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Tag: Speeches

  • David Lammy – 2024 Speech at the Asian Development Bank Event

    David Lammy – 2024 Speech at the Asian Development Bank Event

    The speech made by David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, on 13 November 2024.

    Thank you, President Asakawa, for bringing us all together today.

    I am really very, very pleased to see such a strong line-up as we launch this important initiative.

    In my first major speech as Foreign Secretary, the Kew Lecture, I spoke about the need to put tackling the climate and nature crisis at the heart of our foreign policy.

    I passionately believe this is the right course for Britain – given the size of the threat, and the scale of the opportunity.

    And we are putting climate at the centre. Already domestically, we have got rid of the onshore wind ban. Already domestically, we have set up GB Energy – the first public utility to really harness and race us forward on that clean energy mission. Later on today, our Prime Minister will announce an ambitious NDC target, and we have already said that there will be no renewal of oil and gas licenses in the North Sea and we’ve seen the end of coal in the United Kingdom. We have got off to a major, major start. I passionately believe that this is the right course for Britain given the size of the threat then and the scale of the opportunity.

    But clearly, no one country can tackle this problem alone.

    So it is very important to see countries from the Indo-Pacific and the Euro-Atlantic, all working together, all recognising that our security is indivisible, and that this is a true climate-nature moment where we come together and we see that acutely in conflicts like the conflict that we see in Ukraine.

    I am also delighted that the UK will be playing its part, announcing today a 280 million dollar guarantee as part of this collective effort.

    I said it in my Kew speech and I have heard it frequently at past COPs, but it really bears repeating.

    Words are not enough. If we are to avoid the worst, all of us need to take action. And for countries like those on this panel, whose economies prospered in the age of hydrocarbons, that means putting our money where our mouth is.

    But it’s not just about what we commit, it’s also about making the most of that money.

    All of us on this panel will have experienced difficult conversations with our finance ministries.

    And at the same time, all of us will have heard again and again in conversations with partners in the Global South the shortages in climate finance and how big they are, and they risk getting bigger.

    The best way to manage this is through innovative and multilateral solutions like this finance facility. Whether we say we want to get our penny’s worth or bang for our buck, the point remains the same – this is about maximising our impact.

    I congratulate the Asian Development Bank and our friends here today for their work in reaching this milestone.

    Thanks to the design of this Facility, you will be able to use every pound, dollar, krona, yen or won from us, and lend four and a half times as much.

    As a result, we will have leveraged eleven billion dollars between us.

    And we are going a long way towards fulfilling your ambition to be the climate bank of Asia.

    This is urgently needed.

    Over half of our global emissions come from Asia, almost half from developing Asia.

    This is not surprising given the region’s size and impressive growth in recent years.

    But it highlights the need for climate action.

    Not least given how climate change risks reversing development gains particularly in the region, with over 40 million people at risk of falling back into extreme poverty because of the impact of the climate emergency.

    Ultimately, like all the work we do at COP, this event is about them, not us.

    It’s about taking the action they need.

    It’s about getting them access to the finance they deserve.

    It’s about changing their lives for the better.

    And preserving a planet on which they and we can live in harmony with our natural environment for generations to come.

    Thank you.

  • Wes Streeting – 2024 Speech on the Reform of the NHS

    Wes Streeting – 2024 Speech on the Reform of the NHS

    The speech made by Wes Streeting, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in Liverpool on 13 November 2024.

    I’ve come along today to lay down some direction.

    Not just to make the case for reform, which I’ve done before, but to spell out how we’ll do it and what I need you to do with me for us to collectively succeed.

    When it comes to the condition of the NHS today, the Darzi diagnosis is clear:

    • the NHS has not been able to meet its most important promises to patients since 2015
    • A&E waits are causing thousands of avoidable deaths
    • 50 years of progress on cardiovascular disease has gone into reverse
    • 345,000 people are waiting more than a year for mental health treatment – that’s more than the entire population of Leicester
    • as the performance of the NHS has deteriorated, so has the health of the nation
    • adults are falling into ill-health earlier in life
    • and children are less health today than a decade ago
    • Ara’s [Lord Darzi’s] conclusion was that the state of the health service is heartbreaking

    And I’m yet to hear anyone seriously contest this analysis, which was entirely based on the data.

    In my experience, not just as a patient, but in the last 3 years talking to frontline staff and NHS leaders – most people appreciate the honesty and recognise that the biggest barrier to patients accessing care is long waiting times.

    As I’ve argued before, a culture that puts sparing political blushes or protecting the reputation of the NHS above protecting the interests of patients is one that stifles inconvenient truths being spoken to power, that silences whistleblowers and that ultimately puts patient safety at risk.

