Rishi Sunak Risks ‘Severe Embarrassment’, Will Not Attend UN Climate Summit

Rishi Sunak is trying to save himself from “severe embarrassment” as the UK has wavered on its commitments to net zero emissions and the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

As such, the UK Prime Minister will not be attending the UN Climate Ambition Summit scheduled for September 20 in New York. The UK foreign secretary James Cleverly and deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden will attend the UN Climate Ambition Summit instead.

The UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres had staunchly said that only countries that can show they have ambitious policies to reduce their emissions in line with the goals of the Paris agreement would be allowed to participate in the climate ambition summit. The United Nations made these terms clear to the world leaders last month.

Meeting net zero targets is not sufficient. The UN wants evidence of clear and ambitious policy measures, and commitments. It said countries could attend but not participate in the discussions. Sources said Sunak risks falling foul of the strict stipulations and face potential embarrassment. An insider said the climate summit on September 20 is invite-only. “Countries have to demonstrate progress to play. The bar is high. If Sunak wants to be in the climate photo, he needs to lead and value that this is a race and it’s a race we all must win.”

Ed Miliband, the shadow net zero secretary, said “If it is the case that Rishi Sunak has been excluded from global climate discussions, it will confirm what we in the UK already know, that he is a prime minister who is trashing the UK’s reputation of climate leadership, just like he has trashed our nation’s clean power resources.”

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Moreover, Sunak has been accused of neglecting the climate emergency and is facing increasing criticism. Former climate minister Zac Goldsmith accused the prime minister of being uninterested in the environment. “This government’s apathy in the face of the greatest challenge we have faced makes continuing in my current role untenable.”

At the Summit later this month, government leaders will present updated pre-2030 Nationally Determined Contributions, updated net-zero targets, energy transition plans with commitments to no new coal, oil and gas; fossil fuel phase-out plans; and more ambitious renewable-energy targets; Green Climate Fund pledges; and economy-wide plans on adaptation and resilience.