UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Tuesday said climate impacts around the world were the result of the “failures of politics” and set out plans to form a global clean power alliance.
Referring to several recent climate impacts, Lammy said: “These are not random events delivered from the heavens, these are failures of politics, failures of regulation – and frankly, failures of international cooperation.”
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A global clean power alliance could unlock global finance on a “far, far larger scale” to support countries moving to clean energy, and help to diversify the production and supply of critical minerals, he said.
It could also inject impetus into expanding grids and storage, he added, against the backdrop of London’s Kew Gardens in his first set speech since the Labour government was elected in July.
New climate finance goal
Lammy also said that work was underway to put together a global energy storage pledge to be made at the COP29 climate talks due to be held this November in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The foreign secretary also said his government is hoping for an ambitious new climate finance goal focused on developing countries at the talks.
“There is no pathway to countries’ developmental aspirations without climate resilience, action on the nature crisis, and access to clean energy. And no pathway to a sustainable future without development that leaves no one behind.”
Something had “gone badly wrong” in the UK national debate on climate change and net zero in the last few years, Lammy said, referring to roll-backs in climate policy under the previous Conservative government, including expanding oil and gas licensing and pushing back the deadline for stopping sales of new combustion engine vehicles.
Climate threat systemic
He said that the climate crisis “is not some discrete policy area divorced from geopolitics and insecurity”.
“The threat may not feel as urgent as a terrorist or an imperialist autocrat, but it is more fundamental, it is systemic, it’s pervasive – and accelerating towards us at pace.”
Reacting to Lammy’s speech, Leo Roberts, programme lead in the fossil fuel transition team at climate think tank E3G, said:
“The remarkable decarbonisation of the UK power sector opens the door for the UK to reinstate itself as an international leader on climate change, after many years of absence under the previous government.
“The Clean Power Alliance should be central to this, but it needs to show how it can drive clean power everywhere, and not just become a protectionist renewables buyers’ club for the world’s wealthiest countries.”
