Keir Starmer promised as much when he arrived in Downing Street last summer: the Labor prime minister wants to take the opposite approach to his Conservative predecessor, Rishi Sunak, by making the UK a country again. “at the forefront” of the climate transition. On Tuesday, November 12 from Baku, host of COP29, the British leader announced an ambitious goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 81% by 2035 compared to 1990 levels. The country’s intermediate goal was a 68% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 – with the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
“At this COP, the UK is sending a clear message (…) “We are a key partner for other countries, for investors and entrepreneurs, and we are renewing our climate leadership”stressed Keir Starmer from the capital of Azerbaijan, the British being one of the few Western leaders who has made the trip to the shores of the Caspian (unlike President Emmanuel Macron or German Chancellor Olaf Scholz). The contrast is striking with Rishi Sunak who, upon his arrival at Downing Street in the autumn of 2022, had initially ruled out participating in COP27 (in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt) before changing his mind to extinguish the beginning of the controversy.
The conservative elected official subsequently delayed a ban on the sale of new gasoline or diesel cars from 2030 to 2035, or even refused to facilitate the installation of onshore wind farms, hoping to capture votes from the far right (without much success). given the failure of the conservatives in the general elections last July). For Starmer, who has made growth his “first priority”taking the lead in the climate transition will allow “create better jobs”, of ” lower bills » of the British or to provide the country “technologies of the future”. It also places the country’s climate ambition under the sign of security: “There is no national security or global security without climate security”assured the Baku leader.
“A step in the right direction”
The UK’s new Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) is in line with the recommendation of the Climate Change Commission (CCC), an independent body that advises the government on its climate policy. The CCC ruled in October that an 81% reduction in emissions by 2035 was realistic. The Starmer government has already announced it which intended to achieve fully carbon-free national energy production by 2030, thanks in particular to a massive increase in the production capacity of wind farms in the North Sea. The country’s last coal-fired power station closed its doors on September 30 at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire.
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