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Boris Johnson was today urged to “get on with it” and meet Tory commitments on climate change amid more signs of a warming planet with Australia baking in its hottest day on record.
Lord Deben, chairman of the UK’s Committee on Climate Change which advises the Government, said it was not on track to meet its goals to combat global warming despite putting into law that the country would reach “net zero” harmful emissions by 2050.
“The world is changing and if we do not fight climate change over these next 10 years we will reach a tipping point when human beings will not be able to change the climate back to a level which makes living on this earth tolerable,” he told Radio 4’s Today.
“If the Government is going to fulfil its party manifesto, it has to get on with it at once.”
The manifesto says the UK has cut carbon emissions by more than any similar developed country, is the world leader in offshore wind and commits £9.2 billion for energy efficiency of homes, schools and hospitals. But it does not give a date for phasing out new petrol and diesel cars.
With the COP26 climate change summit taking place in Glasgow next year, Tory peer Lord Deben made clear that Mr Johnson’s leadership on global warming would come under scrutiny
Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said that yesterday was the country’s hottest day on record, with a national average temperature of 40.9C, exceeding the previous record of 40.3C in 2013.
Oodnadatta, in the south of Australia, is forecast to hit highs of 47C today, making it one of the hottest places on earth. The country has been ravaged by fires for weeks with authorities in New South Wales saying there are currently 100 fires. Blazes have killed six people, destroyed more than 680 homes and burned huge swathes of bushland.
In England, official figures last week showed 113,348 deaths registered between July and September — 2,247 more than the five-year average. They also revealed a peak in the number of deaths per day on July 25, the hottest day of the year.
A spokesman for the Government said: “We will provide the policies needed to ensure we are on track to hit our world-leading climate targets and demonstrate our global leadership in advance of the crucial COP26 talks in Glasgow next year.”