    In the last few years I’ve come to know many of you in this room and in the last 4 months I’ve toured the country talking to leaders and frontline staff, so I think I know you well enough to know that you share my view that honesty is the best policy, you agree with the Darzi diagnosis and that you share my optimism that the NHS is broken, but not beaten. Every day there are outstanding episodes of care being delivered, by dedicated people working with some of the best science in the world. As Ara put it: “The NHS is in critical condition, but its vital signs are strong.”

    Our collective challenge is to take the NHS from the worst crisis in its history, put it back on its feet and make it fit for the future.

    The budget was important. The Chancellor gave us the investment we need to arrest the decline, begin fixing the foundations and start turning the service around.

    The NHS was the standout winner. We’re the biggest cash uplift in day-to-day spending of any government department.

    There have been 2 predictable reactions to this: the first says that the NHS is getting too much money. That this is a black hole that consumes ever-increasing amounts of taxpayers’ cash and that the NHS will complain it is never enough.

    So right on cue, some NHS leaders popped up in the newspapers, aided and abetted by the health think tanks, to complain that this isn’t enough.

    One of the luxuries of leading a think tank is that you don’t have to engage with the choices and trade-offs that government does.

    The Chancellor had to raise more than £40 billion to plug not just the £22 billion black hole we walked into in July and to fix the foundations so that our economy and our public services can recover.

    When the Chancellor announced the settlement for my department, she joked about how unpopular it would make me around the cabinet table.

    The truth is, at the cabinet meeting in which she set out the contents of her budget, I did feel uncomfortable.

    Not because I was worried about the opinions of the people in the room – because they support the NHS and the investment – but because I am worried about the jobs they have to do. As I look around that cabinet table I see a Justice Secretary who inherited overflowing prisons. A Work and Pensions Secretary who inherited more than 4 million children living in poverty. A Defence Secretary charged with securing our nation, at a time when there is a ground war in Europe, as well as the constant threat of cyber warfare in a more dangerous and unpredictable world.

    Every penny of extra investment that goes into the NHS was a penny that didn’t go towards child poverty reduction, extra prison places, or bolstering our armed forces.

    More than that, every penny spent on treating sickness is a penny that doesn’t go on preventing illness. You know as well as I do, that around only 20% of the nation’s health is affected by the NHS. The rest is dictated by the poverty we live in, the damp on our walls, the food we eat, the air we breathe and so on.

    So, you can’t pretend to care about the social determinants of ill-health if you only ever ask for more money for the NHS.

    So then, the argument goes, we must do both.

    Of course that’s right, but the choices and trade-offs aren’t just about spending money but raising it. The tax burden in this country is at record levels. We chose, rightly in my view, not to hit working people in their payslips. The extra investment in the NHS, as well as other public services, meant asking employers and the wealthiest to pay more.

    You will have seen in the past few weeks, that there are those who disagree with the Chancellor’s decisions. That’s the nature of tough choices.

    We stand by our decision to prioritise the health service: healthy businesses depend on a healthy workforce and a strong economy depends on a strong NHS.

    But if you want to know where the average taxpayer stands on NHS spending it’s quite straightforward: they welcome the investment, but they worry it won’t be spent wisely.

    They agree with the central argument we made at the last general election that investment must be matched with reform.

    Tight fiscal constraints mean that reform needs to do a lot more heavy lifting.

    We would still need to reform our public services because we are in the foothills of a scientific and technological revolution that is changing the world around us.

    Citizens are used to choice, voice, ease and convenience at the touch of a button. We expect everything faster.

    Unless our public services are modernised to meet the needs of our people, they’ll become increasingly redundant and irrelevant to people’s lives, unable to meet their needs.

    The failure to reform the state to meet the needs of the people is one of the fertilisers of populism we see across liberal democracies. The other is failure to ease the pain in their pockets. We need to address both – with NHS reform that delivers better outcomes for patients and better value for taxpayers’ money.

    By now you will be familiar with the 3 big shifts that will underpin our 10-year plan for health:

    • from hospital to community
    • from analogue to digital
    • from sickness to prevention

    These shifts are not radical new ideas, but delivering them truly would be.

    They’re necessary to tackle the challenges of our growing ageing society, rising levels of chronic disease and rising cost pressures; as well as to seize the opportunities of a scientific revolution in which AI, machine learning, genomics and data offer us the chance to transform our system of healthcare to one that can not only diagnosis earlier and more accurately and treat more quickly and effectively, but also predict and prevent illness.

    But we’re not waiting for the 10-year plan in May to get cracking with reform.

