‘Humanity is in the ring’: Boris Johnson warns of ‘very difficult’ climate change fight
Boris Johnson has warned that success in the fight to tackle global warming “is going to very difficult” but “the whole of humanity is in the ring.”
Imploring world leaders to act as the G20 summit begins in Rome on Saturday, the prime minister told Sky News’ Beth Rigby there is “a chance, if everybody puts their minds to it” that an agreement on climate change can be achieved.
But, acknowledging the scale of the challenge ahead, the PM added that global temperature rises will not be stopped at the two-week long COP26 climate summit which kicks off in Glasgow on Sunday.
The PM and his wife Carrie Johnson arrived in Rome ahead of the G20 summit on Friday evening
The PM’s comments come a day after he told journalists en route to the first of the global gatherings in Rome that “team world” was “5-1” down at half-time in the battle to save the planet.
Mr Johnson also stressed the alternative to securing change was apocalyptic and could consign future generations to shortages of food, conflict and mass migrations, all caused by global warming.
Speaking to reporters at the Colosseum on Saturday morning, the PM once more acknowledged that “the pressure is huge”.
Asked if he is fighting a losing battle, the PM told Sky News: “Well, the whole of humanity is in the ring. And the foes of humanity are apathy and political indifference and lack of will and people’s excessive caution about what they can achieve. Those are the foes that we all collectively face.
“And actually, I think that we can still do it. I think there is a chance, if everybody puts their minds to it, that we can get an agreement that will allow us to restrain the growth in temperatures.
“We are not going to stop climate change… we are certainly not going to stop it at COP next week.”
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Sir David Attenborough said he ‘hopes and prays’ that nations come together at COP26 and take action
Mr Johnson said the odds of success remain “about the same” as they were when he made his football analogy to reporters on Friday, noting that the task ahead is “going to be very difficult”.
“Let’s see where we get to and the pressure is huge – but what people need to do is see the scale of the risk,” the PM said, referencing the rise and fall of the Roman Empire.
Mr Johnson acknowledged that China has made “a huge amount of progress in some areas” but warned that “what we want to see is more progress from lots of countries”.
“We can fix it, but the lesson of history is that things can go badly wrong and stay wrong for a long time,” the PM continued.
With 80% of all global emissions coming from the G20 group of industrialised countries, progress this week in Rome is seen as critical to the success of COP26, the annual climate summit in Glasgow which is meant to put in place national commitments from individual countries to hit emission targets of 2% and below by 2050.
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UN Secretary General and climate activists criticise world leaders over their lack of action on climate change
Earlier this month, Alok Sharma, the UK’s COP president, challenged China, India and Saudi Arabia to deliver on G20 promises made months ago and come up with better formal targets in an interview with the Financial Times.
On Friday, the PM stressed progress was being made, with 17 nations of the G20 now committing to net-zero by 2050.
But two of the top three of the world’s largest emitters – China and India – have so far failed to commit to getting to net-zero by 2050.
Some have raised concerns that while the UK is pledging to do its bit in the fight against climate change, the country accounts for just 1% of global emissions.
And of the three biggest emitters – China, the US and India – only the US has made similar promises.
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President Modi of India has resisted formal targets while there are concerns that President Xi of China is not going far enough.
China has committed to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and net-zero by 2060, but has indicated it is both unable and unwilling to move further.
US special envoy on climate change John Kerry has said the world will miss its global emissions targets unless this happens.
The PM said he spoke to President Xi on Friday and pushed the Chinese leader to bring down the peak in emissions to 2025 and to phase out coal.
“I told President Xi, when I first went to Beijing as Mayor of London, we had 40% of our energy come from coal. It is now less than 1%,” Mr Johnson told Beth Rigby.
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Ahead of COP26, Sky News science correspondent Thomas Moore takes a look at what progress we have made in recent years
This year’s UN Climate Change Conference, better known as COP26, kicks off this weekend and will see more than 190 countries come together in Glasgow to discuss the climate crisis.
This year’s summit is particularly important as it will be the first time the parties will review the most up-to-date plans for how they will limit global warming to 2C but ideally 1.5C, a goal set under the Paris Agreement at COP21.
