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As we've been reporting, Labour's expected decision to drop its £28bn green promise comes as global warming exceeds 1.5C across an entire year for the first time.

The year-long high temperatures do not break the landmark Paris Agreement yet, but this brings the world closer to doing so in the long-term.

In 2015 world leaders agreed to limit long-term temperature rise at the UN climate summit. The aim of the agreement is to "pursue efforts" to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C, and to keep them "well below" 2.0C above pre-industrial times.

The threshold is seen as crucial to help avoid the most damaging impacts of climate change.

Among other pledges adopted by 194 parties (193 countries plus the EU) in the French capital were:

• To limit greenhouse gas emissions from human activity to the same levels that trees, soil and oceans can absorb naturally - known as net zero - between 2050 and 2100
• Richer countries to help poorer nations by providing funding to adapt to climate change and switch to renewable energy

Image source, Getty Images

We're now hearing some reaction from Labour MP Nia Griffith, who explains that the party's plan for a £3bn clean steel fund will be unaffected by plans to ditch the £28bn green pledge.

The MP for Llanelli tells the BBC that the steel fund is part of Labour's green energy plan and it would be staying.

"We know exactly where we're going on that [the steel fund]. That is definitely being kept," she adds.

Image source, Getty Images

Labour metro mayors Andy Burnham and Steve Rotherham have been speaking to the New Statesman magazine, external about Labour's plans to spend £28bn a year on environmental projects now facing the chop.

Burnham urges Sir Keir Starmer to “stick to the pledge around green transition”.

The Greater Manchester mayor says the policy was “the best possibility that we have, sitting here today, of a fund to reindustrialise the north of England in a good way… [It’s about] prosperity, and future-facing industry in all parts of the UK, and Labour’s commitment to that fund is really important in that regard".

Meanwhile, Rotherham, mayor for the Liverpool City Region, says the investment could be "transformational", adding: "Get out and have a look around at what the possibilities could be for areas like ours".

Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, says that £28bn is not such a big number in a fiscal year, and suggests the move is not about economics and more about politics.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's The World at One, he says: "It may have been that Labour felt three years ago [when the policy was first announced] there was room for that green spending pledge and for a bunch of other things later on.

"And it’s certainly not the case with the fiscal situation at the moment that makes that extremely difficult," he says.

Asked whether the economic situation has worsened since 2021, he says: "Yes".

However, he says the real question is about priorities - and whether £28bn of green investment "is really the number one priority that will push out [other spending commitments]".

"I suspect not," he says.

Rachael Kyte, who has advised the UK government and the UN on climate policy, says that Labour has got itself "caught up" in the idea that it is "radical" to be green.

"It's not radical – it's actually mainstream, sensible economic policy when you are in the middle of a climate crisis."

Kyte, who is professor of practice in climate policy at Oxford University, says "targeted borrowing for targeted expenditure" is needed to make the UK's energy systems better able to cope with the climate crisis and to make households more efficient and bills cheaper.

She refers to the US, where she says President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act was "the biggest climate investment bill the world has ever seen" but was not packaged as a "climate stimulus pact" on purpose.

"Young people in the US were turned off because they think he's not doing enough on climate...

"To curry favour with one part of the electorate you may be distancing yourself from another."

Image source, PA Media

We've now heard from Chris Skidmore, a former net zero tsar.

He says there has been a "sterile and irrelevant" media debate over the £28bn figure.

Skidmore says it's more important to focus on long-term commitments and outcomes, rather than a pledge to spend a specific figure.

He adds that the government has probably committed to a similar amount of spending for environmental projects over 20 years.

Skidmore quit Parliament early in January in protest over government plans to expand oil and gas production.

Some more reaction now, this time from senior Tories.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt says that after four years of Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership, "it seems like Labour’s only economic plan is to copy the Conservatives".

"But if their policies flipflop like this in opposition, what sort of chaos would the British people have to endure if they got into power?" he adds in a post on X.

Ex-minister Sir Simon Clarke takes a similar tack, writing on social media: "Chaos with Ed Miliband", referencing a 2015 tweet , externalby former prime minister David Cameron about the now shadow secretary for climate change.

And Tory chairman Richard Holden accuses Labour of trying to "ditch the price tag but NOT the policy" - with "no plan from where to find the money".

Environmental groups have criticised Labour's decision, with Friends of the Earth warning that cutting the £28bn investment plan would be "short sighted and cost the country dearly".