    Over the last few years, I’ve regularly heard the criticism of the top-down nature of the NHS. It can be a difficult criticism for those at the top to hear, but for the last 4 months I’ve found myself at the top of the system – at the peak of the mountain of accountability – and I not only recognise the criticism, I agree with it.

    The NHS in 2024 is more hierarchical than almost any other organisation I can think of. Even our armed forces, as the Messenger Review argued, is less locked into centralised command and control.

    Those of you who have studied the birth of the NHS will know that there were vigorous debates within the Attlee government about how the new NHS should be organised. Given the vital role that a strong state and central planning had played in Britain’s success in the Second World War it was perhaps inevitable that Nye Bevan’s centralised model won the day, albeit with concessions to the doctors to overcome opposition from the British Medical Association. But Herbert Morrison and others in the Labour movement had argued strongly for a municipally based model, with power and control exercised locally.

    Attlee and Bevan could scarcely have imagined in 1948 that the single payer system they created would make the NHS ideally placed to seize the opportunities of data, genomics, AI and machine learning. The ‘N’, the national, in NHS is important. It should be the guarantee that patients everywhere are treated according to the same values and the same standards.

    The framework I’m setting out today is based on triple devolution: with power shifting out of the centre to integrated care boards (ICBs), to providers and, crucially, to patients. I want to lead an NHS where power is moved from the centre to the local and from the local to the citizen. Morrison meets Bevan.

    It starts with clarity. The centre should be deciding strategy, policy and clear objectives for the system to deliver on behalf of patients. We should allocate resources against those objectives and provide the overall accountability framework for improving performance. We should ensure the same standards of care in every part of the country and we should unlock the unrealised potential of the NHS as a single payer model by making the NHS the best partner in the world for the development of new treatments and medical technology and to make the most of our collective purchasing power to deliver value for money.

    And the centre should be smaller.

    As power flows from the centre over time, resources should flow with it. Otherwise it will keep swamping local services with diktats and demands that distract them from the job of meeting patients’ needs and improving the communities they serve. We need more doers and fewer checkers and the centre needs to learn the words ‘stop’ and ‘or’ after years of ‘start’ and ‘more’.

    Clear priorities mean a few, not 50 different targets. So the instructions coming out in the forthcoming NHS mandate and following planning guidance will be short. I want to see waiting times cut, urgent and emergency care when people need it and improved access to primary care. The shift from hospital to community needs to start now.

    Amanda set out yesterday that NHS England, not ICBs, will be responsible for managing performance of trusts. When I talk to ICB leaders I hear mixed views about where they should be focusing their efforts. There is no uniformity and too much confusion.

    So let me be clear: I want to see local commissioning back and I want to see ICBs leading it.

    ICB chiefs, I am talking directly to you: you will lead the transformation of care – the pioneers of reform. Your organisations will play a critical role in doing what we’ve never pulled off before.

    I want ICBs to focus on their job as strategic commissioners and be responsible for one big thing: the development of a new neighbourhood health service. It will focus on building up community and primary care services with the explicit aim of keeping patients healthy and out of hospital, with care closer to home and in the home.

    All the evidence suggests that 1 in 4 patients in hospital should not be there and that 1 in 5 emergency hospital admissions are preventable – so long as earlier diagnosis takes place. There’s your challenge.

    We need to design services around people – particularly more than 15 million people with long-term conditions who are too often passed from pillar to post, from one service to another. Fragmentation needs to give way to integration and that is the job of ICBs.

    That will leave providers – whether NHS foundation trusts or regular trusts in mental health, community or acutes – to get on with the job of improving frontline services for patients, including restoring the 18-week waiting time standard.

    Over the past decade, provider freedoms have been curtailed. I view that as a retrograde step.

    Starting with the best performing trusts, providers should be given greater freedom and flexibility to innovate, run community services and manage their own house to meet the needs of their patients.

    Our long-term ambition is that all providers should enjoy the same freedoms as foundation trusts so long as they deliver improved performance.

    Critically, those ICBs that perform best – particularly in developing neighbourhood health services – should also enjoy greater freedom and flexibility.

    We will no longer treat all providers and ICBs as if they’re all performing equally, when you and I know it’s a mixed ability class.

    We’ll assess systems against a set of criteria and publish the results, starting from next year.

    Those systems and providers that are in the middle of the pack will get support to improve to bring them to where the best are now.

    Those ICBs and providers that are doing well will be rewarded with greater freedoms over how to spend their capital, with fewer ringfences for example.

    Those that demonstrate the best financial management will get a greater share of capital allocation. We want to move to a system where freedom is the norm and central grip is the exception to challenge poor performance.

