UK names first climate security envoy as PM warns climate consensus has gone

Campaigners urge only G7 leader at COP31 to match words with action

Prime Minister Andy Burnham warned world leaders at the COP31 climate summit in Turkey that the consensus on science and climate change has “gone” — but said the UK was ready to begin a “new era of British leadership” on the issue. In the same Thursday speech, he announced Dame Madeleine Alessandri, the former head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, as the UK’s and the world’s first climate security envoy. Burnham was the only G7 leader to address this year’s conference.

“The consensus we once enjoyed on science and climate has gone, and the reality is now the world will reach 1.5 degrees,” Burnham said. The line was an almost word-for-word repeat of Sir Keir Starmer’s address to last year’s summit.

Burnham opened his speech by describing the heat the UK endured this past summer. “It was not normal,” he said — the heat was the hottest on record, made 130 times more likely because of climate change, according to the Met Office. Hundreds of schools were closed, cereal harvests were down 11%, and ambulance services were inundated with calls beyond levels seen during the Covid-19 pandemic. Record wildfires this summer also destroyed homes in the West Midlands.

Citing the threat to people’s health and homes, the prime minister said he was creating the UK’s — and the world’s — first climate security envoy: Alessandri. “Climate change and nature loss are increasingly shaping the security environment in which the UK operates,” she said, adding that this was “placing additional pressure on resources, economies and communities around the world.”

The appointment will be seen as a strong indication of the focus of the UK’s priorities when it takes up the G20 presidency next year. The current president, the US, has been a notable absentee from the COP process over the last two years, since President Trump withdrew the country from the Paris Climate Agreement.

Professor Lord Nicholas Stern, who identified 20 years ago that unchecked climate change could cost the global economy up to 20% of GDP, praised the speech. “The Prime Minister was right to identify climate change as a threat to security around the world, and the importance of investments in clean electricity generation as the best way of protecting households and businesses from the high prices and volatile markets for fossil fuels,” he said.

On tackling the causes of climate change, Burnham said his government remained committed to meeting the UK’s target of net zero by 2050 while also getting bills down. He said the key was cutting the country’s “dependence on fossil fuels” and increasing electrification — the share of energy needs met from renewable electricity. The main driver of rising global temperatures has been the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, largely caused by burning fossil fuels.

Turkey, a co-host of COP31, wants a key outcome of this year’s summit to be a commitment by countries to meet 35% of their energy supply from electricity by 2035. The current share is around a fifth.

Environmental campaigners at the summit, however, said the prime minister had to back up his words with stronger actions, accusing him of double standards. “The Prime Minister simply cannot call for clean power across the world while saying yes to more fossil fuels in the UK,” said Beth John, climate adviser at Oxfam. Last month, the government approved the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea on the grounds that it provided energy security. In the budget, also last month, Chancellor John Healey announced a funding cut to the Warm Homes Plan, which provides grants and loans to support the installation of heat pumps. Critics say those decisions, along with the government’s continued support for Heathrow Airport’s expansion, have weakened its green credentials.

There has also been media speculation this week that the government is considering watering down electric car sales targets, although the government insists no decision has been made. Switching petrol and diesel cars to EVs and moving from gas boilers to electric-powered heat pumps are key ways to reach the 35% electrification target.

There was no royal presence at this year’s conference, but King Charles III sent a message ahead of Burnham’s speech. “As the world gathers for Cop31, I can only hope that this same spirit of partnership and common purpose can help inspire the collective action that our planet – and future generations – so urgently need,” the king said, adding: “Our children and grandchildren will not judge us by the promises we made, but by what we chose to do.”

Burnham was the only G7 leader to speak at this year’s conference — a sign of faltering support for the COP process that he acknowledged in his speech. Others expected to speak on Thursday included many island states, such as Tonga, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands. For those nations, the impact of climate change is already at the front door: with most of their land just metres above sea level, rising water levels have caused many residents to abandon their homes in recent years.

Last year, Australia — the summit’s co-host — opened the world’s first climate visa for Tuvalu citizens wanting to evacuate. The first intake was massively oversubscribed, with more than a third of the population entering the ballot.

Average sea levels are expected to keep climbing — and potentially to accelerate — as glaciers continue to melt and oceans expand. The World Meteorological Organisation said on the opening day of the conference that global mean sea level was at its highest level since records began.