Category Archives: climate crisis

As COP29 Begins, Are We Losing Faith In The World’s Largest Climate Summit?

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The United Nations’ 29th annual summit on tackling climate change has just begun in Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku – but have we lost faith in it?

The meeting, known as COP29, is intended to facilitate urgent, global cooperation on climate change, and governments are meant work together to keep environmental warming to 1.5C on pre-industrial levels.

This year, negotiators from nearly 200 countries are looking to hash out a climate finance deal in an effort to fund poorer countries who are still struggling to go green.

But, almost three decades since the climate summit began, scientists are still sounding alarm and pleading for more action from governments while previous agreements hang in the balance.

Brits do not have high expectations for COP29

According to the latest YouGov poll, just 9% of Brits are feeling optimistic, saying it’s either very likely (1%) or fairly likely (8%) that COP will result in significant action to tackle climate change.

A whopping 73% have a more pessimistic view, saying it’s either fairly (44%) or very unlikely (29%) to result in anything noteworthy.

While 53% of Brits think there’s a chance summits like COP could offer significant progress on tackling the threat to the environment, they also said there are plenty of other methods which might be more important.

For instance, 78% think the development of cleaner and more environmentally friendly technologies is one of the most important ways to tackle climate change, and 71% think encouraging companies and corporations to promote more environmentally friendly practices is key.

A further 68% believe trade deals which encourage countries to cut carbon emissions are essential, while 59% think more UN action of the environment would have a significant impact.

More than half (59%) also believe pressure from the public for governments to act is essential for the fight against climate change.

Temperatures continue to soar, despite years of warnings

There’s no doubt that some COP summits over the years have achieved significant deals between countries at their close.

The meetings have established an annual platform for climate change discussion, secured international promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, created the Paris agreement, pledged to move away from coal and vowed to help developing countries which are especially vulnerable to climate change.

But, as the specialists warns that 2024 is set to be the warmest year on record, it’s hard not to escape the sense of hopelessness that comes with the 29th COP talks.

Even panicked warnings from scientists that we will exceed the 1.5C limit in 2029, and harrowing words from UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres – such as “the era of global warming has ended” and “the era of global boiling has arrived” – have not triggered drastic action from the world’s governments.

That’s because the world has been too slow to reduce carbon emissions.

In fact, some scientists believe the path to limit global warming to 1.5C has already disappeared.

YouGov also found 17% of Brits think it is too late to avoid the worst effects of climate change – up six percentage points on 2019 – while 57% of those surveyed think the UK can still avoid the worst effects of climate change, but it would take drastic action.

Meanwhile, climate disasters continue to destroy communities around the world – just last month, Spain was hit with intense flooding leading to more than 200 deaths.

Emergency services remove cars in an area affected by floods in Catarroja, Spain, on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024.
Emergency services remove cars in an area affected by floods in Catarroja, Spain, on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024.

via Associated Press

Donald Trump’s impact this year

The 2015 Paris agreement was meant to a pivotal moment as almost 200 countries signed the deal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

But Trump pulled the US out of the agreement when his term began in 2017, even though the country is the second largest emitter in the world.

Joe Biden signed the US back up in 2021, but, now Trump has been re-elected, he is expected to pull the country out once again when his second term starts.

The Republican president-elect has also promised to increase US oil and gas production, even though it is already the largest in the world.

China is currently the world’s largest greenhouse gas polluter, but even the country’s top climate envoy Liu Zhenmin told journalists on Monday that Beijing is “concerned about the United States after the election”.

Liu said: “Everyone’s concerned about he next steps, whether after the US election, US climate policy will or won’t change. But most [COP] colleagues still feel that regardless if a country’s climate policy changes or doesn’t change, international multilateral climate cooperation should continue.”

Keir Starmer’s spokesperson would not be drawn on whether the UK was concerned over Trump’s potential changes to US climate policy on Monday, only saying they were waiting for the new administration to get into power first.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump is reflected in the bullet proof glass as he finishes speaking at a campaign rally in Lititz, Pa., Nov. 3, 2024.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump is reflected in the bullet proof glass as he finishes speaking at a campaign rally in Lititz, Pa., Nov. 3, 2024.

via Associated Press

Other leaders’ absence

While around 100 world leaders have said they plan to visit COP29 within the first three days of the 11-day conference, there are concerns that too many heads of state might just skip it.

