We have a situation where the prime minister is asking people, as he is at the summit that Britain is hosting today of The Powering Past Coal Alliance, to do more to drive coal out of our economy. At the same time as he is opening a coal mine himself. I would think, to most of his peers, that is very baffling.
It certainly doesn’t encourage them to treat him as a serious partner when it come to the big meeting in Glasgow at the end of the year. What makes this mistake so bad, is that we have managed to drive down our own emissions while making our economy grow at the same time, so we have proved that it can be done. Also, in things like the Climate Change Act, and The Powering Past Coal Alliance we have given the world a real lead, and to mess it up with what is clearly a lack of grip inside the government is a really bad error. And it is an error with consequences, because all of the leaders that he has to get to agree at the COP in Glasgow, they all have problems at home with their own transition, and this kind of mistake encourages the internal opposition of his peers, and that of course is not welcome.
This is an excerpt from an interview with Sky News. The full interview can be seen here: