We’re not just in a climate emergency – we’re staring catastrophe right in the face.
Three months ago, we saw Britain’s hottest day on record. Around the world, the impacts are even more severe.
Devastating flooding in Pakistan has killed over 1,500 people and displaced a staggering 33million, leaving vast numbers of communities without shelter, food or water.
Somalia is living through its worst drought in 40 years, leaving millions of families facing a desperate famine.
In a global climate emergency, leadership matters – and it will take a global effort to address it.
The upcoming COP27 conference in Egypt could be a crucial step in the battle to stem the tide.
That means we need every head of state, every head of government, every national and regional leader on board – both talking the talk and walking the walk.
My question is – where is the leadership from this Tory Government?
Over the past 12 years, we’ve had mixed messages on the climate at best, and little more than crisis management on everything else.
From David Cameron’s destructive austerity agenda, to Theresa May’s Brexit disarray, to Boris Johnson’s office-demeaning premiership, to Liz Truss’s breath-taking incompetence and economic mismanagement.
Let’s be clear – the Conservative Party has failed to provide genuine leadership to steer the country safely through any issue, let alone the climate emergency.
So things have to change – and COP27 presented Rishi Sunak with an opportunity to step up to the plate.
Yet in just one week in the job, what has our Prime Minister done so far?
He first declared he was unable to attend COP27 due to ‘pressing domestic commitments.’
He removed current COP26 President Alok Sharma from cabinet, and refused to let him answer COP26 questions in the House of Commons today – stripping him of any agency within Government.
Graham Stuart, the climate minister, will also not attend cabinet – just days before the start of the climate conference, when all eyes will be on us as current COP presidency-holders.
And he’s pushed back the decision on the proposed Cumbria coal mine yet further, rather than committing to keep coal in the ground for good.
Rishi Sunak may have performed a screeching U-turn today, and confirmed he will attend COP27 after all – but he’s already made it perfectly clear he’s no climate leader.
Securing a liveable future fit for our children and grandchildren isn’t going to come about by accident
What Sunak fails to realise is that those same domestic commitments he initially used to dodge the summit – sky-high energy prices; a health service at breaking point; an outdated transport network – are all exacerbated by the climate emergency.
And the solutions to the climate emergency – less reliance on volatile gas prices; less pollution and cleaner air; more funding for cleaner active transport – are the solutions to a whole host of the country’s problems.
And having joined-up solutions matter on a global scale too. The UN has calculated that Governments around the world already plan to produce double the quantity of climate-wrecking fossil fuels by 2030 than would be consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5C.
It couldn’t be clearer that the quickest and best way to ensure we avoid the worst impacts of the climate emergency would be to keep these fossil fuels in the ground for good.
If we fail to act, the economic costs of climate destruction will be truly staggering, particularly in the Global South – estimates by Oxfam suggest they could be up to £580 billion a year by 2030.
Yet wealthy countries are utterly failing to pull their weight, and work towards anything close to the climate justice regularly promised.
Rishi Sunak’s Government has also failed to pay out more than $300million (£261million) it promised to two key climate funds.
The transition to a fair, green economy isn’t going to happen overnight. We have to ensure that people who work in those carbon-intensive industries are supported – for every worker, community and country.
Securing a liveable future fit for our children and grandchildren – investing in clean, green renewables; protecting and restoring our natural habitats; building insulated, warmer homes; creating millions of well-paid, quality green jobs; breathing clean air and drinking clean water – isn’t going to come about by accident.
It needs a dedicated global effort, and genuine climate leadership on the world stage. It needs ambition and urgency.
It doesn’t need a Prime Minister flip-flopping on a whim.
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