Rishi Sunak urged world leaders at the UN climate summit in Egypt to "summon the collective will" to cap a global rise in temperatures in a speech criticised by campaigners for lacking substance.
Mr Sunak, who became Prime Minister late last month, had initially said he would be too busy coming up with a plan to fix Britain's economy to attend the COP27 summit, drawing criticism from political opponents and campaigners.
Speaking to delegates in Sharm el-Sheikh tonight, he said the pandemic "all but broke" the global economy and Putin's "abhorrent war in Ukraine and rising energy prices across the world are not a reason to go slow on climate change.
Despite pressures, he said the UK is committed to paying a fair share of climate finance, saying that “climate security goes hand-in-hand with energy security” and said funding on adaptation will now be tripled to £1.5billion by 2025.
“I profoundly believe it is the right thing to do. Listen to Prime Minister Motley of Barbados as she describes the existential threat posed by the ravages of climate change, or look at the devastating floods in Pakistan where the area underwater is the same size as the entire United Kingdom.
"When you see 33 million people displaced, with disease rife and spreading through the water, you know it is morally right to honour our promises. But it is also economically right too."
But his speech caused scepticism from the summit with social justice campaign group Global Justice calling his works “tepid” and “ failed to address the scale of the climate emergency.”
Shadow climate and net zero secretary Ed Miliband said: “ Rishi Sunak is a fossil fuel Prime Minister in a renewable age. This is the man who had to be dragged to go to Cop27. You could tell that he did not want to be there from his vacuous and empty speech to leaders.”
Friends of the Earth campaigner Rachel Kennerley, said it failed to offer “adequate finance to support vulnerable nations to tackle climate change and deal with its impacts.”
The issue is set to be one of key points at Cop27, as Britain will face pressure from poorer countries worst hit by floods, droughts, hurricanes and other events caused by climate change.
It is the first time “loss and damage" has formally been put on the agenda for the first time despite resistance from wealthier countries.
Climate vulnerable and developing countries including the Maldives and Bangladesh have pushed for the foundation of a loss and damage fund.
Tina Stege, climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, said discussions are already taking place about moving people to other islands due to the impact of climate change.
Mr Sunak’s first speech at Cop27 came earlier at the launch of a new partnership to conserve the world’s forests through a funding programme covering a third of the world’s forest, marking a “moment of great hope”.
Brazil is expected to join the initiative, under the incoming president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and new funding from the public and private sector will take the spending for forest conservation above $20bn over the next five years, with the UK committing £90m today.
The moves form part of efforts to tackle emissions from land use, the second biggest driver of global heating, of which tropical deforestation is a significant component.
Mr Sunak said the partnership “is going to make nature and protecting nature a permanent feature of these Cop meetings and ensure that historical Glasgow promise is delivered.” He added:“ This is a moment of great hope for the world’s forests.”
“So let’s build on what we have achieved and together let’s secure this wondrous legacy for our children and many generations to come.”
Before the high level segment for heads of states and government was opened, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson told an audience at a fringe event that this is “not the moment to go weak on net zero” or to let Putin get away with war in Ukraine.
He warned Tories against going soft on climate change targets as he suggested that rising temperatures in Westminster may have contributed to his ousting.
But he insisted his appearance at Cop27 was not to upstage Rishi Sunak. He said: “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.”
Earlier in the day, UN secretary general, Antònio Guterres, called for a climate solidarity pact, and warned that we are on the “highway to climate hell”.
Al Gore, the US politician who did so much to raise awareness of this issue, pleaded for leaders to end what he calls “this culture of death” and argued that “Africa can be a renewable energy superpower”.
The row about oil and gas exploitation in Africa is expected to be one of the key themes of this year’s Cop. The African Energy Chamber believes that natural gas will be vital for a just energy transition, but NGO leaders such as Mohamed Adow argue that Africa must not be turned into “Europe’s gas station”.
