PM must “follow through on his rhetoric” at COP26, says Ed Miliband

Ed Miliband has responded to Boris Johnson’s keynote address to COP26 by calling on the Prime Minister to “follow through on his rhetoric”, as world leaders gather in Glasgow for the UN climate conference over the next two weeks.

Commenting after the speech, in which Johnson warned that future generations “will judge us with bitterness and resentment” if there is no breakthrough in Glasgow, Miliband said it is “good the Prime Minister has had a wake up call”.

But Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy added: “The truth is that he’s been sleepwalking towards Glasgow by failing to treat COP26 with the seriousness it deserves.

“The chances of success would have been much greater if he had recognised two years ago that COP is not a massive international photo op but a complex and fragile negotiation.

“It’s time he realised that lecturing others is all very well, but when he flirts with a new coal mine, strips out temperature commitments from trade deals, opens up massive new oil exploration and cuts overseas aid, he massively undercuts his own standing.”

Johnson has declared that the world is at “one minute to midnight” in terms of averting the climate emergency, and that a “vast and accountable audience” of future generations would not forgive world leaders for a failed climate summit.

Quoting Greta Thunberg, he told leaders that past promises would be “nothing but blah, blah, blah” if the summit is not “the moment when we get real about climate change”. He urged them to “get real about coal, cars, cash and trees”.

The Prime minister addressed the conference in a one-hour opening ceremony this morning, with around 120 heads of state and government in attendance. Countries are under pressure to deliver on pledges made in the 2015 Paris agreement.

Under the Paris agreement, governments around the world committed to reducing their carbon emissions in order to limit average temperatures rising more than 2°C, and preferably to 1.5°C, when compared to pre-industrial averages.

Miliband added this afternoon: “We now need him to follow through on his rhetoric today over the next fortnight to get the emissions reductions targets the world so desperately needs in this decisive decade to keep 1.5°C alive.”

Persuading nations to phase out coal is one of the central goals that the UK government, which has the presidency this year, has set for COP26. But the government’s own climate change advisors criticised ministers earlier this year for allowing a new coal mine in Cumbria.

Ministers have been under pressure ahead of the climate conference to stop the project going ahead. Johnson said today that he is “not in favour of more coal” but that the decision is one for the local planning authority to make.

Meeting over the weekend, G20 leaders did not agree to ending the use of coal in their own countries as hoped, instead agreeing only to ending their financing of coal power abroad. They also agreed to reach a target of net-zero carbon emissions “by or around mid-century”.

Miliband reacted by saying: “We need to halve global emissions by 2030, not rely on vague plans for three decades time. The jury is firmly out on whether there is a real shift in any way equal to the scale of the climate emergency. COP26 will deliver the verdict. It’s time for climate delivery not more climate delay.”

The government is also under pressure over its support for a major expansion to an oilfield in the UK. Asked about the site, COP26 president Alok Sharma told The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday that it “is not in my power” to prevent it.

The government was criticised over its plans for investment after Rishi Sunak delivered the Budget last week with only £1.5bn in new investment in public transport. He reduced taxes on domestic flights, unveiled £21bn for roads and froze fuel duty for the 12th consecutive year.

Johnson pledged to put an extra £1bn into a climate crisis fund for poor nations on Sunday, if the UK economy recovers well from the pandemic, but Daniel Willis at Global Justice Now described the commitment as “nowhere near enough”.

“To truly account for the UK’s historic greenhouse gas emissions, we should be providing $46bn a year. But, with the UK being responsible for 9.7% of historic emissions from countries that provide climate finance, $3.4bn a year is not even an adequate share of the insufficient $100bn target. As a bare minimum, $9.7bn of the $100bn target should come from the UK, which is just one sixth of what we spend on defence,” the campaigner said.

He added that there are “huge unanswered questions as to whether this is genuinely additional or adequate climate finance” and called on ministers to “spell out exactly where the money will come from and whether these are grants or loans”.

Labour left MP Richard Burgon today submitted a Budget amendment calling on the government to increase taxes for the top 1% of earners to aid the UK’s efforts to meet its targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and ensure a just transition.