Combating climate change shouldn’t be a ‘hair shirt story,’ UK prime minister says.
NEW DELHI : British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed he will attend the COP28 summit later this year as he defended his record on net zero.
Sunak told reporters traveling with him to the G20 summit in India that achieving net zero emissions “if done in the right way can be very beneficial for jobs.”
He added that he would be going to the COP28 summit starting November 30 in Dubai. There had been a question mark over his attendance given his checkered record on climate issues.
His ruling Conservative Party has sought to draw a dividing line with Labour on climate policies in recent weeks by stressing that they shouldn’t lead to increased costs for families.
Sunak told reporters in New Delhi that he did not think tackling climate change should involve a “hair shirt” approach of giving up luxuries or increasing people’s bills.
“The net zero story for me shouldn’t be kind of hair shirt story of giving everything up and your bills going up,” he said. “That’s not the vision of net zero that I think is the right one for the U.K.”
“The vision of net zero that I think commands the most support and is the right one is one that recognizes that it’s important, for our kids and our grandkids, to leave the environment in a better state than we found it,” he said.
“This is about how can we develop new technology for small modular reactors in the U.K., how can we make sure that electric batteries continue to get better and better,” he added.
During the trip, Sunak announced he would commit £1.6 billion to the Green Climate Fund fund in response to Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s call for more cash to help developing countries. No. 10 Downing Street officials said this was the biggest single funding commitment made so far by the U.K. to combat climate chnage internationally.
On taking office in October 2022, Sunak opted to skip the COP27 summit, but reversed this decision when it emerged that his predecessor Boris Johnson would attend.
Earlier this summer, Zac Goldsmith, an ally of Johnson’s who had been an environment minister, resigned from his post saying that Sunak was “uninterested” in the environment.
The U.K. is committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050.