    So improving services for patients should be rewarded. The quid pro quo is that there will be no more rewards for failure.

    The work you do couldn’t be more serious. When you get it right, lives are saved. When you don’t, the consequences can be tragic.

    If performance dips, I reserve the right to take those freedoms away.

    For those judged to be persistently failing, we will act. We will go from zero consequences for failure, to zero tolerance.

    Our new pay framework for very senior managers (VSM), which I know has been long awaited in the system, will be published ahead of the next financial year and will set out substantial reforms.

    It will drive consistency, increase transparency and limit VSM pay inflation whilst giving sufficient flexibility to attract talented candidates to the most challenging roles and providers. It will also ensure that those who are in charge of organisations that persistently fail to provide decent care or fail to keep a grip on their finances, do not receive annual pay uplifts.

    Failure to have appropriate regard to the framework will be considered a governance issue and therefore be backed by the full range of regulatory levers at NHS England’s disposal.

    Failing integrated care systems will not have access to capital flexibility, and neither will trusts, including foundation trusts that have the badge but don’t meet the mark.

    Turnaround teams will be sent in to diagnose the problem and help fix the problem, financial controls will be imposed if necessary and where leadership is found lacking, they will be removed.

    But there is one thing I am sure of over the last few months – one person behind a desk in Whitehall cannot deliver the mammoth task ahead of us. Taking the NHS from the worst crisis in its history and making it fit for the future will require first class leadership at every level of the system. The journey of reform is one I am determined to take with you, not impose upon you.

    And that’s where you can expect a grown-up break from the past. No more manager bashing for manager bashing’s sake.

    Lord Darzi’s investigation into the NHS concluded that the problem is not too many managers, but too few with the right skills and capabilities.

    And let me tell you, that is not the most convenient conclusion for a politician to receive. I could be no more popular than announce the sacking of lots of managers, but that would not be the right thing to do.

    I am prepared to make an unpopular argument with the public about the value of good leaders. The NHS is one of the biggest organisations in the world. We should be competing with global businesses to attract top talent, and for that we need to attract and retain the best.

    So we will invest in you and support you. Yesterday, Amanda laid out our plans to develop a new NHS management and leadership framework with a single code of practice, set of competencies and national curriculum to help develop essential leadership capabilities.

    And today I can announce that we are establishing a college of executive and clinical leadership, to help train and develop excellent NHS leaders. Non-clinical leaders should be working in lockstep with clinical leaders and that’s why I want this resource to be available to every type of leader in our NHS.

    And I have asked Sir Gordon Messenger, to help us develop and attract the talent we need to develop our 10-year plan.

    The most important person in all of this is the patient. Since we launched the national conversation on the future of the NHS with the Prime Minister a few weeks ago, I’ve been struck by how loud the patient voice has been during the exercise. It’s almost the inverse of my experience in my average working day.

    Popular and familiar ideas – like allowing patients to choose where and when to be treated, making it easier to rearrange appointments and grouping tests and scans together in one visit to save time – rarely pass the lips of most people of the people who walk through my door with something to say to me.

    I said in opposition I would be the patients’ shop steward. Now I’m in government I’m here to be the patients’ champion.

    They will be at the heart of the 10-year plan next year, their priorities will be reflected in a new NHS mandate shortly and when the elective recovery plan is published in the coming weeks you’ll see that greater choice and control is at the heart of it.

    We start from a low bar and we’re not going to change the experience overnight, but the direction is clear: patients should be able to choose where we’re treated and when. The ease and convenience with which we organise most of our lives – and the best performing providers allow us to organise our health care – should be available to everyone, in every part of the country. That’s why I welcome Amanda’s announcement yesterday about the new ‘ping and book’ service for breast and cervical cancer checks.

    Power to the patient is my mantra and it needs to be yours, too.

    Finally, right now, I know that many of you are feeling battered and bruised.

    I know it won’t be easy to turn the tide, but my message to you today is a message of hope.

    The Prime Minister pledged the biggest reimagining of our NHS since its birth.

    And it falls upon all our shoulders to deliver this – the jewel in the crown of this government’s decade of national renewal.

    The challenge is huge. But the prize is enormous.

    And the change has begun.

    The package of reforms I’ve announced today is how we will get more out of the NHS for what we put in.

    This is how we will make sure the investment announced in the budget delivers real change for patients.

    This can only be a team effort, based on a shared national mission, to recover and renew our National Health Service.

    You have dedicated your careers to public service and I know that, among you, I am not alone in the scale of my ambition.

    To coin a phrase, we are in this together. The NHS is already living on borrowed time.