After all, Starmer is one of only two G7 leaders who will be speaking at the summit.

Outgoing US president Biden will not be present, nor will his successor Trump, although an American contingency will still attend the negotiations.

French president Emmanuel Macron will not be there due to tensions with Azerbaijan’s conflict with Armenia, while German chancellor Olaf Scholz will also miss the summit after his ruling coalition fell.

The EU delegation will be a bit thin too and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen abstained as the EU parliament is in a state of transition.

Despite being very vulnerable to the effects of climate change, Papua New Guinea will not be attending either with the country’s prime minister James Marape saying it was a “total waste of time” with “empty promises and inaction”

Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, is also unlikely to attend, as is China’s president Xi Jinping.

COP26 president, Sir Alok Sharma, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think it is disappointing that we don’t have more world leaders coming to this Cop and, I mean, Keir Starmer is coming, and I think that’s great. It’s showing UK leadership.”

But, he continued: “What also matters is what all of these countries and the delegations actually announce in terms of the pledges, and also, really importantly, what progress has been made in implementing … existing climate commitments.

“Ultimately those detailed negotiations are led by ministers rather than heads of government, so those ministers are obviously coming. Some of them are already here, so we’ll have to see what progress they managed to make.”

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2023 And 2022 Were The UK’s Hottest Years On Record, Met Office Says

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2023 was the second hottest year since records began in the UK, according to provisional data from the Met Office, with the hottest year still being 2022.

While the UK did not experience same kind of record-breaking heatwave we saw in 2022 – and just dodged the extreme temperatures which hit southern Europe – the weather experts looked at the average mean temperature and found the climate across the two years was not too different.

2023 had a provisional mean temperature of 9.97C, while 2022′s average mean was 10.03C.

The third highest temperature for the UK was not very long ago either – it was in 2014, when the average of 9.88C. In fact, all of the ten warmest years in the UK have occurred since 2003.

The last year was also the warmest year for a minimum temperature, according to the Met Office, and was ranked the second warmed for Central England Temperature – that’s the world’s longest instrumental series dating back to 1659.

When just looking at Wales and Northern Ireland, they had their hottest year ever, while Northern Ireland had its wettest year since 2002.

Eight of the last 12 months were warmer than average for the UK, particularly June – the hottest for the UK on record – and September, when temperatures peaked at 33.5C on September 10.

As the Met Office pointed out, human-induced climate change is behind this.

2023′s temperature would have been around a 1-in-500 year event in a climate unaffected by humans – that’s a 0.2% chance of reaching the same temperature each year.

But, due to human’s carbon emissions, there’s now a 33% chance of reaching that mean temperature each year.

By the end of this century, that likelihood could increase to 79%.

And we already know the damage it is doing to the UK environment and biodiversity – the iconic oak tree is also under threat due to the changing temperatures.

The UK was not alone in seeing temperatures rise last year – 2023 is expected to be the hottest year globally.

Meanwhile, CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere are also at their highest for at least two million years, according to the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change.

Met Office senior scientist Mike Kendon said: “The observations of the UK climate are clear.

“Climate change is influencing UK temperature records over the long term, with 2023 going down as another very warm year and the second warmest on record.

“Had the 2023 value occurred during the 20th Century, it would have been, by far, the warmest year on record.”

Of course, the climate crisis isn’t just about rising temperatures.

As Kendon said: “A warmer atmosphere has a greater capacity to hold moisture, so as our climate warms, we expect it to become wetter too and, while there is a large amount of annual variability, that trend is also apparent in the observations.”

We saw 11% more rain than average in 2023, with the UK’s sixth wettest March, July and joint-sixth wettest October, especially after storms like Babet and Ciaran.

December was also a particularly gloomy month – some counties in the UK only enjoyed around one hour per day of sunshine in December, according to the Met Office.

In fact the UK had just 27.9 hours of sunshine across the whole month.

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Bewildered By Language Used In COP28? 5 Key Climate Terms, Explained

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The largest climate summit of the year began this week amid hope that world leaders may actually agree to an effective deal to target the environmental crisis.

The 28th Conference Of Parties – COP28 – is being held in Dubai, UAE, this year, and will run from November 30 to December 12.