"We urgently need real political leadership to confront the climate crisis and seize the huge opportunities that building a greener future would bring," head of policy Mike Childs says in a statement.

And posting on X, Just Stop Oil accuses Labour of being "complicit in killing millions", while Extinction Rebellion says "our political system falls short on climate action".

Meanwhile, Danny Sriskandarajah, from the New Economics Foundation - a think tank that promotes social and economic justice - says it's "deeply disappointing". He notes Labour is due to announce its U-turn "on the day scientists say global warming has exceeded 1.5C across an entire year for the first time".

We found out today that global warming has exceeded 1.5C across an entire year for the first time.

But where does that number come from? And what does this degree of climate change mean for our lives?

Jordan Dunbar has been investigating for the BBC's The Climate Question podcast.

"If we do pass 1.5C, that doesn't mean game over," climate scientist Adam Levy tells the show.

"There's a world of difference between every fraction of a degree of global warming.”

Listen to the full Climate Question podcast here

Hard to say if Labour will have to drop any specific green planspublished at 12:19 Greenwich Mean Time 8 February

12:19 GMT 8 February

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

What specific plans will Labour have to drop as a consequence of scaling back its green spending ambitions?

It’s hard to say, but the answer is possibly none. One of the longstanding curiosities of the £28bn figure is that Labour never spelled out where all of the money would go.

There are some details, though, in the "green prosperity plan", to which Sir Keir Starmer is expected to reiterate his commitment today.

It includes certain big commitments that Labour have already itemised, which were expected to be funded by the £28bn - or, more accurately, the £20bn Labour had said they would invest on top of existing government plans.

Image source, Getty Images

There's £6bn a year for retrofitting homes and clean heating (though the Conservatives argued yesterday using Treasury analysis that the true cost would be much higher).

There's £8bn seed capital for the national wealth fund – including £3bn for six clean steel plants, £2bn for eight battery factories, and £1.8bn for nine renewable-ready ports.

But those are one-off items of expenditure rather than annual.

Then there’s £500 million a year on the "British jobs bonus", designed to create green jobs in industrial communities and coastal towns, and an unspecified amount of money to set up GB Energy, a publicly-owned clean generation company.

All fairly sizeable spending commitments, but some way short of £28bn.

Image source, PA Media

Elsewhere, the health secretary in Scotland, Michael Matheson, has resigned from the role after racking up a £11,000 bill while using his parliamentary iPad on holiday.

Matheson admitted his sons used the device to watch football while on a trip to Morocco in late 2022. While the data charges were initially paid out of the public purse, Matheson subsequently repaid the sum and apologised.

The Scottish Parliament Corporate Body is due to publish a report following its investigation into the incident.

In his resignation letter to Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf, Matheson said he had not received the report but was stepping down to avoid it being a "distraction" to the SNP-led government's agenda.

Image source, PA Media

September 2021

• At Labour's 2021 conference, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves pledges to invest £28bn a year - every year - to 2030 into growing a green economy in the UK

June 2023

• Labour scales back its plans, blaming the economic outlook, with Reeves telling the BBC she would ramp up investment over time from a 2024 election win, reaching £28bn a year after 2027.

November 2023

• A senior source tells the BBC that the level of investment previously promised might never be reached. Labour denies the claim, but rumours of the policy's demise continue to grow

February 2024

• And now we arrive at today, with sources telling the BBC that Labour is scrapping its green investment plan. An official announcement is expected later

Image source, UK Parliament

It's been a busy morning in politics. So for those of you just joining us, here's a morning digest of all the latest action:

• Labour will later today announce it's scrapping its pledge to spend £28bn a year on environmental projects if it wins the general election
• Sir Keir Starmer is expected to pin the U-turn on changes in the economic landscape since it was first unveiled in 2021
• Labour's former shadow environment secretary Barry Gardiner criticised the move, calling it "economically illiterate"
• The Green Party, the SNP, and the Unite union also hit out at Labour's plan
• Rishi Sunak called it a "serious moment", accusing Starmer of trying to "wriggle out" of the key promise
• Elsewhere, Sunak has declined to apologise for a joke he made during PMQs yesterday about Labour's trans policies, as murdered transgender teenager Brianna Ghey's mother was visiting Parliament

More comments from Rishi Sunak now, who’s been speaking to journalists during a visit to Cornwall.

He criticises Keir Starmer's decision to rowback on the party's £28 billion green investment pledge.