    If we get this right, we can look back on our time with pride and say we were the generation that took the NHS from the worst crisis in its history, got it back on its feet and made it fit for the future.

    Many of you in this room have done it before. We can do it again.

    Thank you very much.

  • Keir Starmer – 2024 Statement at COP29

    Keir Starmer – 2024 Statement at COP29

    The statement made by Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, on 12 November 2024.

    The United Kingdom is determined to stand alongside those countries on the frontline of the climate crisis today…

    And to seize the opportunities of tomorrow.

    Because action on climate now is the route towards economic growth…

    Energy security…

    Better jobs….

    And national security in the long term.

    To deliver on the Paris Agreement…

    And keep 1.5 degrees within reach.

    In the first 100 days of my government…

    We launched Great British Energy – to create clean British power…

    We created a National Wealth Fund – to invest in the green industries and jobs of the future…

    We scrapped the ban on onshore wind…

    Committed to no new North Sea oil and gas licences….

    And closed the UK’s final coal power plant at the end of September – becoming the first G7 economy to phase out coal power.

    In line with the international agreement at COP28 to transition from fossil fuels…

    and the UK’s ambitious goal to be the first major economy to deliver clean power by 2030.

    Today I can confirm – three months ahead of deadline…

    The UK’s 2035 international target –

    Our nationally determined contribution –

    to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions by at least 81% on 1990 levels….

    Aligned with 1.5 degrees.

    And we urge all Parties –

    To come forward with ambitious targets of their own…

    As we all agreed at the last COP.

    We will work in partnership…

    to support other countries to develop their own commitments…

    And transition through our forthcoming Global Clean Power Alliance –

    And finance will be its first focus.

    We will honour the commitment made by the previous government…

    to provide £11.6 billion in of climate finance between April 2021 and March 2026….

    But we must use public finance as a multiplier…

    To unlock much more private investment…

    And reform our international financial institutions.

    Today we launch the new CIF Capital Market Mechanism, listed on the London Stock Exchange…

    With the potential to mobilise up to $75 billion…

    in additional climate capital for developing countries over the next decade.

    Putting the UK’s role as a global financial centre…

    at the service of driving the green finance and green energy transitions.

    Climate action is at the heart of this government’s mission for the protection and prosperity of Britain and the world.

    Writ large across our domestic and international priorities…

    We are taking the urgent action needed – to protect our planet and its people.

  • David Lammy – 2024 Tribute to John Prescott

    David Lammy – 2024 Tribute to John Prescott

    The tribute made by David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, on 21 November 2024.

    John Prescott was one of the giants of our party. Committed, loyal, Labour to his core. A relentless champion of working people who never forgot who he came into politics to fight for. Full of good humour and blunt common sense. Rest in peace.

  • Hilary Benn – 2024 Tribute to John Prescott

    Hilary Benn – 2024 Tribute to John Prescott

    The tribute made by Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, on 21 November 2024.

    John Prescott was a political giant who made a unique contribution to the Labour and trade union movement he loved so deeply. Authentic, funny, tough, highly skilled and, at times, unpredictable, he often used the phrase “traditional Labour values in a modern setting”. In doing so, he would reassure and inspire Party members with whom he had a great bond. He will be much missed. All our thoughts are with Pauline and his family on this very sad day.

  • Jeremy Corbyn – 2024 Tribute to John Prescott

    Jeremy Corbyn – 2024 Tribute to John Prescott

    The tribute made by Jeremy Corbyn on 21 November 2024.

    I am really sad to hear that John Prescott has passed away.

    John was a huge figure and personality, from his seafaring union days to the highest offices in Government.

    I will be forever grateful for his personal and political support in the 2017 and 2019 elections. His endless warmth and iconic wit were loved on the campaign trail.

    My deepest sympathies to John’s family at their loss. He will be greatly missed.

  • Yvette Cooper – 2024 Tribute to John Prescott

    Yvette Cooper – 2024 Tribute to John Prescott

    The tribute made by Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, on 21 November 2024.

    Such sad news about John Prescott. A campaigning Labour hero & a remarkable minister who transformed lives – upgrading millions of council homes, coalfield regeneration, tackling climate change. Fierce & warm hearted – there was no one like him. Thinking of Pauline and family today.

  • Alastair Campbell – 2024 Tribute to John Prescott

    Alastair Campbell – 2024 Tribute to John Prescott

    The tribute made by Alistair Campbell on 21 November 2024.