Activists are looking for governments to agree for a more equitable management of the environment this year, as extreme weather hit almost every part of the planet over the last 12 months.

What’s decided at COP28 could therefore be very consequential – but it can be hard to understand what’s happening through all of the jargon.

So here’s a breakdown of some of the phrases we can expect to see this year.

1. Abated fossil fuels

The abatement of fossil fuels does not have an official definition, but is loosely meant to describe reducing use of the carbon-spewing resources.

It pops up regularly in climate commitment plans – it turned up seven times in the April G7 summit’s final statement – but the exact definition has not been spelt out by governments.

According to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it often alludes to the controversial practise of carbon capture and storage.

Critics see that as a means for the fossil fuel companies to continue selling the product, and it has been widely described as a delay tactic which stops companies from having to phase out fuels.

Supporters of abatement argue that this is needed for the foreseeable future, as the planet is not even close to phasing out fossil fuels altogether.

2. Climate finance

The UN describes climate finance as “local, national or transnational financing—drawn from public, private and alternative sources of financing—that seeks to support mitigation and adaptation actions that will address climate change”.

Effectively, developed nations promise to pass some funds onto developing countries that have fewer resources to defend against the climate crisis.

COPs have repeatedly agreed to pass more finances onto other countries since 1992.

Back in 2009, the parties agreed to share $100 billion a year from developed countries to developing countries by 2020, but this target was missed.

This year’s COP will see countries debate several controversial elements of climate financing: how the finance is allocated; how much goes to adaptation; and how much goes to loss and damage.

3. Carbon pricing

Carbon pricing ties the cost the public ends up paying for greenhouse gas emissions – from crop damage to sea level rise – to their sources through a price, according to the World Bank Group.

This usually means putting a price on the amount of CO2 emitted, in an effort to put the carbon burden back onto the producers of the fossil fuels, while also boosting revenue to help the environment.

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in her opening remarks that there must be a “price on carbon”.

She said: “Carbon pricing nudges the private sector towards innovation. It makes heavy polluters pay a fair price. And the revenues can be reinvested in the fight against climate change, in innovation and in a just transition.”

Activists march with a Just Stop Oil banner during a demonstration in Trafalgar Square.
Activists march with a Just Stop Oil banner during a demonstration in Trafalgar Square.

SOPA Images via Getty Images

4. The UN Global Stocktake (GST)

This is a measure for countries (and other stakeholders) to see where they’re collectively making progress toward meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement, according to the UN.

It describes this as a “critical turning point” when it comes to addressing climate change, and akin to “taking inventory”.

The first ever global stocktake is going to conclude at the end of COP28, and will take place every five years after that.

It’s likely to be pretty damning considering scientists have warned we are still a long way off limiting global temperature change to 1.5C compared to pre-industrial levels.

“Governments will take a decision on the global stocktake at COP28, which can be leveraged to accelerate ambition in their next round of climate action plans due in 2025,” the UN said.

The GST is also meant to inform future NDCs.

5. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)

These are the pledges at the centre of the Paris Agreement, and they’re unique to each country. They are submitted every five years to the UN – so the next ones will be due in 2025.

Each nation tries to see how it can reduce national emissions and adapt to climate change by taking these actions.

The UN understands these targets will be harder for developing countries to achieve, so emission reduction is “undertaken on the basis of equity, and in the context of sustainable development as well as efforts to eradicate poverty”.

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First A Heatwave, Now Floods – What’s Going On With The UK’s Climate?

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British weather has definitely taken a more terrifying turn over the last few months in particular – but just what is causing these sudden fluxes in the climate?

A record-breaking heatwave in July saw the temperature reach an astonishing high of 40.3C, while a longer, albeit slightly cooler, heatwave swept over the UK just a month later.

Now, there are forecasts of rain and thunderstorms which could cause further disruption, with flood alerts issued across multiple regions.

While this is obviously caused by the climate crisis, here’s everything you need to know to understand how it is really affecting our day to day lives.

PA Graphics via PA Graphics/Press Association Images

What caused the hot weather?

The extreme weather which spread across the UK in July was caused by a surge in continental air and August’s heatwave has been caused by a “stubborn area of high pressure sat over the UK”, a Met Office spokesperson told HuffPost UK.

