End-of-day summary
We are wrapping up the blog. Here is a refresh of a very busy day at the summit:
Keir Starmer, the UK opposition leader, has accused Rishi Sunak of “shrinking and retreating” from showcasing leadership on the global stage at Cop28 and over the climate crisis. Starmer added he he’d had a “lot of engagement” and many requests for bilateral meetings, “more requests than we can possible handle”. He added: “The prime minister said this morning we will be judged by our grandchildren not on what we said but what we did and what we didn’t do. And therefore, for the prime minister to reduce this down in the way that he does, the smallness of his politics is becoming a feature of his politics. We saw it with the Greek prime minister. We saw it with some of the lines that he was putting out about ‘eco zealots’ as he got on the plane to come here. This is not something to shrink from, not something to retreat from.”
Sunak declared to attenders of the summit that he had watered down climate policy in the UK, drawing anger from politicians and climate experts who said he had “misread the room”.
World leaders, particularly those from developing countries at the forefront of the climate crisis, called on large economies and emitters to take urgent action to reduce emissions and fund loss and damage.
A UN report found that droughts were a global emergency causing widespread famine, and that they were a silent, often ignored, killer.
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said it was not possible to tackle the climate crisis without also tackling inequality. He spoke of climate suffering in the Amazon, which was experiencing one of the “most tragic droughts in its history”, while cyclones in the south of Brazil had left a trail of “destruction and death”.
Greek people were excited that King Charles wore a Greek-motif tie and pocket square during his address to the conference – signalling – or so it has been interpreted – his support for the return to Athens of the Parthenon marbles after a row over the antiquities this week.
Speaking of the monarch, his speech was certainly more well-received than Sunak’s. Charles said alarming tipping points were being reached and that it was greatly worrying that the world was so far off track in tackling the climate crisis. “Unless we rapidly repair and restore nature’s economy based on harmony and balance, which is our ultimate sustainer, our own economy and survivability will be imperilled,” he added.
Updated
The leaders’ speeches are over and I am pretty certain Rishi Sunak is the only one to have used it as an opportunity to boast about domestic climate policy rollback. A less tone-deaf leader may have focused on the positive actions Britain has taken, and urge other countries to follow suit, rather than doubling down on our regressions. In my personal view, it is quite embarrassing and sets a bad example for other countries to follow. Why should poorer countries, which are bearing the brunt of our emissions that are causing extreme weather events, invest in decarbonising when the British prime minister will address Cop of all places to trumpet a retreat from net zero policies? It is a dangerous move to talk about the so-called costs of decarbonisation at a summit where each country is being asked to do its utmost to prevent climate catastrophe.
Below is a summary I wrote in September about Sunak’s net zero rollback to remind you of the policies we are referring to.
Updated
