UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer delivered an address to assembled leaders and press at the UN’s annual climate conference (COP29) yesterday (12 November), unveiling a new, “ambitious” emissions target and highlighting climate action taken during his first 100 days in office.
Starmer said he wants the UK to become a “climate leader on the world stage”, comments made amid notable absences of many world leaders from developed nations and an impending second Trump presidency in the US.
The conference, taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan, is focused on the role of finance in facilitating climate action, with the host nation’s environment minister, Mukhtar Babayev, calling on private firms to offer greater support – without which, he said, “there is no climate solution”.
UK pledges
Yesterday, world leaders had the opportunity to address delegates. Starmer used his speech to unveil a new climate commitment: that the UK will cut emissions to 81% of 1990 levels by 2035. This reflects a more ambitious goal than the 68% cut by 2030 announced under Boris Johnson’s Conservative government.
He reviewed his own record on the environment since taking office in July, highlighting that his new Labour government has taken steps to close down the UK’s last coal-powered plant and clearing barriers to offshore wind developments.
He also echoed calls from Babayev for greater private investment in climate initiatives, while promising to maintain the public spending plan agreed under the Conservatives to provide £11.6bn of climate funding between April 2021 and March 2026.
Economic messaging
He also claimed his government’s climate plans will create new employment, saying he wants the UK to be in the “race” for the “next generation of jobs”.
Asked what these plans “would cost people”, he said that the government would hit the Clean Power 2030 target – to decarbonise the national grid system – without “dictating to people what they do” or “how they live their lives”.
There was little detail on how these plans will be achieved, with the FT reporting last month that a senior executive at the National Grid warned that Clean Power 2030 is an “incredibly stretching target” that wouldn’t be possible without substantial reform.
Reactions
Many praised the increased ambition of Starmer’s plans, but noted the pace of delivery and proportionate level of the UK response is still lacking.
In response to Starmer’s answers on how targets will be met, Greenpeace UK’s senior political advisor Rebecca Newsom said action plans submitted next year “must include details of how the UK will deliver a full phase out of oil and gas, as it has done with coal”.
She added that while the new targets showed that the PM intended to “step up” on climate, they still “fall short of the UK’s fair share”.
The Climate Change Committee’s chief executive, Emma Pinchbeck, told Sky News that, while the target was “achievable”, the government must address its progress towards meeting existing targets, on which it has “fallen behind”.
She added that the problem isn’t that “we don't have the technologies available, or that the economics don't work”; rather, it’s a lack of a “delivery plan”.
The BBC highlighted that while the plans to cut 81% of emissions by 2035 are more ambitious than the previous 68% by 2030 target, these ‘new’ figures are aligned with the UK’s existing domestic, net zero targets.
Climate leadership
Starmer said he wants the UK to become a “climate leader on the world stage”, comments made amid notable absences of many world leaders from developed nations and an impending second Trump presidency in the US.
Speaking to Politico Morning Trade, Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade director general Marco Forgione said that new US administration seems “very cynical about anything that relates to ESG or net zero”.
The Chartered Institute perspective
Assessing the bigger picture, Sandra Cooper, the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade’s customs specialist on ESG, noted the disparity between countries’ level of commitment to climate action.
While praising the way in which “achieving net zero has become a global priority”, she added that “not every country is progressing toward this goal at the same pace”.
“World leaders are expected to emphasise climate finance goals to more quickly mobilise funds aimed at supporting climate change initiatives in developing countries.
“This should be a primary focus during COP29, as it will be vital for promoting effective climate action.”
Economic threat
Experts have also warned both that the funding required to achieve global climate targets is missing, as well as highlighting the economic consequences of underinvestment.
While highlighting the human cost of natural disasters, European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde warned in an FT op-ed that greater climate investment is required to ensure global “economic survival”:
“Looking at the investment for climate adaptation, the difference between what is needed and what is planned — what we call the “financing gap” — is widening.”
She outlined the need for more funding in three key areas of “climate change mitigation, adaptation and disaster relief”.
“In other words, we must curb climate change to the greatest extent possible, prepare ourselves for what we cannot avoid and help those who are hardest hit.”
Simon Stiell, the UN’s chief climate expert, warned attending nations that the economic cost of allowing climate change to escalate would be “inflation on steroids”.
This comes as a number of incumbent governments in developing nations have been ousted for economic reasons, despite lowering their inflation figures. A period of historically high inflation, precipitated by factors such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic effects of Russia’s war in Ukraine, has led to many voters struggle with the increasing cost of living.