    JP RIP. There was nobody else like him. Tony could not have had a better deputy. Labour could not have had a better campaigner. The government could not have had a better negotiator and – yes, often, peacemaker. Hull could not have had a better MP. Of course he was combative but he had an enormous heart and a great capacity for friendship. Even with his horrible illness in later years, the old JP was always there. Love to Pauline, Jonathan and David and nothing but fond memories of a total one off who will be missed by so many.

  • Keir Starmer – 2024 Comments at COP29 in Baku

    Keir Starmer – 2024 Comments at COP29 in Baku

    The comments made by Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, on 12 November 2024.

    I am here at COP this week…

    Because this government recognises that the world stands at a critical juncture in the climate crisis.

    And the United Kingdom not only has a critical role to play…

    But also, an opportunity to grasp…

    The chance to maximise opportunities for Britain…

    And make us more secure in the here and now.

    The way I see it, there are two paths ahead:

    One, the path of inaction and delay…

    Leading to further decline and vulnerability –

    Warming above 1.5 degrees will expose hundreds of thousands more people in the UK to flood risk…

    greater economic instability…

    And national insecurity.

    Or second, the path we walk, eyes wide open…

    not just to the challenges of today….

    But also fixed firmly on the opportunities of tomorrow.

    This is the path towards national security.

    Energy independence.

    And the economic stability necessary to boost living standards for working people.

    Let me be clear.

    There is no national security…

    There is no economic security…

    There is no global security…

    Without climate security.

    And this is a huge opportunity….

    For investment…

    For UK businesses…

    For British workers…

    If we act now – to lead the world in the economy of tomorrow.

    This is how we move towards better jobs…

    cheaper bills…

    higher growth…

    the industries and technologies of the future….

    And ensure the prosperity and security of our nation for decades to come.

    And the prosperity and security of our nation are the issues the British people care about.

    And that is why, from the beginning, this government has done things differently.

    Restoring our role as a climate leader on the world stage…

    As well as taking action at home.

    In the first 100 days of this government….

    We scrapped the ban on onshore wind.

    We committed to no new North Sea oil and gas licenses.

    Began to renew those North Sea communities…

    with a programme of investment in the jobs and industries of the future.

    We closed the UK’s final coal power plant at the end of September –

    Becoming the very first G7 economy to phase out coal power.

    And at the same time – we are on a mission to achieve clean power by 2030.

    We launched Great British Energy –

    A clean British Energy company…

    To improve our energy resilience

    Bring down people’s bills…

    And create the next generation of good, well-paid jobs.

    We set up the National Wealth Fund –

    To invest in tomorrow’s key industries.

    To build the infrastructure – the wind farms, solar farms, the grid infrastructure…

    To power and connect our country for decades to come.

    Because make no mistake – the race is on for the clean energy jobs of the future….

    The economy of tomorrow –

    And I don’t want to be in middle of the pack…

    I want to get ahead of the game.

    Whether that’s with carbon capture – in Teesside and Merseyside.

    Where last month, I announced funding for Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage projects…

    That will create 4,000 new jobs – using the skills of oil and gas communities …

    As we accelerate towards Net Zero.

    Or green hydrogen –

    With investment announced in last month’s Budget…

    For 11 green hydrogen projects across Britain…

    from Bridgend to Barrow in Furness.

    This is good news for the people of Britain.

    It’s good for our businesses.

    It’s good for our country.

    And it’s good for the planet.

    So at this COP I was pleased to announce that we are building on our reputation as a climate leader…

    With the UK’s 2035 NDC target –

    To reduce all greenhouse gas emissions by at least 81% on 1990 levels.

    Our goal of 1.5C…

    Is aligned with our goals for growth.

    But a global problem also requires global partnership.

    Responsible international co-operation.

    Which is why we took the opportunity at this COP to again urge all Parties –

    To come forward with ambitious targets of their own.

    As we all agreed at the last COP.

    And through the NDC partnership, we are supporting developing countries to develop their own commitments.

    We will also soon be launching the Global Clean Power Alliance.

    A political alliance of countries committed to accelerating the clean energy transition…

    Including unlocking the private finances that are needed.

    That is why I was pleased to announce Scottish Power has awarded a £1 billion windfarm turbine contract to Siemens Gamesa…

    Part of their £24 billion investment plan to support British pioneering energy projects…

    Which will inject growth into our industrial heartlands…

    And support 1,300 local jobs around Hull…

    And produce enough clean energy to power 1 million homes.

    As well as the Clean Industry Bonus Scheme –

    To support offshore wind developers…

    Invest in cutting-edge manufacturing and ports…

    boost green jobs…

    and strengthen supply chains.

    And the launch of the new CIF Capital Market Mechanism…

    On the London Stock Exchange.

