This is part of what the PM said in his speech at COP28.
"First, the world needs to do more to tackle climate change. We’ve made real progress – including at the Glasgow summit but the climate science and mounting evidence of climate-related disasters show we’re not moving quickly or effectively enough. So I’m calling on major emitters to dramatically accelerate delivery on what they’ve already promised. Everyone can do more. And let’s be very clear – the UK is leading the charge.
We’re absolutely committed to our Net Zero targets. We’ve already decarbonised faster than any other major economy. Our emissions are down 48 percent since 1990. Compared to limited cuts from others. And a 300 percent increase from China. We’re also one of the largest climate donors, because we want to help those suffering the impacts of climate change. My pledge from September of £1.6 billion for the Green Climate Fund was the UK’s biggest single climate change commitment. And we’re going further announcing £1.6 billion today for renewable energy, green innovation and forests delivering on the historic Glasgow deal to end deforestation – because we can’t tackle climate change without nature. We’re also leveraging the genius of the City of London to deliver billions more in private finance. Again the UK is leading by example… and we need others to step up.
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We’ll support nature across the UK. Just this week I announced a huge new effort with 34 landscape recovery projects, a new national park – and more. And we’ll harness the opportunities of technology and green industry to deliver net zero in a way that benefits the British people. And today I can share more proof on the progress we’re making. I’m pleased to announce a new deal between Masdar and RWE which includes a commitment to jointly invest up to £11 billion into the UK’s new windfarm at Dogger Bank – which will be the biggest in the world. This is a huge boost for UK renewables creating more jobs helping to power 3 million homes and increasing our energy security. And, by the way, this comes just days after we announced £30 billion of investment at our Global Investment Summit… and £21 billion of investment from South Korea. We’ve quite frankly never seen a week like it."
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I know that this will have been greeted with a rolling of eyes, much ffing and blinding, and general despair, but it's what leaders do when they go to jamborees like COP28. The big up what they can claim and down-play what they cannot. So much is par for the course. But it was his other point that interested me:
"... my second message is this. As I said in September, we won’t tackle climate change unless we take people with us. Climate politics is close to breaking point. The British people care about the environment. They know that the costs of inaction are intolerable. But they also know that we have choices about how we act. So yes we’ll meet our targets but we’ll do it in a more pragmatic way, which doesn’t burden working people. We’ve scrapped plans on heat pumps and energy efficiency, which would have cost families thousands of pounds. We’ll help people to improve energy efficiency and cut bills – but we won’t force them to."
Heresy you might think or apostasy at best.
I think that this is big difference between the two main political parties in the UK parliament which is bound to feature in the coming election. Whether it will make a difference is another matter. If the people are paying attention (always doubtful) there's a clear difference on offer between [i] beginning with the reality that a lot of people have not got the money for expensive green projects by 2030, or [ii] starting with the ideology that we will all have to do this whether we sensibly can or not.
It will be interesting.
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