The prime minister made an all-too-brief appearance on the world stage on Monday after making a very public U-turn on his presence in Egypt – the same U-turn that may have left him living in Johnson’s shadow as he was forced to speak hours later. his opponent. Sunak paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II in his speech, who last year told the Cop26 summit in Glasgow that “there was always room for hope”. Echoing her words, she said: “I think we have found room for hope in Glasgow. With one last chance to create a plan that would limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees, we made promises to keep that goal achievable.” He said he believed the conference could deliver on promises and announced the UK was tripling its funding to help nations adapt to the effects of climate change. But he was unable to spell out how developed countries, which he said had been “unfairly burdened with the carbon debt of the richest nations”, would be supported. British negotiators had backed a last-minute deal to tackle compensation in countries suffering the worst effects of climate change, with Pakistan leading the push for such a pledge, according to reports. Sunak referred to the devastating floods in Pakistan but failed to take action. “I know that for many, finances are difficult right now,” he said in Sharm el-Sheikh. “The pandemic has shattered the global economy, and before coming here today, I spent the past week working on the difficult decisions needed to ensure confidence and economic stability in my country. “But I can tell you today that the UK is meeting our £11.6 billion commitment.” Hours before Sunak spoke, Johnson told a summit fringe event that Britain had pumped “an awful lot of carbon into the atmosphere” but “what we can’t do is, you know, make up for it with some sort of offsets. We just don’t have the financial resources – and no country could.” Desperate to keep his stamp on Britain’s climate commitments, Johnson said: “The best way to fix this is not to look back and try to fill in some account of loss and damage that the UK has done or other countries, but try to 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 empty” which showed he “didn’t want to be there… [and] that he has no real ambition to tackle the climate and energy crisis”. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Ed Miliband, the shadow climate change and net zero secretary, said: “Rishi Sunak is a fossil fuel prime minister in an era of renewables. This is the man who had to be dragged kicking and screaming even to get to Cop27 and who opposes plans to make Britain a clean energy superpower.” Johnson also criticized Liz Truss’ failed attempts to revive fracking in the UK. Truss had planned to lift a 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, blacked out and frozen, and, for example, we need to reopen coal-fired power stations and get 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. Now is not the time to abandon the campaign for net zero.”
