Rishi Sunak needs to make time for the climate crisis – before it’s too late

Editorial: Under the new prime minister, with his strange reluctance to take a lead on behalf of the ‘global Britain’ he and his fellow Brexiteers used to trumpet, the British voice is muted and missed

29 October 2022 (Dave Brown)

Rishi Sunak has built up a reputation as a hard worker and a fast learner. The premiership is a test for even the most capable of individuals, but it is difficult to believe that the prime minister couldn’t carve out a little time from his busy diary to show up at the forthcoming Cop27 summit in Egypt. It might not be the most urgent of tasks confronting him but, given the transcendent importance of the climate crisis, it is surely the most important – a distinction he’ll understand.

As things stand, the UK delegation will be led by Alok Sharma – the retiring president of the Cop26 session held in Glasgow – and Therese Coffey, the new environment secretary. Neither, for all their qualities, has the status and clout of the other busy world leaders who have taken the opportunity to try and create some fresh momentum in troubled times. If the likes of Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron can spare the time, then so can Mr Sunak.

It might have been some consolation if the King were permitted to attend. But, having been denied a chance to attend by Liz Truss, Mr Sunak now also deems it inappropriate. That is a pity, to say the least. It is true that there are still many climate deniers who regard the overwhelming scientific evidence of global warming as “just weather”, and that the issue isn’t as consensual as many would wish. Yet one function of the monarch, demonstrated over decades if not centuries, is to promote the national interest and act on the advice of their government to bolster diplomatic efforts to that end.

The King’s long record as an environmentalist would add great heft to the British effort to persuade others – including rainforest guardians such as Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Indonesia – to do the right thing. It seems that will not happen, and the UK – for so long a leader on the environment – is quietly relinquishing that role by despatching relatively low-level and unknown ministers to Sharm El-Sheikh.

It is a remarkable turnaround. It was after all Margaret Thatcher, a scientist by training, who was one of the first world leaders to highlight the danger of global warming, and what we now recognise as the climate crisis in her landmark speech to the United Nations. It declared that “the main threat to our environment is more and more people, and their activities: the land they cultivate ever more intensively; the forests they cut down and burn; the mountainsides they lay bare; the fossil fuels they burn; the rivers and the seas they pollute”.

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Britain was a prime mover in the first Earth Summit in Rio in 1992; the first nation, under Theresa May, to place a net zero target into law; and under Boris Johnson we argued strongly for urgent global action. When Britain headed Cop26 under Mr Sharma, with Mr Johnson playing host, virtually the whole royal family showed up, and the Queen sent a video message telling the states people assembled that “the time for words has now moved to time for action”. That was “political”, but not party political, and broadly welcomed by all. Why her son cannot express the same sentiments is a mystery; perhaps the climate deniers on the right of the governing party would deem it offensive.

Now, under Liz Truss – who was so keen to burn more fossil fuels – and Mr Sunak, with his strange reluctance to take a lead on behalf of the “global Britain” he and his fellow Brexiteers used to trumpet, the British voice is muted, and missed.

Global action led by advanced economies such as the UK, with its network of connections, is still lacking, and indeed has been thrown into reverse by the energy crisis inflicted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, warns: “Global and national climate commitments are falling pitifully short. We are headed for a global catastrophe.”

Mr Guterres is right, and Mr Sunak and the King would both agree that he is right. And yet the eccentric decision has been taken by Mr Sunak to allow Britain’s profile to sink even further in its increasing post-Brexit irrelevance. Mr Sunak should think again, and ask his diary secretary to take another look at his schedule.