Dear constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about the COP26 UN climate conference in Glasgow in November.

COP26 is a critical moment for our planet and our country. The overriding goal of the summit must be to put the world decisively on course to deliver on the ambition of the 2015 Paris Agreement and keep the hope of limiting global heating to 1.5°C within reach.

Unfortunately, we are not where we need to be as we approach the conference. Commitments for climate action from global governments so far fall well short of what is needed to prevent climate breakdown.

As COP26 host, the Government must therefore do everything possible to get other countries to bring forward more ambitious emissions reduction targets. We must also not lose focus on the concrete plans necessary to meet these targets. To provide serious leadership on this though, the Government needs to have established the UK’s own credibility here at home. I am therefore worried at the massive gap that remains between the Government’s emissions reduction targets and the policies in place to achieve them. We need to get back on track to meeting our own net zero goals with a comprehensive plan for action across the whole of Government that locks in a genuine green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. It is for this reason that I support calls for an additional £28 billion of capital investment in our country’s green transition for every year of this decade.

Success at COP26 must also mean proper support for developing countries, including for adaptation and for loss and damage measures. We must ensure that developed countries finally honour the commitment to jointly mobilize $100 billion per year in climate finance for developing countries, as well as spearheading efforts to provide debt relief for the world’s poorest countries. I am therefore extremely concerned at the damage to the UK’s international credibility done by the Government’s decision to push ahead with cuts to our aid budget.

We must also use COP26 to secure international action on phasing out fossil fuels, aligning private finance with the 1.5°C goal and reversing deforestation and habitat loss. With the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change making clear how urgently we must act, we must push the limits of what is possible in Glasgow.

Thank you once again for contacting me.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP