Category: Environment

The press conference held in Glasgow on 10 November 2021.

Before heading back to London last week, I warned of the need to guard against false optimism and to not allow ourselves to think that the progress we need would be easy.

And today, having spoken with the Secretary-General, and having met negotiating teams, heads of delegations and others here at COP, it’s clear that after the surge of really positive, game-changing announcements last week on methane, on finance, on forests in particular, we are now firmly in the hard yards, the nuts and bolts of international climate diplomacy.

And the negotiations are getting tough.

And with just a few days remaining, there is still a huge amount to do.

We’ve made a difference, we hope, for our planet and our people.

We’ve moved the ball a long way down the pitch.

But now we’re stuck in a bit of a rolling maul to mix my football and rugby metaphors.

The line is in sight, but if we’re going to get there, we need a determined push to get us there.

We need to be more ambitious with better, more credible plans for implementation.

We have to bridge the gap between where we are and where we need to be if we’re going to cut emissions in half by 2030.

And we need to pull out all the stops if we’re going to do what we came here to do and that’s keep 1.5 alive and make Paris the success the world needs it to be.

Because while that 2016 agreement was a significant moment in the fight against climate change, it was ultimately a pledge of action still to come.

And it is very frustrating to see countries that have spent six years conspicuously patting themselves on the back for signing that promissory note in Paris quietly edging towards default now that vulnerable nations and future generations are demanding payment here in Glasgow.

And there really is no excuse because we know what is at stake here.

We’ve been hearing it all week.

We heard it from the President of Palau, Surangel Whipps Jr, who told me he spent five days travelling seven and a half thousand miles across nine time zones to make sure the voice of his people was heard.

The least we can do is pay attention when he says that if the big economies don’t do more we “might as well bomb” his islands.

We heard it from Simon Kofe, from the government of Tuvalu, who spoke to us not from a podium in a cosy conference room but knee-deep in a steadily rising Pacific Ocean.

And we heard it from Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados who so moved the opening ceremony when she warned that we are digging our own graves and asked when are the leaders finally going to lead.

And if you stood and applauded her, then you cannot now sit on your hands as the world asks you to act.

Because the world knows the mess our planet is in.

The world has heard leaders from every country, every continent stand here and acknowledge the need for action.

And the world will find it absolutely incomprehensible if we fail to deliver that.

The backlash from our people will be immense and it will be long-lasting.

And frankly, we will deserve their criticism and opprobrium.

Because we know what needs to be done.

We agree on what needs to be done.

We just need the courage to get on and do it.

So this is the time for everyone to come together and show the determination needed to power on through the blockages.

To look at the science with dispassionate eyes and think about how we can compromise, how we can be flexible to meet the needs of the planet.

And for world leaders who are back in their capitals to pick up the phone to their teams here and give them the negotiating margin, give them the space they need in which to manoeuvre so we can get this done.

Here in Glasgow, the world is closer than it has ever been to signalling the beginning of the end of anthropogenic climate change.

It’s the greatest gift we can possibly bestow on our children and grandchildren and generations unborn.

It’s now within reach, at COP26 in these final days, we just need to reach out together and grasp it.

And so my question for my fellow world leaders this afternoon as we enter the last hours of COP is will you help us do that?

Will you help us grasp that opportunity or will you stand in the way?

The comments made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 10 November 2021.

Negotiating teams are doing the hard yards in these final days of COP26 to turn promises into action on climate change.

There’s still much to do. Today I’ll be meeting with ministers and negotiators to hear about where progress has been made and where the gaps must be bridged.

This is bigger than any one country and it is time for nations to put aside differences and come together for our planet and our people.

We need to pull out all the stops if we’re going to keep 1.5C within our grasp.

The statement made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, in the House of Commons on 3 November 2021.

With permission, Mr Speaker, I will make a statement about the G20 summit in Rome and update the House on COP26 in Glasgow.

Almost 30 years ago, the world acknowledged the gathering danger of climate change and agreed to do what would once have been inconceivable: to regulate the atmosphere of the planet itself by curbing greenhouse gas emissions. One declaration succeeded another until, in Paris in 2015, we all agreed to seek to restrain the rise in world temperatures to 1.5° C.

