Former Prime Minister says net zero must be achieved via investment from private sector rather than through western taxpayers.
A popular Boris Johnson at COP27 has come out today saying the UK should not pay “reparations” to low-income countries affected by climate change.
Speaking at an event organised by the New York Times at COP27 in Egypt, the former PM said that climate action had been “one of the most important collateral victims” of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and called for leaders not to give in to “energy blackmail.”
Mr Johnson, who was surrounded by supporters lining up for selfies said that net zero would have to be achieved through investment from the private sector in partnership with the international community rather than through taxpayers in western countries.
Mr Johnson was firm saying the “taxpayer in the developed world cannot do everything.”
He told delegates: “The best way to fix this is not to look backwards and to try to tot up some bill for loss and damage that the UK or other countries have done, but try to try to look at what the UK can do to help to take countries forward and help them achieve the carbon reductions and green technologies.” He said the country simply did not have the money.
“Two hundred years ago, we started it all and there’s no question that per capita, people in the UK have put out an awful lot of carbon into the atmosphere.
“But what we cannot do is make up for that with some kind of reparations. We simply do not have the financial resources — and no country could.”
“The whole concept is tough: who devises the reparations? Let’s look to the future,” he added.
However, Labour’s shadow climate change secretary Ed Miliband has said British tax payers should foot the bill and has committed his party to providing reparations finance for global loss and damage.
