Politicians, not public, drive U-turns on green agenda, says UN biodiversity chief

Rishi Sunak with a green version of the usually red budget box at the Cop26 climate change conference in Glasgow, when the prime minister was chancellor. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

Government backtracking on environmental promises is being driven by politicians and vested interests, not the public, the acting UN biodiversity chief has said, as he called for greater support for those experiencing short-term costs from green policies.

David Cooper, acting executive secretary for the UN convention on biological diversity (CBD), told the Guardian he believed the public mood was not moving against greater environmental protections, and that vested interests opposed to action on the climate crisis and nature loss were trying to frustrate progress.