UK Accused Of 'Blocking Ambition' To Tackle Climate Change: 'It's A Major Setback'

UK prime minister Keir Starmer at COP30 earlier this month.The UK has been been criticised for “blocking ambition” to tackle climate change by environmental campaigners.COP30 – the UN’s 30th conference of parties – concluded this weekend following fraught discussions over how countries around the world can work together to address the declining environment.After two weeks of intense meetings, the 194 countries present – the US did not send a delegation only agreed on a voluntary arrangement, rather than a legally binding deal, to begin discussions on a roadmap to gradually phasing out fossil fuels.But, in a small win for campaigners, developed countries did agree to triple financial support for developing nations as they adapt to the climate crisis.They will now receive £92 billion a year for adaption – although they will not get it until 2035.Hannah Bond, co-CEO of the non-profit ActionAid UK, hit out at the British delegates in particular for this lacklustre conclusion to the summit, claiming the conference “still falls short” when it comes to finance.Wealthier nations which typically produce more greenhouse gas emissions have been repeatedly asked to help developing countries cover the damage costs that come with environmental disasters.However, the UK caused a stir when it chose not to give taxpayer cash to the COP30 forests fund even before this year’s conference began amid ongoing struggles within the British economy.The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero told Politico the UK is still “incredibly supportive” of the initiative and would continue with “efforts to unlock private investment”.ActionAid UK’s Bond said: “A COP that delivers progress behind closed doors and still falls short on finance cannot claim success.“It’s a major setback that the UK’s refusal to cough up for the climate funding it owes, and to centre justice, meant a wider agreement collapsed.“It’s like watching a house engulfed in fire while the arsonists stand around debating who should hold the hose.“Without making big polluters pay up for the damage they’ve caused, climate justice remains impossible – yet the UK continues to push private finance and loans, deepening debt and forcing the Global South to foot the bill while allowing the ongoing financing of fossil fuels and deforestation.” She added: “Women and communities in the Global South are already leading the solutions; now countries like the UK must stop blocking ambition, deliver real finance, and match the courage of those fighting for their as we fight for all of our futures.”The director of climate research and policy at the campaign group Corporate Accountability, Rachel Rose Jackson, said the whole of the “global North should be ashamed” of their actions at COP30. She said: “Yet again the EU and others, as the largest historical polluters, continue to orchestrate their great escape rather than do their fair share.“The US, who told the world it wouldn’t even bother to show up, is still manipulating on the sidelines in Belém while it expands oil and gas drilling at home.“And Big Polluters continue to write the rules of climate action with no protections in place.“We must Kick Big Polluters Out, reset the system, demand the Global North do its fair share and pay its climate debt, and urgently and justly end the fossil fuel era that is poisoning us.“These are the only measures by which a true success can be measured.”Meena Raman, from the non-profit Third World Network, also hit out at the EU and the UK for “playing political games”.She said: “The countries of the Global North, led by the EU and UK, effectively held the COP30 negotiations hostage – insisting on diluting commitments to climate finance for adaptation before allowing progress. Their public frustration over the supposed lack of ambition on mitigation was little more than posturing, designed to deflect attention from their own obligations.”Romain Ioulalen, from Oil Change International, said wealthy countries were to blame for COP’s failures this year.He said: “The EU, UK, Australia and other wealthy nations are to blame for COP’s failure to adopt a roadmap on fossil fuels by refusing to commit to phase out first or put any public money on the table for the crisis they have caused.“We didn’t win the full justice outcome we need in Belém, but we have new arenas to keep fighting.”Meanwhile, Nikki Reisch from the Centre for International Environmental Law, called the final agreement an “empty deal”, adding: “COP30 provides a stark reminder that the answers to the climate crisis do not lie inside the climate talks – they lie with the people and movements leading the way toward a just, equitable, fossil-free future.”Related...What Is COP30 And Why Does It Matter? Here's What You Need To KnowExclusive: Zack Polanski Attacks Starmer's Climate Record As PM Heads To Green SummitKeir Starmer Urged To Show 'True Climate Leadership' Amid UN's New 1.5C Warning

Comments

Breaking news

David Lammy set to unveil major reforms to UK justice system this week

Independent

Comments

Similar News

David Lammy set to unveil major reforms to UK justice system this week

Crime boss 'living the high life' after returning to UK fights second deportation on human rights grounds

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi backtrack on plan to stay in UK while Trump is in power as couple plot return to sunny California to escape chilly Cotswold winter

Prince William ‘moved by courage’ of Gazan children brought to UK for treatment

Trump, Higgins & Murphy win UK Championship openers

Jack Fincham 'caught kissing Married At First Sight UK star' after Chloe Brockett split

Weekend washout! Dozens of flood alerts in place across UK as Met Office issues 'danger to life' weather warning in south Wales amid heavy rainfall

Man arrested in the UK for posing with gun more than 4,000 miles away in the US

UK snow maps show England to be hit in hours - full list of counties affected

UK school removes all mirrors from toilets because students ‘won’t stop looking in them’

This Is Why The Zootopia Movies Are Called Zootropolis In The UK And Other Countries

Will it snow across the UK this weekend?

