Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the UK speaking at the Global Investment Summit at the Science Museum in London on Tuesday.
In an effort to recapture momentum, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a host of measures, including plans for a huge expansion of electric vehicles, more offshore wind power and greater use of hydrogen.
LONDON — Two weeks after a global summit on climate change that one has already founded, Prime Minister Boris Johnson of UK tried to recapture momentum by announcing a host of measures to bolster his own country's push toward carbon neutrality. The British government published documents outlining plans for a more stringent and electric vehicle technology, more offshore wind power and greater use of hydrogen. But Mr. Johnson s efforts to make Britain a pacesetter on climate change could face economic and political headwinds at home. And there is little evidence that it will galvanize global action at a time when the leaders of several of the world s largest carbon emitters are expected to stay away from the two-week conference in Glasgow. India's most populous nation, Xi Jinping, is not expected to attend the event, called Cop 26, in person, and prime minister Narendra Modi has yet to decide whether he will come. She hasn't even partnered with Russia s president, Vladimir V. Putin, although Downing Street hopes he might attend.
The spotty guest list also drew criticism from Queen Elizabeth, who has never openly commented on political issues but was caught on video last week doing so at the opening of Welsh parliament. She continued: I don t know who's coming. Now, she doesn t know that she is frustrated with the leaders saying they talk, but they don t do. There is more than royal protocol at stake because, without ambitious offers from the United States and China, the Glasgow conference could fizzle, climate change experts said. Even President Johnson has turned down hopes of a big breakthrough after months of projection of confidence. Cop was always going to be extremely tough, he said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Monday. I see real action from the participants. Tom Burke, chairman of E 3 G, an environmental think tank and a former government adviser, said Mr. Johnson needs to get leaders who attend to give a strong signal to their negotiators to strike an ambitious agreement. That s the test of the prime minister: can he get his peers to give the high ambition signals he is asking for; he s not going into this with much capital, Mr. Burke said, referring to cuts in Britain s international development aid and the country's adversarial relationship with the EU post-Brexit. Britain has a legitimate claim to have lead the world over climate change, the question is whether the prime minister has enough guns with his peers, he added. President Biden plans to visit Scotland, but his climate agenda is at risk of being radically moved back in the budget wrangling on Capitol Hill. Sen. Joe Manchin III, the Democrat from West Virginia who has vital votes to prevent the passage of legislation, has opposed the White House signature clean-electricity initiative that would replace coal and gas-fired plants with wind, nuclear and solar power. White House officials are now rewriting the legislation with other measures that could cut carbon emissions. But with less than two weeks before conference begins, Mr. Biden is likely to arrive in Glasgow without something concrete to offer.
They included a pledge to support in 90 billion pounds of private investments, or about $124 billion, of green energy to promote a green energy transition that would support 440,000 jobs by 2030. That would help Britain to meet its goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 to a level 68 percent below 1990 levels, then delivers a decarbonized economy by 2050. Britain wants to end its reliance on fossil fuel electricity by 2035 if possible and, along with wind and other renewable energy, the government plans to secure financing for at least one new nuclear plant by 2024. Britons will be offered a subsidy to upgrade heating systems and the move from gas to more expensive heat pumps and there will be more cash for tree planting. Environmental groups said that the plans did not go far enough. Extra cash for tree planting and progress on electric vehicles doesn't make up for the lack of concrete plans to deliver renewables at scale, extra investment in public transport, or a firm commitment to end new oil and gas licences," said Rebecca Newsom, head of UK politics with Greenpeace.