London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Jul 31, 2025

Johnson sets out his climate crisis vision as Cameron turns down talks role

Johnson sets out his climate crisis vision as Cameron turns down talks role

PM reaffirms 2050 net-zero pledge but his predecessor declines offer to lead UK preparations for crucial summit
Boris Johnson has set out his vision for forging a new global consensus on the climate crisis promising “we will crack it”, amid news that he approached former prime minister David Cameron to lead the UK’s preparations for a crucial summit.

Johnson has brought forward the UK’s phaseout of diesel and petrol vehicles by five years to 2035, and hastened the phaseout of coal-fired power by a year to 2024. He reaffirmed the UK’s pledge to switch to a net-zero emissions economy by 2050, and urged other nations – without naming any – to do the same.

“I hope that we can as a planet and as a community of nations get to net zero within decades,” Johnson said at the COP 26 launch on Tuesday. “We’re going to do it by 2050, we’re setting the pace, I hope everybody will come with us. Let’s make this year the moment when we come together with the courage and the technological ambition to solve manmade climate change and to choose a cleaner and greener future for all our children and grandchildren.”

But the troubled start to the UK’s presidency of this year’s crunch UN climate talks with the sacking of Claire O’Neill as COP president has unsettled observers, who are hoping Johnson will play a pivotal role in bringing world leaders together with a new resolve to drastically reduce greenhouse-gas emissions before it is too late.

On Tuesday night it emerged that Johnson had approached Cameron to take over from O’Neill but he declined the role.

Lord Barker of Battle, who served as an energy and climate change minister under Cameron and is a close friend and ally of the former prime minister, said he understood reports that he was offered the role to be correct. “My understanding is that he felt it was just a little too soon for him personally to come back into a frontline political role,” he told BBC Two’s Newsnight.

William Hague was also reported to have been offered it but also declined.

The appointment last year of O’Neill as president – the official who will take the leading role in convening and chairing the fortnight-long UN talks, and seeing them through to a deal which will require the consensus of 196 nations – appeared to give the UK a good headstart in the talks.

O’Neill was formerly an energy minister in the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, below the secretary of state level but with rights to attend Theresa May’s cabinet meetings. She resigned as the MP for Devizes, a staunchly Conservative seat, after taking on the role, saying she wanted to concentrate on the COP presidency.

Brexit was also a major factor. O’Neill campaigned to remain in the referendum, and was scathing of hard Brexiters, whom she accused of being “hysterical” and “like jihadis”. She rebelled to vote for a Brexit bill amendment that would give parliament the final say on any deal to leave the EU, though she voted with her party on other legislation.

She wished Johnson good luck with Brexit when she gave notice last September, well before a election had been called, that she would not contest the seat again.

O’Neill was a surprise choice for the president’s role, but the political turmoil last autumn made her a relatively safe pick: with the government preoccupied with Brexit, and Johnson both struggling to get the general election he wanted and filling the cabinet with pro-Brexit supporters of his leadership campaign, to appoint a serving minister would have been tricky.

Other possible candidates included Zac Goldsmith, whose shaky reelection prospects were borne out by his defeat in Richmond, or members of the House of Lords.

O’Neill’s experience as a transport minister and energy minister seemed to offer some assurance. However, her record was also spotted. In November 2018 three unions wrote to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to raise allegations of shouting and swearing at civil servants. In her resignation letter this week, O’Neill rebuffed those allegations.

The Guardian was given mixed reports of her conduct in the UN negotiations by people present. She is said to have created a good impression among some countries, and at some meetings at last December’s climate conference in Madrid. However, she fell out with some senior officials in the UK, and gave conflicting messages about the UK’s position and strategy at the talks.

O’Neill’s resignation letter to Johnson also gives clues to the concerns over her conduct. In it, she is strongly critical of the COP structure, rules and bureaucracy, but without showing much awareness of what supporters see as the value of the process – which gives all nations an equal voice, and progresses by consensus – or respect for the negotiators, many of whom have served their governments for decades.

“COP is difficult, but you need to understand it and work within it,” said one long-time participant in the UN talks. “The French did [when they led the 2015 Paris agreement].”

Another former high-level diplomat and COP veteran said: “A good COP president makes all the difference between success and failure. They direct the negotiations, they play the key role in determining the outcome.”

It is also clear, however, that O’Neill has suffered from a lack of support within government, and a lack of focus from the prime minister on the UK’s COP 26 plans. She complained that the cabinet sub-committee on climate, supposed to be chaired by Johnson, has not yet met. The relationship between the COP 26 unit and other government departments is also unclear in parts, and it is not apparent that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has been pushing climate to the top of the agenda in its embassies around the world, as the French did before Paris.

Bedevilling all this has been Brexit. Several NGOs and developing country representatives told the Guardian about serious concerns that the UK could not give COP 26 the attention needed while still working out its new relationships and trade deals.

Some observers see a potential conflict of interest, as British diplomats seek at once to gain support for a COP 26 resolution that will require other countries to set out stretching goals on cutting emissions, while also negotiating post-Brexit trade deals. “I am very concerned about how they can play this,” said the head of one international civil society group. “This is a very delicate dance.”

Paul Bledsoe, a former climate advisrr to Bill Clinton, said: “Sacking O’Neill and making the post more directly reportable to Number 10 increases the pressure on Johnson to appoint an aggressive climate policy figure, especially one who will actually hold the Chinese and Americans accountable.”

With O’Neill’s resignation, climate activists and COP participants are hoping that now Johnson and his government can move on to forge a clear strategy and timetable for gaining the support and buy-in they need from capitals across the world. But they warn that the prime minister is running out of time.

“The prime minister has given a very clear and strong message, which is good,” said Lord Stern, the climate economist. “He has made a personal commitment, and that is now crystal clear. Now we need someone in a very senior position to be COP president. The challenge now is to accelerate.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Former Judge Charged After Drunk Driving Crash Kills Comedian in Brazil
Jeff Bezos hasn’t paid a dollar in taxes for decades. He makes billions and pays $0 in taxes, LEGALLY
China Increases Use of Exit Bans Amid Rising U.S. Tensions
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Procter & Gamble to Raise U.S. Prices to Offset One‑Billion‑Dollar Tariff Cost
House Republicans Move to Defund OECD Over Global Tax Dispute
Botswana Seeks Controlling Stake in De Beers as Anglo American Prepares Exit
Trump Administration Proposes Repeal of Obama‑Era Endangerment Finding, Dismantling Regulatory Basis for CO₂ Emissions Limits
France Opens Criminal Investigation into X Over Algorithm Manipulation Allegations
A family has been arrested in the UK for displaying the British flag
Mel Gibson refuses to work with Robert De Niro, saying, "Keep that woke clown away from me."
Trump Steamrolls EU in Landmark Trade Win: US–EU Trade Deal Imposes 15% Tariff on European Imports
ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman says people share personal info with ChatGPT but don’t know chats can be used as court evidence in legal cases.
The British propaganda channel BBC News lies again.
Deputy attorney general's second day of meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell has concluded
Controversial March in Switzerland Features Men Dressed in Nazi Uniforms
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
Thai Civilian Death Toll Rises to 12 in Cambodian Cross-Border Attacks
TSUNAMI: Trump Just Crossed the Rubicon—And There’s No Turning Back
Over 120 Criminal Cases Dismissed in Boston Amid Public Defender Shortage
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
Trump Announces $550 Billion Japanese Investment and New Trade Agreements with Indonesia and the Philippines
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
×