Boris Johnson will today warn world leaders they will be judged by history if they fail to tackle climate change.
The Prime Minister will hold talks in New York with a series of leaders today before travelling to Washington tomorrow for his first White House summit with Joe Biden. He will also hold separate talks with US vice president Kamala Harris.
Sources said Mr Johnson will also use the talks to push for the resumption of transatlantic travel, including the lifting of the US ban on arrivals from the UK.
Mr Johnson and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss were due to arrive in New York last night for the start of a four-day visit in which the PM hopes to get climate talks back on track ahead of the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.
Today he will meet maverick Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who he will urge to do more to prevent the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
He will also meet Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and South Korea’s Moon Jae-in, and host a virtual meeting of world leaders on climate issues.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will today warn world leaders they will be judged by history if they fail to tackle climate change as he heads to the US for his first White House summit
Mr Johnson hopes to use tomorrow’s White House summit to mend fences with President Biden, following a summer in which the special relationship became strained over the military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
But his immediate priority is to persuade the US to agree to its share of a $100 billion (£70 billion) fund for helping developing countries, which is seen as critical to the success of the Cop26 summit.
The PM said last night: ‘World leaders have a small window of time left to deliver on their climate commitments ahead of Cop26.
‘My message to those I meet this week will be clear: future generations will judge us based on what we achieve in the coming months.’
Mr Johnson said leaders had a duty to stump up the cash.
‘Richer nations have reaped the benefits of untrammelled pollution for generations, often at the expense of developing countries,’ he said.
‘As those countries now try to grow their economies in a clean, green and sustainable way, we have a duty to support them in doing so – with our technology, with our expertise and with the money we have promised.’
The PM said he would also push leaders to agree ‘concrete action on coal, climate, cars and trees’ in order to keep alive the hope of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees centigrade.
In an effort to lead by example, Mr Johnson last night agreed a £500 million package to accelerate the phase-out of coal in the UK.
Tomorrow’s White House summit threatens to be a tense affair. Mr Biden was scathing about Mr Johnson during his election campaign in 2019, describing him as a ‘physical and emotional clone’ of Donald Trump.
Boris Johnson will look to mend fences with US President Joe Biden during his visit to a White House. Pictured: Leaders of the G7 pose during a group photo at the G7 meeting in Cornwall
The two men appeared to strike up a decent working relationship during the G7 summit in Cornwall in June, but the PM is said to have felt ‘let down’ over the rapid withdrawal from Afghanistan, which