“This is a serious moment. This was the flagship plank of Labour's economic policy and it now looks like he's trying to wriggle out of it," the PM says.

"I think it demonstrates exactly what I've been saying, that he U-turns on major things, he can't say what he would do differently because he doesn't have a plan.

“If you don't have a plan, then you can't deliver change for our country.”

Rishi Sunak says he believes it is "sad and wrong" to link his comments at PMQs yesterday to Brianna Ghey's case.

"Like everyone, I was completely shocked by Brianna's case," he says. "To have your child taken from you in such awful circumstances is almost impossible to come to terms with."

He describes Brianna's "inspiring" mother Esther Ghey as speaking with "empathy and compassion", adding that he has "nothing but the most heartfelt sympathy" for her family.

He goes on: "But to use that tragedy to detract from the very separate and clear point I was making about Keir Starmer's proven track record of multiple U-turns on major policies - because he doesn't have a plan - I think is both sad and wrong.

"And it demonstrates the worst of politics."

Image source, PA Media

Commons leader Penny Mordaunt has suggested Rishi Sunak should reflect on his comments about transgender people, made during PMQs.

The Tory MP says: "Whatever the rough and tumble of this place, whatever the pressures and mistakes that are made in the heat of political combat, we owe it to the people who sent us here to strive every day to make them proud of us and this place."

She describes the PM as "good and caring man", adding she is sure he has reflected on things.

"That is not just about Mr and Mrs Ghey that he should reflect on, but I am sure he is also reflecting about people who are trans, or who have trans loved ones and family, some of whom sit on these green benches."

Mordaunt says she hopes Labour leader Keir Starmer "will also reflect on his actions".

Image source, PA Media

As we've been reporting, Rishi Sunak has declined to apologise after ridiculing Labour's position on trans people.

Among those calling for an apology was Brianna's father, Peter Spooner.

He told Sky News, external: "As the prime minister for our country to come out with degrading comments like he did, regardless of them being in relation to discussions in Parliament, they are absolutely dehumanising.

"Identities of people should not be used in that manner, and I personally feel shocked by his comments and feel he should apologise for his remarks."

Image source, PA Media

Image source, Reuter

Let's have a reminder what this is all about.

Rishi Sunak has been facing calls to apologise after joking about Labour's position on trans people when the mum of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey - who was transgender - was visiting Parliament.

During Prime Minister's Questions yesterday, Sunak ridiculed Sir Keir Starmer for U-turning on "defining a woman".

But Brianna's father, who is among those calling for an apology, said the PM's comment was "degrading".

At PMQs, Sunak listed what he described as a number of Labour U-turns, accusing Sir Keir of changing his position on "defining a woman".

"Although in fairness, that was only 99% of a U-turn," he added. This was a reference to Starmer last year saying "99.9%" of women don't have a penis.

In the Commons yesterday, Starmer hit back at Sunak, saying: "Of all the weeks to say that, when Brianna's mother is in this chamber. Shame."

It later emerged Esther Ghey wasn't in the chamber during the exchange, but arrived a short time afterwards.

In other news, we're just hearing Rishi Sunak has declined to apologise to Brianna Ghey's father over his transgender joke during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters in Cornwall, Sunak insists his comments were "absolutely legitimate" because he was pointing out Sir Keir Starmer's "proven track record of U-turns on major policies".

He says his point was "only proven" by today's reports that the Labour Party are planning to reverse their policy to spend £28bn a year on environmental projects if it wins the upcoming general election.

Starmer’s decision to backtrack on his green investment pledge has sparked criticism from MPs.

Labour MP and former shadow energy and climate change secretary Barry Gardiner told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's economically illiterate, it's environmentally irresponsible and it's politically jejune."

He said he understands the desire to "minimise attacks" from the Conservatives, but warned his party against becoming “so bland that you stand for nothing”.

Co-leader of the Green Party Carla Denyer similarly called the U-turn a "massive backward step". And Conservative MP and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Laura Trott said it shows Labour has "no plan for the UK".

The move was also criticised by left-wing campaign group Momentum:

"This latest Starmer U-turn represents yet another capitulation to right-wing interests," a spokesperson said, accusing the Labour leadership of being "afraid of its own shadow".

Unite, Labour's biggest union backer, joined the criticism, with general secretary Sharon Graham saying Britain is at risk of "lagging behind other nations".

"There is a catastrophic crisis of investment in Britain's economic infrastructure. Britain needs more not less investment," Graham added.