Met Office issues fresh weather warning as heavy rain lashes UK

UK snow: Britain facing -6C Arctic blast as SIX cities hit by fresh deep freeze forecast

Hong Kong fire survivor was 'speaking to mum in UK on phone' before 'everything went black'

Swapping Center Parcs UK for the Dutch version saved us hundreds of pounds - here's what costs less at the European parks

Afghan man is charged with sexually assaulting three women and entering the UK illegally

'Useless' Budget pulled apart by Asda boss, who says UK is stuck in reverse gear

Home Alone crowned UK's favourite Christmas movie while nation says 'ho no ho' to Die Hard - after Macaulay Culkin was booed over his divisive comments about the Bruce Willis film

UK to block imports of pork from Spain due to outbreak of swine fever

Breaking news

David Lammy set to unveil major reforms to UK justice system this week

Dozens of Palestine Action supporters arrested after fresh wave of protests

Pentagon rolls out the welcome wagon for new MAGA-friendly press corps

Cheating in lightning chess - how unproven allegations ended in tragedy

David Lammy says Labour inherited 'courts emergency' amid plans to axe most jury trials

New trial allows HIV testing kits delivered to your door with results on phone

Gemma Collins 'confirms she is staying in Essex with plans to buy new home after £1.8M payday' despite stalker hell and rumoured Dubai move

MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: Honesty in politics will count for nothing if Reeves does not quit

Crime boss 'living the high life' after returning to UK fights second deportation on human rights grounds

Reeves will be lucky if the only punishment for this shameful deceit is the loss of her job: DAN HODGES

Now Angela Rayner faces new storm over tax on her grace and favour apartment

EastEnders legend Shaun Williamson reveals heartbreaking reason behind his epic soap return

Exposed: the Dubai-based fat cats making millions from asylum-seekers' taxis

Linda Robson shares update on best friend and Birds Of A Feather co-star Pauline Quirke amid dementia battle

Neighbours star Holly Valance snapped lounging on a steam train with hard-Right thug Tommy Robinson... as friends of the pop star say she has gone down a 'rabbit hole'

Alex Scott jokes she's too boring for I'm A Celebrity after Lioness is first kicked out of the jungle

Andrew told Epstein victim: I know he's been 'inappropriate' with another woman... a YEAR before ex-prince met his accuser Virginia Giuffre, lawyers for abused actress claim

RIP Sir Tom Stoppard: The woman-loving wordsmith who fled Hitler to become the greatest (and wittiest) playwright of his generation

Freddy Brazier's pregnant ex Holly Swinburn breaks silence on their split as she claims star had 'drug parties with girls in her house'

Catastrophic south-east Asia flooding leaves at least 600 dead with tens of thousands displaced as villages are submerged

Ellie Goulding strolls in west London wearing padded £2,950 Miu Miu jacket... but is it to hide some 'good news' for her and boyfriend Beau Minniear?

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi backtrack on plan to stay in UK while Trump is in power as couple plot return to sunny California to escape chilly Cotswold winter

TALK OF THE TOWN: V&A is just not ready for Freddie as it turns down Queen frontman's fashion collection

Corbyn's Your Party in chaos after co-founder Zarah Sultana snubs her own conference

Thousands of men with prostate cancer risk life-changing side effects because they aren't offered type of therapy received by David Cameron

The five things that set the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season apart

Is tracking your adult children OK or should parents learn to let go?

They have six packs - but they're still jumping on and off weight-loss jabs

A simple test could have given our son a very different future

The Papers: 'Reeves must go' and Tom Stoppard tributes

It's time to lock in and let your winter arc begin

The Ex-President Whom Trump Plans to Pardon Flooded America With Cocaine

Syria Tiptoes Toward Transitional Justice One Year After Assad’s Ouster

First picture of ‘genuine and funny’ man, 25, who died after falling from tower block

Lotto jackpot rolls over to £8,600,000 after no one claims prize

MP Ayoub Khan ‘killed a dog with his hands to save a baby’

Prince William ‘moved by courage’ of Gazan children brought to UK for treatment

Arrests made in New York after protesters appear to foil ICE raid with barricade of bodies and garbage bags

Thanksgiving home invasion leaves dog dead and widow without wedding ring and mortgage payment

Female cop banned from force after making 'unwanted sexual approach' to senior officer

Ukrainian officials head to US for peace talks - while dramatic footage shows Russian oil tanker being hit

Woman jailed for having sex outside busy shopping centre in broad daylight

Councils given record funding to fix potholes - but could lose it if they don't

Man accused of shooting Glasgow gangsters dead at Spanish bar pictured

'Severe allergic reaction made me lose my memory - I couldn't recognise myself'

Mum and dad screamed 'help us' as son 'beat them, set fire to home then escaped'

Rapist Met cop David Carrick's downfall - from 'popular' boy to serial sex offender

'Black hole' row: Call for Financial Conduct Authority investigation

Reeves must go for her Budget lies, say voters: Poll delivers damning verdict on Chancellor as No 10 admits that PM also knew there was no 'black hole'

I'm A Celebrity's Alex Scott reveals she is leaving Australia early to be with her girlfriend Jess Glynne

I'm A Celeb viewers brand Vogue Williams 'Superwoman' as gym loving model 'smashes' brutal 'Total Wipeout style' trial

Extraordinary moment explosion sends concrete blocks and chemical tank flying through the air near homes in Sydney's west - with factory fire set to burn ALL DAY

Vanessa Hudgens gives birth! High School Musical star welcomes second child with Cole Tucker

Greta Thunberg launches foul-mouthed tirade at 'fascist' Italian government during pro-Palestine protest in Rome - days after climate activist was banned from Venice

Was Charles' secret Cotswolds meeting with King of Bahrain a summit on his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's future?

Paige, 27, was told she was going to die from terminal brain cancer. Months later, doctors looked at her scans in pure disbelief

Russian drone and missile blitz on Ukraine's energy infrastructure leaves more than 600,000 in Kyiv without power