduction targets for 2030.

The UK now has an ambitious Global Britain agenda. The EU is one of the most important global actors. In addressing climate change and preserving the environment, we can work together: leading by our ambitions; keeping the pressure on other global players who may be tempted to compromise for the sake of immediate economic gain; being creative and open-minded in finding solutions where none seems obvious. Building on our past joint efforts, we need to work together for a future in which humanity can live within nature’s boundaries, in a sustainable manner, on our common home.