Barry has written in the Times Red Box. You can read his article in full below.
As the worst wildfires on record rip across California, and scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report that this summer was the hottest in the northern hemisphere, we need strong international co-operation on climate change more than ever. In the role of host and president of the COP26 Climate Conference we also need to show strong domestic co-operation.
No nation can claim to be a “climate leader” without acknowledging this simple truth: the key to tackling the climate crisis is stopping the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. The Stone Age did not come to an end because of a lack of stone and the Fossil Fuel Age will not come to an end because of a lack of oil. It will end as nations put in place rapid and socially just plans to end our dependency on oil and gas and to create a new green-energy economy.
For years, I have called out our government as a villain in the climate story. I have pointed out how UK Export Finance has given 99.4 per cent of its energy support to fossil fuels. I have railed at them for using billions of pounds of British taxpayers’ money to support fossil fuel projects across the globe: oil refineries in Bahrain, coal mines in Russia, gas projects in Mozambique and deals with Saudi oil barons. While claiming domestic success in reducing our emissions, the UK has used public money to worsen the climate crisis and lock other countries into fossil fuel consumption for decades to come.
Now, I may have to change my tune. Word is that the prime minister may soon sign off a policy that will end this shameful practice. Opposition is about scrutiny and holding government to account. But if and when government responds to criticism and changes policy, the job of the opposition is not to continue to oppose. So if the UK is indeed about to end export finance for fossil fuels then we in the Labour Party should be gracious enough to commend them for it.
One proviso: there must be no loopholes. Some have suggested that finance for gas projects could continue as a transitioning fuel as countries move away from coal. It cannot be right though, as we aim for net zero globally by the second half of this century, to be locking developing nations into gas infrastructure for the next 30 years. There must be no gas loophole.
It was never credible for the UK to boast about its domestic emissions reductions while it continued to export fossil fuel projects around the world. But action by the UK to end fossil fuel finance is not just about aligning our domestic and international policy. As the host and president of COP26, such action assumes a much bigger status by the message it sends to other countries before the Climate Change Conference in Glasgow next year. This is what climate leadership looks like.
In the run-up to the historic Paris Agreement in 2015, the French government stretched every diplomatic sinew to build confidence before the Paris summit, making its own unilateral climate pledges and pushing other countries to match them, or go further. By the time the summit took place, enough confidence and goodwill had been built to create the right conditions for a historic success.
So far, the British government has not built the same pre-conference confidence that the French did in 2015. Yet this is the most important climate conference since Paris, where the nations of the world must agree to strengthen their climate targets. It needs to be a success.
To help to build ambition, the government should throw down the gauntlet to other countries and invite them to join the UK in ending their public finance for fossil fuels too. Together, a growing club of countries could build confidence before the summit.
Not only would this be good for the chance of success in Glasgow, it would have a more direct impact on markets. The International Energy Agency has reported that investments in energy are “increasingly underpinned by governments”. This means that as government finance turns away from fossil fuels, the private sector, unwilling to shoulder the increased risk, will shy away too.
Tipping points are often referred to in conversations about climate change: the melting of the permafrost, the acidification of the oceans and coral bleaching. But there can be good tipping points as well. If government action can prompt large financial institutions to move their money away from fossil fuels, this could start a self-reinforcing cycle, cutting off the flow of money to the global fossil fuel industry and bringing about the rapid change we need.