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The show investigates how global warming is changing our landscape and highlights solutions to the crisis.
Birmingham band UB40 say the city’s striking bin workers and their union should “keep fighting” in their dispute over pay.
It comes as the government and the council urged them to accept a “fair and reasonable offer”.
“We’re fully on their side,” drummer Jimmy Brown told Sky News. “I think they shouldn’t give up, they should still be fighting.
“Working people shouldn’t have to take a reduction in their incomes, which is what we’re talking about here.
“We’re talking about people being paid less and it seems to me with prices going up, heating, buying food, inflation and rents going up then people need a decent wage to have a half decent life… keep going boys!”
Members of the Unite union in Birmingham earlier this month. Pic: PA
Workers joined picket lines again on Thursday, with some fearing they could be up to £600 a month worse off if they accept the terms.
“We have total utter support for the bin men and all trade unions,” said guitarist Robin Campbell.
“The other side is always going to say they’ve made a reasonable offer – the point is they’re the ones who’ve messed up, they’re the ones who’ve gone bankrupt, they’re the ones now trying to reduce the bin men’s wages.”
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Lead singer Matt Doyle told Sky News: “It’s a shame that what we’re seeing is all the images of rats and rubbish building up, that is going to happen inevitably, but we’ve just got to keep fighting through that.”
About 22,000 tonnes of rubbish accumulated on the city’s streets after a major incident was declared last month by Birmingham City Council.
Rubbish has blighted the city’s streets for weeks . Pic: PA
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Bin situation ‘pains me’ – council boss
On a visit to the city, local government minister Jim McMahon said the union and local authority should continue to meet in “good faith” and the government felt there was a deal that could be “marshalled around”.
He paid tribute to the “hundreds of workers” who have worked “around the clock” to clear the rubbish.
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“As we stand here today, 85% of that accumulated waste has been cleared and the council have a plan in place now to make sure it doesn’t accumulate going forward,” said Mr McMahon.
Sky News understands talks are not set to resume until next week.
Trans women in British Transport Police custody will now be strip searched by male officers – not female – following Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling.
The force said it is introducing an “interim position” while it digests the Supreme Court’s decision that the definition of a “woman” under the Equality Act 2010 refers to “a biological woman and biological sex”.
A British Transport Police (BTP) Authority spokesman told Sky News: “Under previous policy, we had advised that someone with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) may be searched in accordance with their acquired sex.
“However, as an interim position while we digest today’s judgment, we have advised our officers that any same sex searches in custody are to be undertaken in accordance with the biological birth sex of the detainee.”
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In September last year, BTP, which is responsible for policing the UK’s railways and similar transport systems, published its “position” on transgender and non-binary officers carrying out strip searches.
It said officers would “only be able to search persons of the same sex on their birth or gender recognition certificate (GRC).
Officers who identified as another gender but who did not have a GRC were not allowed to, but if a trans woman had a certificate, they could strip search a female detainee.
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Gender ruling – How it happened
Strip searches involve the removal of more than a jacket, outer coat, gloves, headwear and footwear.
They “expose buttocks, genitalia and (female) breasts”, the BTP guidance says.
The Sex Matters campaign applied for a judicial review of that guidance with the High Court in December.
It said the policy “puts detainees at risk of sexual harassment and sexual assault”, and said it was a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment.
Sex Matters said the policy “also puts female officers in a humiliating and dangerous position, as they may be pressured to search trans-identified men”.
Read more: NHS must stop trans people being allowed on single-sex wars
Campaigners celebrated outside the Supreme Court after Wednesday’s ruling. Pic: PA
One of the High Court judges who made Wednesday’s decision, Lord Hodge, said the ruling should not be read as “a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another”.
Government minister Karin Smyth told Sky News public bodies have been told to look at how equality laws are implemented following the ruling.
She said: “Obviously, public bodies have been asked to look at their own guidance.
“And we will do that very, very carefully.”
But she warned against public bodies making statements “that may alarm people”, telling them to take their time to look at their guidance.
Baroness Kishwer Falkner, chair of the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said the ruling means there is “no confusion” now.
She said the NHS will “have to change” its 2019 policy, which says transgender patients are entitled to be accommodated on single-sex wards matching how they identify.
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