Category: Environment

The comments made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 6 May 2021.

Good afternoon everyone, it’s great to be able to join you this year.

Over the next few months I suspect we’re going to be hearing a great deal about Angela’s legacy, Chancellor Merkel’s legacy, the incredible impact she has had on Germany, on Europe and indeed on the world.

And your work on climate change has been at the heart of that achievement.

You presided over the very first COP, more than a quarter of a century ago and I hadn’t remembered that you were of course the driving force behind the great leap forward that was the Kyoto Protocol.

And you created this now venerable institution in the climate calendar, an event that has consistently elevated climate change to the top of ministerial in-trays.

That is very important right now because as Svenja says, we can’t allow action on climate change to become another victim of this appalling pandemic.

This will be the decade in which we either rise up as one to tackle climate change together or else we sink together into the mire.

And this year, at COP26, will be the moment at which the world chooses which of those two fates awaits us.

But while the solution to our climate conundrum is on the surface of it simple – achieve net zero and limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5c – the complex nature of international diplomacy is such that we can’t just expect to make progress or hope to make progress in the 10 days of talks this November.

The stakes are too high for COP26 to become some kind of last-minute dash to the line.

And so it is absolutely vital that when we have time we should spend the next six months productively, untangling those knots and unblocking some of the stickiest issues.

If we do the hard miles now I hope that in November we can meet in person in Glasgow to hammer out the final details of what must be an era-defining outcome for our planet and for future generations.

And as hosts of COP26, we in the UK have a responsibility of course to make that happen.

So throughout this year Alok and I are pulling every lever, using every opportunity to make COP the success it needs to be.

And that, of course, includes next month’s G7 summit in Carbis Bay where leaders of the world’s biggest economies will be coming together, in person, face-to-face for the first time in far too long and climate change will be right at the heart of the agenda.

For one thing I can tell you the meeting itself will be completely carbon neutral.

But more significantly, it will be the first G7 at which every member has committed to hitting net zero by 2050.

Though in Angela’s case, in Germany’s case now, 2045, congratulations to you on your drive and your ambition.

That’s great news for our planet and shows us as G7 leading by example. But in Cornwall I want to see much more.

I will be seeking commitments from G7 members to use their voices and their votes wherever and whenever possible to support the transition to net zero, kick start a green industrial revolution, and build economies that can withstand whatever our changing climate throws at us.

And I also hope to secure a substantial pile of cash with which to help all countries to do that.

We simply must meet our existing commitments on climate finance, that long-overdue $100 billion a year target, and then we must go further still.

Because I think it is really up to us in the wealthier economies just to walk a mile in the shoes of developing nations.

Who are more likely to feel the effects of climate change, less able to withstand the impact it has, and all the while striving to raise the living standards of billions of people.

As those of us who have benefitted from 150 years of carbon-heavy industry lecture from the side lines about the need for clean growth.

Developed nations cannot stop climate change on their own, but if we want others to leapfrog the dirty technology that did so much for us, then we have a moral and a practical obligation to help them do so.

That means putting our money where our mouth is, which is why the UK recently doubled its climate finance contribution.

At the G7 and other international fora I will not hesitate to bend the ear of my fellow leaders on the need for them to do the same.

Because if all that emerges from COP26 is more hot air than we have absolutely no chance of keeping our planet cool.

It must be a summit of agreement, of action, of deeds not words.

For that to happen then over the next six months we must be relentless in our ambition and determination, laying the foundations on which success will be built.

Today’s event is the latest stepping stone on the path to Glasgow.

So let’s use it to show the world just how serious we are about delivering the change we need.

The speech made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 22 April 2021.

I’d like to begin by thanking President Biden very much for bringing us together today in the way that he has and for setting out the problem in the eloquent way that he did at the beginning, and of course for returning the United States to the front rank of the fight against climate change.

I’m really thrilled by the game-changing announcement that Joe Biden has just made. And I’m proud that the UK is doing the same.

We were first country to pass legislation for net zero. We have the biggest offshore wind capacity of any country in the world, the Saudi Arabia of wind as I never tire of saying. We’re halfway to net zero.

We have carbon emissions lower than at any point since the 19th century, we’re ending support for fossil fuels overseas and doubling our international climate finance.

We’re actually speeding up because we see the obligations for developed countries to do more, we’re legislating to deliver 78% of the reductions needed to reach that goal by 2035.

As host of COP26, we want to see similar ambitions around the world and we’re working with everybody, from the smallest nations to the biggest emitters to secure commitments that will keep change to within 1.5 degrees.

And I think we can do it. And to do it we need the scientists and all of our countries to work together to produce the technological solutions that humanity is going to need. Whether it’s carbon capture and storage or solving the problems of cheap hydrogen delivery or getting to jet zero flying, getting to net zero flying, making sure that we can roll out EVs properly, making sure that our homes stop emitting such prodigious quantities of CO2, moving to sustainable domestic living.

We can do this together across the world. It’s going to mean the richest nations coming together and exceeding the $100 billion commitment that they already made in 2009 and I stress how important that is.

Plus, I think what President Xi had to say about the harmony with nature was absolutely vital. If we’re going to tackle climate change sustainably, we have to deal with the disaster of habitat loss and species loss across our planet and we want to see even more examples of government and private industry working hand in hand as with the newly launched LEAF Coalition to reduce deforestation and the multi-trillion dollar Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero.

To do these things we’ve got to be constantly original and optimistic about new technology and new solutions whether that’s crops that are super-resistant to drought or more accurate weather forecasts like those we hope to see from the UK’s new Met Office 1.2bn supercomputer that we’re investing in.

I’m not saying any of this is going to be easy. There is obviously going to be a political challenge. It’s important to go back to the original words of President Biden, it’s vital for all of us to show that this is not all about some expensive politically correct green act of ‘bunny hugging’ or however you want to put it. Nothing wrong with ‘bunny hugging’ but you know what I’m driving at.

This is about growth and jobs and the President was absolutely right to stress that. I want to leave you with the thought that we can build back better from this pandemic by building back greener.

Don’t forget that the UK has been able to cut our own CO2 emissions by about 42% on 1990 levels and we’ve seen our economy grow by 73%, you can do both at once. Cake have eat is my message to you.

Let’s work together on this. Let’s go to Kunming in October and Glasgow in November armed with ambitious targets and the plans required to reach them.

And let’s use this extraordinary moment and the incredible technology that we’re working on to make this decade the moment of decisive change in the fight against climate change and let’s do it together.

The comments made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 22 April 2021.

The UK has shown that it’s possible to slash emissions while growing the economy, which makes question of reaching net zero not so much technical as political.

If we actually want to stop climate change, then this must be the year in which we get serious about doing so. Because the 2020s will be remembered either as the decade in which world leaders united to turn the tide, or as a failure.

So let’s come to Kunming in October and Glasgow in November armed with ambitious targets and the plans required to reach them. And let the history books show that it was this generation of leaders that possessed the will to preserve our planet for generations to come.