A heat-health alert from the UK Health Security Agency is also still in place until 9am on Tuesday.

The heatwaves have made the UK so dry, that an official drought was declared in eight areas of England on Friday by the National Drought Group.

Welsh Water, Southern Water, and South East Water have brought in hosepipe bans too, while Yorkshire Water and Thames Water are planning to bring them in soon.

The Met Office also believes, despite the coming rain, this summer will be remembered as a particularly dry one.

The chair of the National Fire Chiefs Council, (NFCC) Mark Hardingham said: “I can’t remember a summer like this and I’ve been in the fire service 32 years. We are not going to see temperatures as hot as we saw three weeks ago but that doesn’t matter because the ground couldn’t get any drier than it already is.”

Will there be rain?

Not just rain, but storms too. Locations in Northern Ireland and Scotland are already seeing thundery skies, meaning the Met Office has issued some yellow thunderstorm warnings. Storms are expected to hit the south by Wednesday.

Three days of heavy rain are expected in total, potentially accompanied by hail, sweeping in an eastern direction across the country.

The Met Office expects to see at leat 50mm of rain in two or three-hour periods in a few regions, putting low-lying roads and areas next to sloping fields at risk.

But, the rain recorded from the rest of the summer in parts of southern and central England is less than a quarter of what is usually expected in a British summer.

By Thursday, high pressure will have pushed into the UK and so it will stay mostly dry.

Is this rain good or bad?

Well, there hasn’t been substantial rainfall since June in many southern regions.

But there are fears that the intense dry spell – lasting several weeks now – means the land is too dry to absorb the rainwater.

There could therefore be flash flooding, but the rain will do little to ease drought conditions. The thunder could could cause power cuts too.

However, rain does still reduce the threat of wildfires which have strained UK fire services over recent months.

The Met Office’s Dan Stroud said what we really need is “an extended period of light rain, an average or slightly above average autumn”, along with a winter where constant light rain recharges the ground.

Discussing the upcoming downpour, Stroud said: “It will help a little but to be honest really, it’s almost the wrong kind of rain. What we’re likely to see is some heavy, intense downpours.

“With the ground baked so dry, it’s very difficult for the ground to actually absorb the water very quickly… so what tends to happen in these circumstances is the water runs off, and we can potentially get some surface run-off issues, so some flash floods.”

Why is our weather changing so quickly?

Short answer: climate change.

In terms of why this week in particular seems so dramatic, meteorologist Stroud said the drastic changes stem from an alteration in air pressure.

Stroud said: “We’ve had a number of days now where we’ve had clear, strong skies and strong sunshine which has heated up the ground.

“We’ve had high pressure dominating, now we’re having low pressure dominate, so the air is becoming more unstable.

“As we’ve had some very high ground temperatures, it doesn’t actually take too much for the air to become even more unstable and for thundery showers to develop quickly.”

Is this a one-time thing?

Probably not. The climate crisis is not going anywhere, and is actually getting worse, as our atmosphere continues to heat up.

Temperatures are expected to decrease to a more normal level in August, but that doesn’t mean we can’t expect similarly searing heat next summer.

As professor Hannah Cloke, a natural hazards researcher at the University of Reading told the i newspaper: “With average temperatures rising across the UK, we have to shift the definition of what ‘particularly hot’ is, otherwise that definitely becomes increasingly meaningless.”

She said the UK needs to change how we define a heatwave, as rising greenhouse gas emissions mean higher temperatures are more common now than they were over the last two decades.

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Finally, Some Good News From Australia’s Great Barrier Reef

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The climate news of late has been terrifying. Volcanic eruptions, heatwaves and drought, to name just a few.

But, amid all the anxiety-inducing headlines, there is a spot of hope – Australia’s Great Barrier Reef appears to have recovered, ever so slightly.

What happened to the reef before?

The world-heritage site has been suffering from mass bleaching, essentially killing the coral which grows there.

Mass bleaching typically happens when delicate coral polyps are effectively cooked by unusually warm waters. When coral is bleached, it turns white, although it can recover if water temperatures return to normal.

However, if the warm water stays for too long – often a consequence of the climate crisis – large areas of the reef can die.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has explained before that bleached coral “is stressed by still alive”.

Bleaching has occurred repeatedly since 2016.

