Boris Johnson cites Kermit the Frog in UN climate speech

NEW YORK: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson injected humour into a United Nations General Assembly speech appealing for greater efforts to tackle climate change on Wednesday.

“We have an awesome power to change things, or to change things for the better, and an awesome power to save ourselves,” Conservative Party leader Johnson said.

“And when Kermit the Frog sang ‘It’s not easy being green’ — You remember that one? I want you to know that he was wrong. He was wrong. It is easy, it’s not only easy, it’s lucrative and it’s right to be green,” Johnson said.

“No matter that he also was unnecessarily rude to Miss Piggy, I thought,” he added.

The British premier said more trees should be planted, and also pushed for more wind energy.

“We put in great forests of beautiful wind turbines on the drowned prairies of Doggerland between Britain and Holland in the North Sea,” he said, referring to the stretch of land that connected Britain to continental Europe before it was flooded by rising sea levels thousands of years ago.

“In fact we produce so much offshore wind that I’m thinking of changing my name in honour of the north wind to “Boreas” Johnson,” Johnson quipped.

Johnson also used his speech to thank China’s President Xi Jinping for his announcement that China would no longer export coalfired power plants and to praise US President Joe Biden for his promise of billions of additional dollars in climate aid.

Looking ahead to the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow in November, Johnson said he hoped it would be like a 16th birthday party for the world — where the world decides to grow up.