Government “unprincipled and short-sighted” for sacrificing climate commitments in Australia trade deal

8 September 2021

The Green Party has criticised the government after it was reported that ministers have sacrificed Paris climate agreement conditions in its trade deal with Australia. [1]

Green Party peer Natalie Bennett said:

“Sacrificing climate commitments to try to make up for the disastrous trade impacts of Brexit shows just how unprincipled and dangerously short-sighted this government is.

“The Paris agreement’s commitment to aim for below 1.5 degrees temperature rise is there to protect the future of everybody on the planet right now and future generations. This grubby trade deal is nothing more than a blatant cover-up for the mess Boris Johnson has left the UK to gain power for himself.

“As chair of COP26, the world expects the UK to be stringent in holding up existing climate commitments and energetic in pushing for even more. Instead, all we see is self-serving games being played, from a group of politicians who are willing to put all of our futures’ at risk for short-term and extremely limited financial and political gain.”

[1]       https://news.sky.com/story/exclusive-ministers-bowed-to-pressure-to-drop-key-climate-commitments-for-uk-trade-deal-with-australia-12401988