Widespread bleaching from March 2022
Widespread bleaching from March 2022

GLENN NICHOLLS via Getty Images

What’s happened now?

A long-term monitoring programme has found two-thirds of the famous reef now have the largest amount of coral cover seen in 36 years, suggesting it has recovered from previous bleaching.

The progress has occurred in the central and northern stretches of the reef, although the southern region is still struggling, according to the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences.

“What we’re seeing is that the Great Barrier Reef is still a resilient system. It still maintains that ability to recover from disturbances,” programme leader Mike Emslie said.

In the northern region, the hard coral cover soared tot 36% in 2022, up from 13% in 2017.

The central region coral cover climbed to 33% from 12% in 2019.

Both of these areas are recording the highest levels since they started being monitored in 1985.

It’s not all good, though

As with all climate news right now, we still should not be complacent.

In the southern region of the reef, in 2021 the coral cover was 38%. It fell to 34% in 2022.

Emsile told Reuters that, while the recovery of the northern and central regions is encouraging, “the frequency of these disturbance events is increasing, particularly the mass coral bleaching events”.

There has been four mass bleaching incidents in the last seven years – one of which was during a La Nina event, which is an oceanic phenomenon which brings the cooling of surface ocean waters.

Even in the areas of more reassuring growth, there are concerns it will not be sustainable. The recovery has been driven by Acropora corals, which are vulnerable to wave damage, heat stress and crown of thorns starfish.

“We’re really in unchartered waters when it comes to the effects of the bleaching and what it means moving forward,” Emslie said. “But as of today, it’s still a fantastic place.”

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is still considering whether to list the site as “in danger”. The World Heritage Committee was set to discuss the fate of the reef in June in Russia, but it has since been postponed.

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Jeff Bezos Had The Audacity To Give A Speech On The Climate Crisis And No One Can Believe It

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Chris Jackson via Getty Images

Bezos speaking at COP26 in Glasgow

The richest person in the world, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, took to the stage to push for action on climate change on Tuesday – and people could not believe their eyes.

Bezos spoke at the UN’s climate summit COP26 about how his own adventures to space just earlier this year – enabled via his private company Blue Origin – made him realise how fragile the Earth and its atmosphere is.

“Looking back at Earth from up there, [in space] the atmosphere seemed so thin. The world so finite and so fragile,” the billionaire said.

“Now, in this critical year, in what we all know is the decision decade, we must all stand together to protect our world.”

He also announced a £2 billion pledge to restore nature as part of a £10 billion Bezos Earth fund.

But the irony of his declaration was not lost on viewers, who berated him for failing to implement green policies in his own companies.

The i’s Paul Waugh pointed out that just Bezos’ journey into space would have used up fossil fuels, culminating a significant portion of CO2 emissions.

The Guardian’s political correspondent Peter Walker noted that the billionaire was “explaining the obvious” after his “massively polluting ego trip into space” which lasted approximately 10 minutes.

Walker also pointed out the irony that Bezos even had a platform at the event, noting: “He’s not the saviour, he’s the problem.”

The Financial Times’ Tim Stanley dubbed the Amazon founder’s speech as “COP26′s Marie Antoinette moment” for its insensitivity.

Columnist Nick Timothy pointed out that Bezos still had significant work to do when it comes to making his own businesses more sustainable as well.

And the furious tweets from everyone who caught his speech just kept on coming.

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Why Did World Leaders Fly Hundreds Of Miles To Glasgow? The Environment Secretary Can’t Quite Explain

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Twitter @LBC

Environment secretary George Eustice put his foot in it on LBC

George Eustice struggled to justify why world leaders had flown from around the globe to attend COP26 on Tuesday.

The UN’s summit in Glasgow has been hailed as a last-gasp bid to stop catastrophic climate change – and yet hundreds of delegations flew into the city via private jets, one of the most damaging modes of transport, seemingly undermining the very message of the conference before it even began.

LBC’s Nick Ferrari asked the environment secretary: “Do we really need somewhere in the region of 200 to 300 private jets, a motor convey for the [US] president of 22 cars and a fleet of helicopters.

“This is rather hypocritical isn’t it, secretary of state?”

“Well, look, it’s always possible to see it in those sort of terms,” Eustice replied.