Now, after all the targets and promises, and after yet more warnings from our scientists about the peril staring us in the face, we come to the reckoning. This is the moment when we must turn words into action. If we fail, Paris will have failed, and every summit going back to Rio de Janeiro in 1992 will have failed, because we will have allowed our shared aim of 1.5° to escape our grasp.

Even half a degree of extra warming would have tragic consequences. If global temperatures were to rise by 2°, our scientists forecast that we will lose virtually all the world’s coral reefs. The Great Barrier Reef and countless other living marvels would dissolve into an ever warmer and ever more acidic ocean, returning the terrible verdict that human beings lacked the will to preserve the wonders of the natural world.

In the end, it is a question of will. We have the technology to do what is necessary; all that remains in question is our resolve. The G20 summit convened by our Italian friends and COP26 partner last weekend provided encouraging evidence that the political will exists, which is vital for the simple reason that the G20 accounts for 80% of the world economy and 75% of greenhouse gas emissions. Britain was the first G20 nation to promise in law to wipe out our contribution to climate change by achieving net zero; as recently as 2019, only one other member had made a comparable pledge.

Today, 18 countries in the G20 have made specific commitments to achieve net zero and in the Rome declaration last Sunday every member acknowledged

“the key relevance of achieving global net zero greenhouse gas emissions or carbon neutrality by or around mid-century”.

To that end, the G20, including China, agreed to stop financing new international unabated coal projects by the end of this year—a vital step towards consigning coal to history—and every member repeated their commitment to the Paris target of 1.5°.

In a spirit of co-operation, the summit reached other important agreements. The G20 will levy a minimum corporation tax rate of 15%, ensuring that multinational companies make a fair contribution wherever they operate. Over 130 countries and jurisdictions have now joined the arrangement, showing what we can achieve together when the will exists.

The G20 adopted a target of vaccinating 70% of the world’s population against covid by the middle of next year, and the UK is on track to provide 100 million doses to that effort. By the end of the year, we will have donated over 30 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, and at least another 20 million will follow next year along with all 20 million doses of the Janssen vaccine ordered by the Government. The G20 also resolved to work together to ease the supply chain disruptions that have affected every member as demand recovers and the world economy gets back on its feet. I pay tribute to Prime Minister Mario Draghi for his expert handling of the summit.

But everyone will accept that far more needs to be done to spare humanity from catastrophic climate change. In the meantime, global warming is already contributing to droughts, brushfires and hurricanes, summoning an awful vision of what lies ahead if we fail to act in the time that remains. So the biggest summit that the United Kingdom has ever hosted is now under way in Glasgow, bringing together 120 world leaders with the aim of translating aspirations into action to keep the ambition of 1.5° alive. I am grateful to Glasgow City Council, Police Scotland, police across the whole of the UK and our public health bodies for making the occasion possible and for all their hard work. For millions across the world, the outcome is literally a matter of life or death. For some island states in the Pacific and the Caribbean, it is a question of national survival.

The negotiations in Glasgow have almost two weeks to run, but we can take heart from what has been achieved so far. Nations that together comprise 90% of the world economy are now committed to net zero, up from 30% when the UK took over the reins of COP. Yesterday alone, the United States and over 100 other countries agreed to cut their emissions of methane—one of the most destructive greenhouse gases—by 30% by 2030, and 122 countries with over 85% of the world’s forests agreed to end and reverse deforestation by the same deadline, backed by the greatest ever commitment of public funds to the cause. I hope that will trigger even more from the private sector.

India has agreed to transform her energy system to derive half her power from renewable sources, keeping a billion tonnes of carbon out of the atmosphere. The UK has doubled our commitment to international climate finance to £11.6 billion, and we will contribute another £1 billion if the economy grows as is forecast. We have launched our clean green initiative, which will help the developing world to build new infrastructure in an environmentally friendly way, and we will invest £3 billion of public money to unlock billions more from the private sector.

The UK has asked the world for action on coal, cars, cash and trees, and we have begun to make substantial, palpable progress on three out of the four, but the negotiations in Glasgow have a long way to go and far more must be done. Whether we can summon the collective wisdom and will to save ourselves from an avoidable disaster still hangs in the balance. We will press on with the hard work until the last hour.