Boris Johnson’s climate pitch has left him with nowhere to hide

By positioning himself front and centre of the build-up to the COP26 conference, the prime minister is leaving himself open to scrutiny, writes Isabella Kaminski

Boris Johnson speaks during the launch of the UK-hosted COP26 UN climate summit (Getty)

The prime minister has left himself and the UK with nowhere to hide by taking a leading role in the forthcoming climate summit. Launching a “year of climate action” yesterday morning in the run-up to the COP26 conference in November, Boris Johnson attempted to position the UK as a world leader on tackling climate change and called on other countries to follow suit in setting a mandatory net-zero goal.

But the event was overshadowed by a personal attack on Johnson by Claire Perry O’Neill, the summit’s former president who was unceremoniously sacked last week.

In a letter obtained by the Financial Times, Perry O’Neill accused the prime minister of not meeting his promises to “lead from the front”. She later told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Johnson had admitted he “doesn’t really get” climate change.

Nick Mabey, chief executive of green think tank E3G, said Johnson had now stamped his authority on the summit and other world leaders would be looking to see what he did next. “The die is cast, there’s nowhere to hide. There’s no spin, no appointments that can take away from this being a British project with a prime minister whose political reputation, as well as our country’s, is on the line.

Jonathan Marshall of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit agreed that Johnson’s leadership role would be very important “because he’s ultimately going to be the figurehead of the conference. He’s going to be there hopefully delivering a big increase in ambition from across the world.”

The last international climate summit in Madrid in December was praised for successfully pulling together administrative arrangements after a last-minute venue change from Chile. But the talks failed to deliver on their key aims, leaving many to consider COP26 as the last realistic chance for countries to pledge the deep cuts in emissions to hold global heating to no more than 2C – and prevent catastrophic climate change.

The government says preparations for the summit will continue “at pace” and the role of COP president will now be a ministerial role. Former environment secretaries Michael Gove, Andrea Leadsom and Michael Howard are tipped to be in the running.

Mabey said whoever was chosen had a “daunting task ahead”, making it vital the government appoints a political heavy hitter to the role. “The diplomatic effort required from the UK government to steer these negotiations will be immense. It’s really important that someone can get on a plane and be seen to speak on the highest levels. They need to carry the authority of the prime minister.”

He added that it should be portrayed as a desirable role: “When it’s seen as a big international prize, big beasts fight for it.”

“The reason why countries were willing to back the UK presidency, despite the headwinds of Brexit, was because of our reputation of having joined-up government and a really solid climate diplomacy team backed up by strong domestic action,” Mabey said.

Nick Molho, executive director of green business group Aldersgate Group, said the government’s real test would be whether it delivers real action to slash carbon emissions in the next few months. “If you really want to be an influential host of COP26 there’s no more powerful tool than to show what you’re doing at home to meet your own net-zero target. If you’re trying to ask other people to increase their net-zero targets if you’re off track to meet yours it makes the diplomacy much trickier.”

Molho is optimistic. “A big part of the Brexit narrative was how Britain was going to go global. If Britain can’t lead on the biggest global issue of our time on the year it is hosting an international summit then that would be an enormous missed opportunity to show that Britain wants to remain a serious heavyweight player on the global stage.”