“I take a slightly bigger picture view on this. We’re only going to tackle this crisis if we can get governments around the world to make the right commitments and take the necessary steps to hit them.

“Having an event like this over two weeks where the world works together on a shared endeavour is an important thing to do and that does require people to travel.”

Ferrari persisted and pointed out: “But Mr Eustice – they [world leaders] seek to lecture us – they lecture the good people of Camborne and Redruth as they arrive in convoys of 22 cars, private jets which are gobbling out goodness knows how much CO2 emissions – and they lecture us.

“It’s ludicrous – isn’t it?”

Eustice still denied that the government is lecturing the public, claiming they were actually supporting technologies and decarbonising electricity to get to Net Zero CO2 emissions.

“It’s not really about lecturing people abut how they live their lives, but it is about having the policy agenda at government level,” the environment secretary claimed.

Ferrari then suggested there could be a danger that the government is turning people against it with “this level of hyperbole”.

Eustice’s colleague foreign secretary Liz Truss also fought back over questions about the methods world leaders had travelled to Glasgow on Monday.

She told Sky News that giving up flying is not the solution to reducing CO2 emissions – even though it is one of the most polluting activities out there.

She also claimed, “it’s really important that we do have people face to face”, when asking global leaders to make serious pledges about climate changes.

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Greenpeace’s Parody Video Hits Out At The Government’s Empty Climate Promises

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Twitter @JolyonRubinstein

Satirist Jolyon Rubinstein mocked the government in a new Greenpeace video

Greenpeace UK launched a scathing video taking aim at Downing Street’s inaction over climate change on Tuesday.

Featuring satirist Jolyon Rubinstein, the video saw him pose as a government representative talking to members of the public about green initiatives.

The parody is part of Greenpeace’s campaign for “actions not words” from No.10 when it comes to addressing the pressing climate crisis.

“This government takes the climate crisis seriously. We’re committed to making Britain a beacon of a new green revolution,” Rubinstein begins.

“As long as we can agree on a very loose definition of ‘committed’ and ‘green revolution’ and actually taking the ‘climate crisis seriously’.”

He then begins to stop people in the street and, in a serious tone, asks: “Should we really be putting ourselves in a position where we’re putting the planet before profit?”

Rubinstein also took on COP26, the UN’s climate summit which will be hosted by Downing Street in Glasgow and starts on Saturday.

Both China and Russia’s leaders will not be attending the pivotal climate talks despite being two of the world’s most polluting countries.

In the video, Rubinstein pointed out: “China isn’t really doing anything is it, so why should we?”

“Listen you’ve got to be realistic, we’re committed to increasing renewable energy production while simultaneously not upsetting our fossil fuel donors,” he continued.

“If we don’t really utilise those fossil fuels, then the dinosaurs died for nothing didn’t they?”

The satirist joked about the UN’s IPCC report released back in August as well, where world leaders were warned humanity is at “code red” when it comes to the climate crisis.

He told the public – with a straight face – that this warning doesn’t count as the UN didn’t say “what shade of red” they meant.

“The real climate criminals are the ones not freezing their bread,” Rubinstein joked, to the bemusement of passersby.

This comment stemmed from a headline suggestion made by the prime minister’s COP26 spokesperson Allegra Stratton.

She claimed the public should try to help with the climate crisis by taking “micro-steps” including not rinsing dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, putting bread in the freezer to prolong its shelf life.

The comment triggered a wave of criticism because such small daily tasks do not have the same effect as the titans in the fossil fuel industry.

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Boris Johnson Swiftly Put Down After His Climate Speech: ‘Speak For Yourself Mate’

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Boris Johnson didn’t hold back when calling on the world to act against climate change – and his words definitely caused a stir on Twitter.

The prime minister spokes to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday and urged the world to “grow up” and stop “trashing” the environment.

He then pulled apart the famous saying, “it’s not easy being green” from the Muppets’ character, Kermit the Frog.

However, his past scepticism towards climate change was not forgotten by his Twitter critics.

The Independent’s Tom Peck pointed out that Johnson himself did not support the idea of climate change for ten years after Al Gore’s 2016 film, An Inconvenient Truth which looks at how humanity have damaged the Earth.

Peck added: “And now, apparently, we’re meant to take this cartoon clown  seriously.” 