    A joint effort announced today with our international partners and the City of London…

    With the potential to mobilise up to 75 billion dollars…

    in additional climate capital for developing countries over the next decade.

    And cementing London as the world’s leading green global financial centre…

    Showing that Britain is open for business…

    And back as a global leader.

    This COP, the UK has sent a clear message.

    We are delivering on our promise for good jobs, cheaper bills, and higher growth.

    We are backing UK energy and security on the world stage.

    We are a key partner for countries, for investors and for businesses…

    And we are renewing UK climate leadership….

    To deliver for Britain.

    My mission is to make sure our country…

    and our children…

    have the prosperity…

    the security and the stability…

    that they deserve for generations to come.

    With this government, the UK will lead the way…

    And lead Britain and the world…

    into a cleaner, safer, a more prosperous future for all.

    Thank you very much.

  • David Lammy – 2024 Speech on Indigenous Peoples and Protecting Forests

    David Lammy – 2024 Speech on Indigenous Peoples and Protecting Forests

    The speech made by David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, on 12 November 2024.

    Can I just begin by saying what an absolute honour it is to be standing here as Labour’s first Foreign Secretary here at COP after 14 years out of power.

    And what a pleasure it is to be here as Foreign Secretary sharing the stage with wonderful Indigenous peoples, wonderful philanthropists, ministers – all dedicated to dealing with the climate emergency.

    It’s one of the privileges of my life to be back in power. Actually able to do something about this agenda.

    So let me just start by first saying:

    • why do I care about forest tenure rights in the first place?
    • second, why should the world care?
    • and third, working together, what we can do about it?

    The bottom line is I got into politics because I care about helping my community secure equity, equal opportunities and justice.

    I represent, in north London, the constituency of Tottenham. It’s where I’m from and it would be described traditionally as an inner-city neighbourhood in London.

    So let me just tell you a bit about my story. My parents arrived from Guyana, just on the northeast corner of South America. My father came to Britain in 1956. He was part of what we talk about in Britain as the Windrush generation. Windrush because that was the boat that people first arrived on in 1948, bringing people from the Caribbean.

    Many of them had contributed to the building of Britain after the second World War and fought during the second World War, and they arrived determined, with a gleam in their eye, for a new prospect in life.

    Over the course of that period then, I’m thinking about the community I represent because many of them faced poverty, and their families have faced poverty. Education was key. Social justice was hugely important to those communities. And, of course, coming from Guyana and the Caribbean I’m thinking about what they left behind.

    In a lecture I gave very recently in Kew, I was reminded that my father used to take me to Kew Gardens in London. I had no reason why as a child he was taking me to the other side of London to hang out in a very large park. And, of course, it was because he wanted to be close to nature. I know that now to be true. And I have committed in my own life to support the rights of Indigenous peoples.

    My wife and I are founders of a conservation centre, it’s called Sophia Point. We work on the Essequibo in the middle of the rainforest in Guyana. We work alongside Akawaio, groups of Amerindian people. Helping them preserve what is in their rainforest.

    Working with the University of Guyana. Helping them with their own rights. Assisting them – they are the custodians of the land. We have a long lease on the land. Working alongside them in a charitable effort. Understanding and wanting to be part of a community that I am originally from.

    But I guess that the other part to that story, of course, is recognising that I stand here as a Briton. We talk about Britain, the green and pleasant land. Think about Robin Hood. You’re thinking about Epping Forest and Sherwood Forest, and those wonderful forests that we have in Britain.

    The point is that all of us have a connection with nature. All of us have a history, and that, in a sense, grounds me as I come to this event. So that’s why I dedicated my first major speech as Foreign Secretary to tackling this crisis. And is why, I explained in that speech, my commitment not just to the issue and to Sophia Point but what more we could do.

    So how do we build an economic model that allows us to continue to live in harmony with nature. The most heartening aspect of what I’ve seen at Sophia Point is hearing how it works to give communities agency in their lives.

    And tenure security gives communities the right to object to environmentally damaging projects and it gives them alternative routes to sustainable livelihoods so that they can thrive as guardians of nature.

    So that’s why I care about this issue. Why should you all care sitting there?

    Well, here are just a few statistics:

    • Indigenous peoples and local communities manage and live in at least half of the world’s land
    • this land contains much of the world’s remaining biodiversity and over a third of intact forests
    • the world’s forests are declining at an alarming rate – every year, we lose an area that is just a bit larger than Azerbaijan itself
    • but the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities are protected in just 10% per cent of the land in which they reside
    • and over 1 billion people worldwide feel insecure about their rights to property or land

    Funding for forest tenure and management is sadly very low – it received less than 1 per cent of all climate finance in the previous decade, much of which went to governments and NGOs. Almost 2,000 land and environmental defenders were killed between 2012 and 2022, and research shows that these were disproportionately likely to be in Indigenous peoples.

