London (Parliament Politics Magazine) – The UK government is preparing to appoint a special envoy for nature for the first time, as the foreign secretary, David Lammy, aims to put the UK at the centre of global measures to tackle the world’s ecological crises.
Labour will also designate a new climate envoy, after the Tories repealed the post over a year ago, a move that alarmed foreign governments and climate campaigners. Lammy, who met Sir David Attenborough this month to speak about the global response to the climate and nature crises, will make a significant intervention on the topic early this week.
how will David Lammy’s intervention shape climate policy?
He will say: “The threat of climate change may not feel as urgent as a terrorist or an autocrat. But it is more fundamental. It is systemic, pervasive and accelerating towards us.” Noting recent extreme weather in the Amazon, Syria and Africa, and the devastation generated by Hurricane Beryl in the Caribbean, Lammy will state that global political leaders must take responsibility before climate breakdown can further aggravate conflict and migration.
“These are not random events delivered from the heavens. They are failures of politics, of regulation, and of international cooperation,” he will communicate. “These failures pour fuel into existing conflicts and regional rivalries, driving extremism and forced displacement. And it would be a further failure of imagination to hope that they will stay far from our shores.”
Ed Miliband, the energy security and net zero secretary, has already started an international charm offensive on the climate, requesting the president of the next UN climate summit, Mukhtar Babayev of Azerbaijan, to the UK over the summer. Last month he visited Brazil, which is heading the G20 group of developed and developing nations this year and will host the COP30 UN climate summit next year.
how does the UK plan to lead on climate issues?
The UK also expects to unveil strengthened pledges on cutting greenhouse gas emissions at this year’s COP29 UN climate summit in Azerbaijan in November. Steve Reed, the environment secretary, will also this week promote close cooperation with Colombia, host of the UN Cop16 nature summit in October. He will reaffirm the government’s obligations to protect 30% of the UK’s land by 2030 and develop a global deal on nature conservation.
The move to assign two envoys has delighted campaigners, who were upset by the last government’s downgrading of the UK’s position in international climate and nature talks. Rishi Sunak overlooked key climate meetings while prime minister and the dissolution of the post of climate envoy was seen by many as a backward step.
