Labour climate chief Ed Miliband says Boris Johnson is ‘miles off’ UN climate success
- Miliband said Johnson must do the ‘hard yards of diplomacy’ if he wants any kind of success at the COP26 climate change conference in November
- Some politicians fear the United Nations’ summit is about to throw away what is seen as a last chance to tackle the climate crisis before it is too late
With just over a month until the world’s leaders meet in Glasgow for COP26, some politicians and campaigners fear the United Nations’ summit is about to throw away what is seen as a last chance to tackle the climate crisis before it is too late.
Those fears were heightened by a UN analysis of country pledges earlier this month that showed global emissions would be 16 per cent higher in 2030 than in 2010 – far off the 45 per cent reduction by 2030 that scientists say is needed.
Miliband, an ex-Labour leader who led Britain’s delegation to the 2009 UN summit in Copenhagen, said Johnson should step in to support COP26 President Alok Sharma in persuading the big emitting nations to go further and to win over developing nations by delivering on a pledge to vaccinate the world against Covid-19.
“It’s not just a photo op when he gets to speak Latin and gets to resurrect a classical myth and tousle his hair, it’s a bit harder than that,” he told Reuters in an interview at the Labour Party’s conference in Brighton, southern England.