    So the money they get to defend their rights, to be custodians, of our wonderful forest and the danger that they face in much of the world is serious and extreme. That’s why it should alert us all.

    Now in recent years, we have seen some positive steps in the right direction.

    Extended rights, with Brazil acknowledging 10 new Indigenous Territories since President Lula took office.

    We are seeing new legislation, indeed in Guyana we saw new legislation, but also places like the Democratic Republic of Congo’s law on Indigenous peoples’ rights.

    We’re seeing greater implementation, such as Indonesia’s rollout of its social forestry programme,

    And more focus from donors, with increasing engagement at events like this one.

    Still, we are starting from such a low base that there is much, much more that we need to do.

    Today’s event is about what precisely we should be doing.

    There will be lots of ideas in this room, but I want to kickstart just some ideas about how we can play a role.

    If you are a donor – whether from a government like mine or a philanthropic foundation – this is about commitment, and it’s about the long haul. Sustained commitment.

    Committing to funding for nature, committing to funding for forests, and committing for forest communities, particularly their livelihoods and their rights to protect that nature on our behalf.

    I am pleased to confirm that the UK will ensure that of our £11.6 billion in climate finance, three billion will be for nature and within that 1.5 billion for forests.

    With us today are key partners in that, our wonderful friends from Norway who have got a longstanding commitment in this area and of course the Bezos Foundation who have done so much amongst the 25 donors who, with the UK, made the IPLC Forest Tenure Pledge at COP26 in Glasgow, which assigned 1.7 billion dollars by 2025.

    I am delighted we are on track to meet that commitment and to confirm the UK will play its part, keeping our promise to provide over 10% of that funding.

    And I hope today we can talk about how we develop the next phase of that historic Pledge, next year in Brazil. To show our commitment beyond 2025, I can also announce a new 10-year programme.

    Which will provide initial funding of £50 million over 2 years to reduce illegal logging and benefit forest people.

    This builds on partnerships the UK has been forming in these communities for decades and generations, going almost back to when I first started in politics 25 years ago.

    And we are complementing this with new initiatives that invest even further in forest communities.

    A £94 million programme to strengthen forest communities’ voices in governance processes particularly for the Amazon, and a project to train local scientists in the Congo Basin.

    Now if you are a partner government like Brazil, or many others who are here today, this is also about guaranteeing rights.

    As I have said, there are some really important examples of this happening around the world.

    And I hope countries like the UK can work with you to build on this.

    This year, for instance, we launched a Land Facility programme to partner with Global South governments to develop more effective and transparent land governance systems, that better protect rural and forest tenure rights and I hope this model is one that we can continue to build on.

    Last, but not least, for Indigenous peoples and local communities, I hope this can be about seizing an opportunity.

    I recognise you have been speaking up for decades. Fighting to be heard with your own heritage, and thanks to the many Indigenous communities that I have met over the last few years, I am all too aware that there can be a powerful sense that the system is rigged against you.

    But I hope that, as quickly as possible, we can turn things around. Ensure that your rights are protected under the law.

    And that you have the tools you need to make the right choices for you, for your communities and for your environment.

    This is our goal for the next IPLC Forest Tenure Pledge. Our goal for the new programmes I have announced. But I don’t want you to take my word for it.

    We need, more than anything else, to listen to you, to hear you, and to hear how we can continue to make further improvements.

    Let me just end with one story. The community that I work with on the Essequibo coast in the rainforest of Guyana. When we were building the conservation centre, because of some of these rights issues, too often what was happening on their land is illegal mining, some of it very dirty, very disruptive to the environment.

    But communities from the Indigenous Amerindian communities finding that they had to do that because it was all they could do. The conservation centre brings new people alongside them into the environment. It brings scientists, academics, not doing helicopter science, flying in and flying out with the knowledge, but actually working with local communities on the IP, working with local university students on the IP alongside them.

    Again, that brings livelihoods to those communities. It brings documentary filmmakers and others because Guyana is a region of the top of the Amazon base and is less well known.

    So that’s what I mean about coming alongside communities, able to give them livelihoods, livelihoods based on rights and purpose that helps us all in this global fight to make sure that our forests make that contribution to our desire to meet that 1.5 commitment.

    As I say, it’s a great, great privilege to be here for my first event as Foreign Secretary in the UK. Centring of course climate within broader foreign policy and I’m very pleased now that we’re able to watch a video about why Indigenous peoples and local communities really matter.

    Thank you very much.