COP26 summit: UK failing on climate diplomacy, says Ed Miliband

The UK has failed to build alliances internationally to persuade countries like China to cut carbon emissions, Ed Miliband has said.

Labour's shadow energy secretary said the UK lacked a strategy to get high-polluting nations to pledge cuts at a UN summit it is hosting next month.

And he said ministers were putting trade deals ahead of climate change.

The UK's climate chief Alok Sharma has called on the biggest economies to "step up" their commitments.

On Tuesday, Mr Sharma urged countries including China and India to update their 2030 emissions plans before next month's COP26 summit in Glasgow.

But in a speech on Wednesday, Mr Miliband said UK government ministers had been "at best bystanders and at worst, contributors to global inaction".

• What the COP26 climate summit could mean for us all

• Is the UK on track to meet its climate targets?

• China absent from key UK climate meeting

More than 200 countries are being asked to set out their plans to cut emissions by 2030, ahead of the conference beginning on 31 October.

As the host country, the UK is under pressure to get them to make ambitious commitments to reduce the greenhouse gases they emit.

The summit is seen as crucial if countries are to implement a pledge made in 2015 keep global warming "well below" 2C above pre-industrial levels.

COP26 climate summit - The basics

• Climate change is one of the world's most pressing problems. Governments must promise more ambitious cuts in warming gases if we are to prevent greater global temperature rises.

• The summit in Glasgow is where change could happen. You need to watch for the promises made by the world's biggest polluters, like the US and China, and whether poorer countries are getting the support they need.

• All our lives will change. Decisions made here could impact our jobs, how we heat our homes, what we eat and how we travel.

Read more about the COP26 summit here.

However, ahead of his speech, Mr Miliband accused the UK government of lacking a "proper strategy for this summit".

"We have not built the coalition to put the pressure on countries like China, that they've got to step up," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

He said the 2015 Paris climate summit had succeeded because richer Western nations had teamed up with poorer countries to put pressure on other big emitters - but this had not happened ahead of COP26.

He also accused the government of giving a "free pass" to Australia by agreeing to cut key climate pledges from a draft post-Brexit trade deal.

The COP26 conference will take place at Glasgow's Scottish Event Campus later this month.

During his speech, Mr Miliband argued that the world is "miles away from where we need to be" to ensure temperature pledges are kept.

He said figures compiled by the UN show pledges made so far amount to only a third of the required amount to meet the 2C warming target.

The UK is part of a group of countries including France, Italy, Germany, the US, Argentina and Japan that have set out their 2030 emissions plans.

China, India, Australia and Saudi Arabia are among those who are yet to detail their plans.

Mr Sharma, who held face-to-face talks with China's climate envoy last month, said on Tuesday that these remaining nations "must deliver" ahead of COP26.

He added there had been progress on topics including emissions pledges and climate financing, but "on each of them, critically, we have further to go".

"Responsibility rests with each and every country. And we must all play our part," he added.

• Why the COP26 climate summit is important

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