The UK government is facing backlash from missing the UN climate ambition summit yesterday (20 September).
Last month, the Financial Times reported that Rishi Sunak was set to become the first UK prime minister in a decade to not attend the UN summit — a meeting in which the government is normally a leading member.
Sunak announced earlier this month that he wouldn’t attend the UN General Assembly due to agenda clashes.
But the Guardian revealed that if he had gone, he risked being barred from speaking at the climate ambition summit, because only countries that could demonstrate they were implementing stringent emissions plans would be allowed.
Instead, Sunak announced his plans to delay net zero policies.
Subscribe to Sustainability Beat for free
Sign up here to get the latest sustainability news sent straight to your inbox everyday
Greenpeace head of politics Rebecca Newsom said the absence is an “embarrassment” and the UK can “no longer seen as a serious player in the global race for green growth.”
Helen Clarkson from Climate Group, which organised New York Climate Week, said: “UK climate leadership is crumbling around us.
“That the prime minister has chosen New York Climate Week to water down the policies needed to meet our legally binding climate commitments is beyond me. What planet is he on?,” she added.
Also absent was US president Joe Biden, China president Xi Jinping, France president Emmanuel Macron and India prime minister Narendra Modi.
What did the leaders miss at the climate ambition summit?
At the climate ambition summit, UN secretary-general António Guterres warned country leaders that the world is “decades behind” meeting global climate targets.
Guterres warned countries must “must make up time lost to foot-dragging, arm-twisting and the naked greed of entrenched interests raking in billions from fossil fuels.”
He warned that “humanity has opened the gates of hell,” and is heading towards a 2.8°C temperature rise if nothing changes.