Satire website The Poke did not hesitate to take aim at Johnson either, noting that he told the world to “grow up” just hours after he had flown to the US and told France to “get a grip” of its anger over the new AUKUS pact.

Even Brexiteer and former MEP Patrick O’Flynn tweeted: “Perhaps someone on the team could have look at the draft [of the speech] and told the PM: ‘Some people may react to this passage by saying ‘speak for yourself mate’.”

This was then retweeted by Alastair Campbell, former prime minister Tony Blair’s spin doctor.

Johnson wrote several columns for The Telegraph over the last two decades which undermine the idea of climate change.

In 2012 he described fracking as a “miracle”, in 2013, he backed climate change denier Piers Corbyn and questioned the phrase “climate warming”, and in 2015, he rejected the idea that warm weather in December was down to a change in the climate.

This checkered past did not escape other Twitter accounts either last night as they mocked his speech.

Some accounts noted that just the other day, he appointed former climate change denier Ann-Marie Trevelyan as his new international trade secretary.

Not everyone thought the prime minister’s words should be mocked, though.

Times Radio’s Matt Chorley tweeted that it was a “bad take” to criticise Johnson’s accurate remarks based on his past climate denialism.

Former leader of the Green Party Caroline Lucas also took note of his speech – and demanded that the prime minister’s actions now reflected his words.

She tweeted: “Good to hear PM’s new enthusiasm for climate action.

“Since Govt failing its own climate targets, I look forward to imminent cancellation of Cumbrian coal mine, Cambo oil field, £27 billion road building plan, reversal of aid cut and a #GreenNewDeal.”

She added the hashtag #WalkYourTalk.

Former London MEP Lance Forman appeared exasperated just at the idea Johnson had referred to a character from the Muppets in a serious speech on the world stage – an opinion shared by plenty of others too.

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7 Reasons Greta Thunberg Is Spot On With Her Takedown Of UK Climate Promises

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Greta Thunberg denounced the claim that the UK is a climate leading nation on Friday and said that is a “lie”.

The Swedish activist has a reputation for calling out world leaders when they don’t act on their climate promises – and it now seems the UK is in her sights. 

She attacked the claim that the UK has reduced its climate emissions by 44 percent since 1990, a comment prime minister Boris Johnson made at this year’s Leaders’ Climate Summit, and said that Downing Street is good at “creative carbon accounting” instead.

Thunberg added: “I am hoping that we stop referring to the UK as a climate leader. If you look at the reality, that is simply not true.”

Her words are particularly significant given the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has just declared the environmental crisis a “code red”.

Here’s a breakdown of the top concerns about Britain’s battle against the climate crisis.

CARL-JOHAN UTSI via Getty Images

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg poses for a photo 

1. UK Emission targets aren’t as ambitious as they seem

The UK has technically promised to cut emissions faster than other developed nations by vowing to make 68% cuts by 2030 when compared to UK emissions released in 1990.

The UK does have the 2035 target to cut 78% too, according to the 2008 Climate Change Act, and it did cut more greenhouse gas emissions between 1990 and 2016 than any other G7 country.

However, the UK’s emission figures are misleading. Britain contributes to approximately 2% of the global emissions, meaning its target cuts are unlikely to have a major impact.

The US contributes 15% to global emissions, and has promised to cut around 50% when compared to 2005 levels – meaning by 2030, the States will have had more of an impact than the UK.

Emissions for UK transport have not shifted much at all over the past decade either, and home heating emissions are still very high.

Rachel Kyte, former top World Bank official at the Paris climate talks, told The Guardian: “What the UK is doing is like dad dancing – it is not that they’re evil, just that they are very uncoordinated. They have not yet perfected a whole government approach to getting to net zero.”

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Protesters hold a banner saying climate crisis during the demonstration in Cambridge

2. Official climate advisers worry there’s no plan

The UN did actually urge more countries to follow the UK’s lead ahead of COP26, back in February.

The UK and the EU were the only two out of the world’s top 18 greenhouse gas emitters to submit plans for reducing emissions in the winter.

But, despite having a plan, there are concerns it was not thorough enough.

Chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, Chris Stark, shared his worries with Sky News in June about how the UK would reach net zero by 2050.

The government adviser said: “It is true the ambition of the country has changed in the last 12 months and this useful.

