Boris Johnson has used the COP27 climate conference in Egypt to declare himself the "spirit of Glasgow".
The former Conservative Prime Minister, who resigned earlier this year following a number of scandals, is in the north African country to urge world leaders to build on the success of COP26 in Glasgow last November.
Johnson, who was speaking on the fringes of the summit, insisted he wanted to play a supportive role to Rishi Sunak, but said he would act as the guardian of the commitments made when he was Prime Minister at COP26 in Glasgow.
Sunak made a late U-turn to attend the conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, having previously suggested he would be too busy dealing with the domestic economic problems in the UK.
Speaking earlier today, Johnson said: "I am the spirit of Glasgow, that’s what I’m doing here. It’s incredible to think how much has changed since that last COP and to be frank, how much damage has been done in just one year to our great common purpose of tackling manmade climate change.
"It was only last November that we came together, that we defied some of the gloomier media expectations. We showed what we could do when humanity really worked for an agreement.
"And thanks to the wisdom of the delegations, the UN negotiators - and I would to pay a particular tribute to my old friend Alok Sharma for what he did - we got some unexpectedly sizeable nationally-determined contributions and we agreed enough at Glasgow to take 4.5 billion gigatons of CO2 out of the atmosphere."
Johnson said he was glad Sunak was at the summit, telling his audience at a New York Times event: "I'm a foot soldier, a spear carrier. I'm here in a purely supportive role and to remind the world what we did at Glasgow."
He said the present government "understands that and wants to take it forward".
Johnson continued: "The PM is here. I'm glad he is here. He made an outstanding speech the other day, he is on absolutely the right lines."
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