"I’d like to begin by thanking President Biden very much
for bringing us together today in the way that he has and
for setting out the problem in the eloquent way that he did
at the beginning, and of course for returning the United
States to the front rank of the fight against climate
change.
I’m really thrilled by the game-changing announcement that
Joe Biden has just made. And I’m proud that the UK is doing
the same.
We were first country to pass legislation for net zero. We
have the biggest offshore wind capacity of any country in
the world, the Saudi Arabia of wind as I never tire of
saying. We’re halfway to net zero.
We have carbon emissions lower than at any point since the
19th century, we’re ending support for fossil fuels
overseas and doubling our international climate finance.
We’re actually speeding up because we see the obligations
for developed countries to do more, we’re legislating to
deliver 78% of the reductions needed to reach that goal by
2035.
As host of COP26, we want to see similar ambitions around
the world and we’re working with everybody, from the
smallest nations to the biggest emitters to secure
commitments that will keep change to within 1.5 degrees.
And I think we can do it. And to do it we need the
scientists and all of our countries to work together to
produce the technological solutions that humanity is going
to need. Whether it’s carbon capture and storage or solving
the problems of cheap hydrogen delivery or getting to jet
zero flying, getting to net zero flying, making sure that
we can roll out EVs properly, making sure that our homes
stop emitting such prodigious quantities of CO2, moving to
sustainable domestic living.
We can do this together across the world. It’s going to
mean the richest nations coming together and exceeding the
$100 billion commitment that they already made in 2009 and
I stress how important that is.
Plus, I think what President Xi had to say about the
harmony with nature was absolutely vital. If we’re going to
tackle climate change sustainably, we have to deal with the
disaster of habitat loss and species loss across our planet
and we want to see even more examples of government and
private industry working hand in hand as with the newly
launched LEAF Coalition to reduce deforestation and the
multi-trillion dollar Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net
Zero.
To do these things we’ve got to be constantly original and
optimistic about new technology and new solutions whether
that’s crops that are super-resistant to drought or more
accurate weather forecasts like those we hope to see from
the UK’s new Met Office 1.2bn supercomputer that we’re
investing in.
I’m not saying any of this is going to be easy. There is
obviously going to be a political challenge. It’s important
to go back to the original words of President Biden, it’s
vital for all of us to show that this is not all about some
expensive politically correct green act of ‘bunny hugging’
or however you want to put it. Nothing wrong with ‘bunny
hugging’ but you know what I’m driving at.
This is about growth and jobs and the President was
absolutely right to stress that. I want to leave you with
the thought that we can build back better from this
pandemic by building back greener.
Don’t forget that the UK has been able to cut our own CO2
emissions by about 42% on 1990 levels and we’ve seen our
economy grow by 73%, you can do both at once. Cake have eat
is my message to you.
Let’s work together on this. Let’s go to Kunming in October
and Glasgow in November armed with ambitious targets and
the plans required to reach them.
And let’s use this extraordinary moment and the incredible
technology that we’re working on to make this decade the
moment of decisive change in the fight against climate
change and let’s do it together."
