Johnson to call on China to ditch domestic coal-fired power in UN speech

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Johnson to call on China to ditch domestic coal-fired power in UN speech

22 September 2021 Clean energy investing 0

General Assembly updates

Boris Johnson will urge China to phase out the domestic use of coal on Wednesday as he calls on humanity to “grow up” and tackle climate change.

Addressing the UN in New York, the British prime minister will hail humanity’s “awesome power” to save itself from environmental disaster.

In line with the 2015 Paris climate pact, which aims to limit global warming to 1.5C, Johnson will urge world leaders to pledge collectively to achieve carbon neutrality — net zero — by the middle of the century.

Following the Chinese president’s recent pledge to end the financing of new coal power plants overseas, Johnson will also call on his counterpart to end support for the fossil fuel at home.

“I thank President Xi for what he has done to end China’s international financing of coal and I hope China will now go further and phase out the domestic use of coal as well,” he will say.

The prime minister will repeat his demand for richer economies to pledge more money towards battling climate change ahead of the COP26 climate summit, which the UK is hosting in Glasgow this November.

The world’s largest economies have long fallen short of the target set in 2009 to raise $100bn each year by 2020.

“We are awesome in our power to change things and awesome in our power to save ourselves, and in the next 40 days we must choose what kind of awesome we are going to be,” he will say.

“When Kermit the frog sang ‘It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green’ I want you to know he was wrong and he was also unnecessarily rude to Miss Piggy. We have the technology: we have the choice before us.”

The shortfall in funding sets the scene for difficult discussions at the COP26 meeting, where climate finance for poorer countries is among the top items on the agenda. Rich countries donated about $80bn in 2018, according to UN figures.

In a boost to Johnson, President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday that he wanted to work with the US Congress to double Washington’s public international financing to $11.4bn a year.

Urging humanity to “grow up”, Johnson will warn the UN: “It is time for us to listen to the warnings of the scientists — and look at Covid, if you want an example of gloomy scientists being proved right — and to understand who we are and what we are doing.

“The world — this precious blue sphere with its eggshell crust and wisp of an atmosphere — is not some indestructible toy, some bouncy plastic romper room against which we can hurl ourselves to our heart’s content.”