UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak tells world leaders Britain is keeping its promises on climate action.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak used his speech at the Cop27 summit to say that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine and rising energy prices are reasons to “act faster” on climate change.
Mr Sunak said it was morally right to deliver on promises in tackling climate change, but also economically right, reducing energy dependency and providing new jobs and growth.
At the start of the summit, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that the world was “on the highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator”.
“We are in the fight of our lives and we are losing, with greenhouse gases still increasing and temperatures still rising,” Mr Guterres said.
He said that while the world’s attention is gripped by the war in Ukraine — prompting energy, food and cost of living crises — and other conflicts: “Climate change is on a different timeline and a different scale.”
“It is the defining issue of our age,” Mr Guterres said. “It is the central challenge of our century. It is unacceptable, outrageous and self-defeating to put it on the back burner.”
“Today’s crises cannot be an excuse for backsliding or greenwashing.”
