Rishi Sunak has said it is “morally right” for Britain to meet its climate change commitments in his speech at Cop27, but stopped short of paying reparations after Boris Johnson said the country could not afford the luxury to do so.
The prime minister made a very brief appearance on the world stage on Monday after making a very public U-turn on his assistance to Egypt, the very investment that could have left him living in Johnson’s shadow as he was forced to speak hours later. his rival
Sunak paid tribute in his speech to Queen Elizabeth II, who told the Cop26 summit in Glasgow last year that “there was always room for hope”. Echoing his words, he said: “I think we’ve found room for hope in Glasgow. With one last chance to create a plan that would limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, we make promises to keep that goal within reach.”
He said he believed the conference could deliver on promises and announced the UK was tripling its funding to help nations adapt to the impacts of climate change.
But he failed to explain how he would support developed countries, which he said had been “unfairly burdened with the carbon debt of richer nations”.
British negotiators had backed a last-minute deal to address reparations in countries suffering the worst impacts of climate change, with Pakistan leading the push for that commitment, according to reports.
Sunak made reference to the devastating floods in Pakistan, but did not commit to action. “I know that for many, finances are difficult right now,” he said in Sharm el-Sheikh. “The pandemic has torn apart the global economy and before I came here today, I spent the past week working on the difficult decisions needed to ensure confidence and economic stability in my own country.
“But today I can tell you that the UK is delivering on our £11.6 billion commitment.”
Hours before Sunak spoke, Johnson told a summit fringe event that Britain had pumped “a huge amount of carbon into the atmosphere” but “what we can’t do is, you know, offset it with some kind of reparation. We just don’t have the financial resources, and no country could.”
Desperate to keep his stamp on the UK’s climate commitments, Johnson said: “The best way to fix this is not to look back and try to pay some bill for the loss and damage that the UK has done or other countries but to try See what the UK can do to help countries move forward and help them achieve carbon reductions and green technologies [they need].”
Labor described Sunak’s speech as “hollow and hollow” which showed he “didn’t want to be there… [and] which has no real ambition to face the climate and energy crisis”.
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Ed Miliband, the shadow climate change secretary and net zero, said: “Rishi Sunak is a fossil fuel prime minister in a renewable era. This is the man who had to be dragged kicking and screaming until and all to go to Cop27, and which opposes plans to turn Britain into a clean energy superpower.”
Johnson also criticized Liz Truss’ failed attempts to revive fracking in the UK. Truss had planned to lift the ban on fracking in England that Johnson had approved in November 2019. Sunak said last month he would maintain the ban.
“People have come to the conclusion that the whole net zero project needs to be delayed, stopped and put on ice, and for example we need to reopen the coal-fired power stations and tear the hell out of the British countryside.” Johnson said.
“I think here in Sharm is a time when we really have to face this nonsense head on. This is not the time to abandon the campaign for nothing.”