Starmer Pushes UK Climate Leadership as Trump Win Poses Threat

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he wants the UK to assume a “global leadership” role in fighting climate change, even as the election of Donald Trump to a second US presidential term threatens to hold back global action.

The president-elect has called climate change a “hoax,” promised an energy policy centered on the mantra “drill, baby, drill” and pledged to pull the US out of the Paris accord, the United Nations’ global treaty on climate change, just as he did during his previous presidential term. Speaking on his way to the annual UN climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, Starmer refused to be drawn on Trump’s stance.

“I’m not going to comment on his views,” Starmer told reporters on the flight to the summit. “I am very clear in mine which is that the climate challenge is something that we have got to rise to and that’s why I’ve repeatedly said we’ve got to show leadership.”

Starmer is seeking to show his new Labour government is prioritizing the fight against climate change, even after he dramatically rolled back the party’s promises on green spending ahead of the UK’s July 4 election. With many world leaders — including US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron skipping the summit —known in UN parlance as COP — this year, Starmer sees it as a chance to show Britain is leading the way in promoting green technologies and scaling back fossil fuels.

“It is very important for me to come to COP,” because it is both an “important obligation” and a “huge opportunity for the UK,” Starmer said. 

Even after slashing its promises of green spending in February to less than £5 billion a year from £28 billion, Starmer’s Labour Party fought the election - in which he won a landslide - pledging to encourage growth by leveraging green investment from the private sector. The premier is using the global summit to re-announce that initiative and additional private funding into the UK renewable sector, saying he wants the UK to be a “global leader” at attracting green investment.

Starmer is also expected to announce a new UK emissions target at the summit. The government’s adviser, the Climate Change Committee recently recommended that UK should commit to a target to cut emissions by 81% by 2035 from 1990 levels for its new nationally determined contribution, in order to help limit global warming since pre-industrial times to 1.5C . If the UK commits to it, that could require a more significant decarbonization of sectors of the British economy previously less affected by the drive to net zero — including transportation and buildings.

This year’s COP summit has seen some developing countries call for a new $1 trillion climate finance goal. Starmer said he would honor financial commitments made by the previous Conservative government through to the 2025-26 tax year, but added there would be no promises of new money from the UK to support developing countries toward their climate goals in Baku. 

“I will be making an argument powerfully that now is the time for the private sector to start paying their fair share,” he said, adding it’s “high time” they “played their part in this.”

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