Johnson: Let’s blow out candles of world on fire

WORLD leaders must come together to tackle climate change and ‘blow out the candles of a world on fire’, Boris Johnson said last night.

In an impassioned speech to the UN General Assembly in New York, the Prime Minister said it as already ‘too late’ to stop global temperatures rising.

But he said concerted action at the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in November could ‘restrain that growth’ to 1.5C, limiting the effects.

He said a global agreement to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 would mean that for the first time in centuries mankind would ‘no longer be thickening that invisible quilt that is warming the planet’.

He said it was time for the world to ‘grow up’ and accept that action could no longer be postponed – and he said developed countries such as the UK had a duty to contribute the most.

‘We started this industrial revolution in Britain: we were the first to send the great puffs of acrid smoke to the heavens on a scale to derange the natural order,’ he said.

‘And though we were setting in train a new era of technology that was itself to lead to a massive global reduction in poverty, emancipating billions around the world, we were also unwittingly beginning to quilt the great tea cosy of CO2.

‘And so we understand when the developing world looks to us to help them.’

Mr Johnson’s bid to strike a deal in Glasgow received a huge boost this week when Joe Biden agreed to double the US contribution to a fund seeking $100billion (£70billion) a year to help developing countries cut emissions.