- Posted at 9:569:56Critics underestimate ability of human race to achieve climate goals - Johnson
Earlier, Boris Johnson said critics "underestimated" the ability of the human race to achieve climate goals set during COP26.
He recounted how a Telegraph colleague, who happened to be an aide of his, scoffed at the idea of turning to wind power, on the grounds that it was "medieval technology".
He remembers replying that burning oil was "positively Paleolithic" in comparison.
He went on to say that moving towards clean energy was something that could be done.
"The critics of this agenda massively underestimate the ability to harness the natural world," he said, referencing examples of innovative carbon solutions in both China and the US.
As our climate editor Justin Rowlatt noted earlier, Johnson himself once criticised wind power as not capable of “pulling the skin off a rice pudding”.
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- Posted at 9:409:40Johnson says he is glad Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is here
Johnson is asked whether he was worried when the current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he wouldn't be attending the COP27 summit due to preparations for the UK government's Budget on 17 November.
Johnson replies: "The prime minister's here. I'm glad he's here. He's made an outstanding speech the other day. He's on absolutely the right lines."
He adds he is attending the conference as a "foot soldier and spear carrier of the Conservative Party, purely in a supportive role to remind the world of what we did in Glasgow".
He says he wants "to make the key point" that there is a "risk" that some people will "go weak and wobbly on net zero".
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- Posted at 9:379:37This is not the moment to go weak on net zero, says Johnson
Boris Johnson tells the audience that he's very worried about the UK's target of reaching "net zero" carbon emissions by 2050.
"The reason I'm here is because I am worried that the discussion about Ukraine, about what's happening there, is having all sorts of bad effects," he says. "It's making people anxious about net zero, it's making people anxious about whether we can really do it.
"The point I'm trying to get across to you today is that this is not the moment to go weak on net zero, this is the moment to double down on green technology and to double down on wind power and clean green solutions.
"This is not the moment to give in to Putin's energy blackmail."
Some Conservative MPs have called for a re-think of how the UK gets to net zero, with candidates in the summer's Tory leadership contest voicing concerns about the economic cost.
Johnson says recognises there are plenty of people who disagree with him on this point but that the Ukraine war and its consequences is absolutely a struggle between right and wrong.
Many countries globally have agreed to meet the net zero target, which scientists say is necessary to slow global warming and reduce the risk of severe consequences from climate change.
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- Posted at 9:349:34Private sector has to help fix climate issue - Johnson
"At what point does it just become imperative for Britain and the Unites States and others to simply just do more?" New York Times journalist Max Bearak asks now.
Johnson replies budgetary pressures are "massive right now".
"But that doesn't mean that we in the UK are not doing a huge amount. We continue to give huge sums of assistance.
"I think it's important though to recognise there is a gap. At COP26, we said the developed world would come up with $100bn a year, we are way short of that at the moment.
"The taxpayer in the developed world is going to have to do some things, but it can't do everything, certainly not right now.
"The best way forward are programmes like the Eskom deal with South Africa... and to use government activity and intervention to trigger the private sector to come in. That is the real solution I think.
"The answer to this problem is going to be found in a partnership between an activist international community, but the private sector has got to do it."
So glad the world has this visionary there to promote this topic.
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