If we don’t take action now we risk falling to the back of the pack on tackling climate changeThe Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit’s Jess Ralston

“But unless it is being physically delivered, so the things that will drive us towards net zero, the changes we will see in homes, industry and transport, we can’t say we are credibly on track. The government has to change course.”

The committee advisers made 200 recommendations to Downing Street, including a Planning Bill to ensure new houses are low carbon and adapted for rising temperatures.

The committee also claimed the UK would only have to spend less than 1% of GDP a year to meet the net-zero target, and it could deliver a return boost of 2% by 2035.

The climate advisers also said the country was less prepared to tackle global warming than it was five years ago.

Stark said: “We’ve been raising our concerns consistently for some time now. [The government has] found it far too easy to dismiss those.”

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Environmental activists protest in Parliament Square against the UK’s High Speed 2 railway project as well as the Government’s failure to act on the climate and ecological crisis in October 

3. The UK is not adapting to a warmer future

The climate goals mean the world will have to adapt to an increase in temperature of between 1.5 degrees Celsius and 2 degrees Celsius in the next 80 years.

If not enough is done to reduce global warming, the average climate could rocket up to 4 degrees Celsius.

Professor Dame Julia King, chair of the Climate Change Committee, warned in June: “We cannot deliver net zero without adaptation.

“It’s absolutely illogical that we are not doing it.”

She also claimed it was a “failing” that the Treasury’s assessment did not consider the cost of adapting the nation to climate change.

Downing Street responded by acknowledging the report and saying it would examine its recommendations “closely”.

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A taxi drives through a flooded Farringdon Lane in central London after a day of heavy rain in the capital in 2021

4. Time is ‘getting a bit thin’ to make a change

The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit’s Jess Ralston said the UK needs to make an action plan ahead of the year it hosts the climate summit.

She told Sky News: “This year is the government’s chance to prove to the world that they are not just talking about this, they are delivering on it as well.

“Time is getting a bit thin.

“If we don’t take action now we risk falling to the back of the pack on tackling climate change. We also risk missing out on new life-long jobs in green industries, which are the future of the UK.”

However, the government did respond to Ralston’s complaints.

A spokesperson said: “Our forthcoming strategies on heat and buildings, hydrogen, transport and comprehensive net zero strategy this year will set out more of the very policies the Climate Change Committee is calling for as we redouble our efforts to end the UK’s contribution to climate change.”

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Heatwaves are becoming more frequent in the UK

5. Many changes are already ‘locked in’

According to the Climate Change Committee, the UK has already seen the average land temperature rise by around 12 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels.

Sea levels from around the country have risen by 16cm since 1900 as well, and extreme heat is becoming more common.

In the last five years, more than 57,000 new homes have been built which the committee believes are not resilient enough to sustain higher temperatures.

In the last three years, there have been 4,000 deaths related to heat in England alone.

Nearly 60 percent of the total risks noted by the committee were also given the highest urgency score.

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Oil rigs in Scotland

6. The UK gives a lot of subsidies to fossil fuel companies

Britain gives more subsidies to fossil fuel firms than any other country in Europe.

The government is also attempting to open a new coal mine in Cumbria, near Whitehaven, while continuing to grant new oil and gas exploration licenses.

There is an ongoing debate about the proposal to mine Cambo – an oil field in the North Sea – as well, even though it could undermine the UK’s credibility at COP26 in Glasgow come November.

This site could produce up to 880 million barrels of oil.

However, shouting down calls from activists not to open the oil field, Downing Street has said the initial exploration license was granted two decades ago.

It also claimed that if anything is extracted, the Oil and Gas Authority will only grant a license for 170 million barrels.

7. The UK relies on ‘false solutions’

The UK has been criticised for relying on “offsetting schemes” which promisees to reduce carbon emissions in the future.

However, delayed action could contribute to an additional 1.4 degrees Celcius of warming.

Friends Of The Earth claimed carbon offsetting does not work most of the time in practice, after a study for the European Commission found only 2% of offsetting projects were likely to resulted in additional emissions reductions.

The campaigners claimed carbon-offsetting was not the best way to tackle the climate crisis, and that it was best to prioritise the reduction of carbon emissions. This is a view also shared by renowned environmental organisation, Greenpeace.

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