For the start of COP27, many heads of state are expected in Egypt for a week-long summit on the climate emergency, including the new British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The latter had initially tried to dodge the event, but he changed his mind four days ago in the face of general dissatisfaction.
With our correspondent in London, Marie Boeda
The Prime Minister has more pressing commitments, Downing Street announced last week, including the budget preparation, while the country is going through one of its worst economic crises in forty years. But he is criticized for lacking leadership on the environment. He finally gives in to the pressure and recognizes that there is no long-term prosperity without action on climate change.
This is a second encouraging gesture for environmentalists since he has already reinstated the moratorium on hydraulic fracturing. But major divisions on environmental issues remain, particularly over oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, which the Prime Minister maintains. A way to alleviate the current energy crisis linked to the war in Ukraine, according to him.
A shift in the environment
Meanwhile, Just Stop activists maintain their spectacular actions to raise awareness. And the government does not comment.
Already this summer, during the debates between the candidates to replace Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak had assumed that he was not putting the environmental crisis first, declaring that “ we must not go too fast and too hard on climate action “. He had also joked on the subject by admitting that in his family, his two young daughters are the climate experts and that he took advice from them.
Support for Alaa Abdel Fattah
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also intends to take advantage of COP27 in Egypt to raise the case of the political prisoner Alaa Abdel Fattahon hunger strike for more than 200 days and very weak, he said in a letter sent to his family on Saturday.
►Also read: Analysis – Climate: understanding loss and damage, great expectations from the South at COP27 (1/2)