UK Tories Eliminate Position Of Highest-Ranking Climate Diplomat
The UK government has axed its most senior climate diplomat post, the Guardian can reveal. The last special representative for climate change, Nick Bridge, stood down recently after six years in post and is not being replaced.
The special representative was appointed by the foreign secretary and worked at a high diplomatic level to further the UK’s climate goals internationally. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said the climate crisis remained of “utmost importance”. But the special representative in post from 2013-17, Prof Sir David King, said: “This is extremely disappointing. It’s a very backward step. I do hope that the government has second thoughts and gets a very strong person into this position.”
King said he had made 96 official country visits in the two years before the Paris climate agreement was signed in 2015, enabling the UK government to play a leading role in achieving the deal. “The important thing is that the climate change situation is far, far worse now than it was in 2015,” he said.
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The Guardian reported in 2018 that the number of full-time officials dedicated to the climate crisis in the Foreign Office had dropped by almost 25% since 2016 under the then foreign secretary, Boris Johnson. The FCDO declined to share the current number of its climate staff. The UK government recently launched a new energy security plan. But critics said it was a missed opportunity full of “half-baked, half-hearted” policies that did not go far enough to power Britain’s climate goals. The plan failed to put the UK on track to meet its international emissions targets under the Paris agreement.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/13/uk-accused-of-backwards-step-for-axing-top-climate-diplomat-role
