Boris Johnson is ill-suited to the task of telling the world to ‘get serious’ about the climate crisis

Editorial: Opening a coal mine, most likely, spewing sewage into the rivers and cutting the tax on short-haul flights has eroded Johnson’s remaining credibility

(Brian Adcock)

On balance, Boris Johnson is ill-suited to the task of telling a six-year-old child, let alone an assemblage of presidents and prime ministers, to “get serious”. He proved the point during his silencing address to the Cop26 summit when, among other flourishes, he likened the plight of the planet to James Bond strapped to a doomsday device hurtling towards Earth.

Not so long ago, at the UN General Assembly, he was invoking Kermit the Frog in his efforts to galvanise the planet. Mercifully he didn’t organise a photo op of him stranded on a zip-wire waving Union Jacks, but he might as well have done, such are the chances of him emulating Churchill (who he borrowed from) and becoming the leader of the world campaign to tackle the climate crisis.

Opening a coal mine, most likely, spewing sewage into the rivers and cutting the tax on short-haul flights has eroded Mr Johnson’s remaining credibility just as badly as the waves are tearing chunks off the Norfolk coastline.

Others from the “home” team did rather better. The Prince of Wales skipped the gags, and captured the sense of urgency that should be infusing the conference with his statement that the world needs to be placed on “what might be called a war-like footing”.

“We need a vast military-style campaign to marshal the strength of the global private sector,” he said, “with trillions at its disposal.”

Sir David Attenborough, at 95, was also to the point, holding out the hope for the world’s young people, so badly betrayed in recent decades, that they should and could live through a “wonderful recovery” from the climate crisis. The soporific Alok Sharma, unwisely from the point of view of the organisers who might have wanted to administer an adrenaline shot to the delegates, was allotted the snoozy post-lunch slot for his own call to debate.

To keep up to speed with all the latest opinions and comment sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter by clicking here

As Sir David pointed out, the nations that have done least to damage to the world’s environment happen to be the ones who are suffering the most from the climate crisis wrought by the past industrialisation of the rich west and the emerging economies. Delegates from tiny island states in the Caribbean and the Pacific, for example, came to Glasgow to tell the powerful that they are facing extinction – and are still waiting for the funds for mitigation and adaptation they need to try and survive.

It is, though, not beyond hope. President Macron reminded the delegates that the glass is half full as well as half empty – and that the world has made some progress, initiatives have been taken, but we are only around halfway along where we need to be in terms of greenhouse gas emissions to make sure global temperatures do not exceed the 1.5 degrees centigrade rise from pre-industrial measures. If the world’s biggest polluters – America, China, industrial Europe, India, Russia and others – meet their responsibilities fully then the worst of the climate catastrophe can be averted.

The chances of that are put by Mr Johnson at 60 per cent, but if President Xi of China, absent from Cop26, can be pressured from halfway around the world, then the world can, literally, breathe more easily. Such a breakthrough looks unlikely. But if it did materialise, it would not owe much to Mr Johnson’s after-dinner speech witticisms.

The Independent has launched a petition calling on world leaders to take meaningful action on the climate crisis immediately. We want global leaders to make the decisions necessary at the Cop26 UN climate summit to agree on securing global net zero by mid-century and keeping the 1.5C target from Paris within reach. We thank you for your support.

We launch this petition as an organisation that has long recognised the gravity of the climate crisis. Pioneering, agenda-setting climate journalism has been a central pillar of our coverage for decades – acknowledging the fact that this is the defining issue of our times. And to prove our commitment to you, our readers, earlier this month we offered five pledges. To read our pledges click here