PM speech at COP31 climate summit: 12 November 2026

Prime Minister Andy Burnham delivers a speech at the COP31 climate summit 2026

 

Mr President, my fellow leaders, Your Excellencies, good morning, good to be with you. 

The summer from which Britain recently emerged was not normal. 

I spent my first three weeks as Prime Minister responding to the worst wildfires Britain has ever experienced. 

I decided then it was important for me to be here to show British leadership in a world where climate issues have taken too much of a backseat. 

The climate crisis is not a distant threat. It is upon us all now, devastating lives and livelihoods everywhere. 

Meanwhile, two wars across two continents have sent fuel prices and gas bills soaring for families and businesses across the world. 

The common thread running through all of this, our dependence on fossil fuels. 

The message I carry here at my first COP as UK Prime Minister is this. We’re committed to meeting our 2050 net zero target and committed to working with all of our partners to reach theirs. 

In that spirit, I am proud to support this COP’s focus on electrification. It matters for three reasons. 

First, for achieving energy security. It is now plain for everyone to see that if we depend on energy we do not control, then we leave ourselves exposed to prices we cannot control. 

The shift to clean energy is the only route to energy security. Electrification is how we protect families from global fossil fuel shocks. 

Second, it creates good jobs. 

Yesterday the UK gave the green light on two major offshore wind projects which will bring billions of investment, power millions of homes and support thousands of jobs.

A government-funded electric arc furnace in South Wales, one of the largest in Europe, will secure 5,000 steel workers’ jobs. 

And Rolls-Royce are taking small modular nuclear reactor technology around the world, supporting thousands more. 

Third, electrification lowers people’s bills. 

The last of these meetings I attended was COP26 as the Mayor of Greater Manchester. 

In the five years since we have not moved as quick as I had hoped. The world feels very different now and we need to adapt. 

Electrification in transport, heat and industry is how we make clean power cheap power.

If you drive a new electric car today in the UK, it costs less than a petrol equivalent. Get on the right tariff and a heat pump can be cheaper to run than a gas boiler. These technologies are becoming cheaper but they are not available to everybody on all incomes. 

As a government, we are doing our bit by investing in innovation and subsidising upfront costs for the public. 

But we need industry to play their part too and help people on all incomes to make the green transition. 

This crisis can only be solved in partnership. 

I have pledged a new era of British leadership over the next decade. 

The consensus we once enjoyed on science and climate has gone, and the reality is now the world will reach 1.5 degrees. 

Climate leadership and action have become more urgent.

Britain will answer the call. Climate is a national security issue. 

As evidence of that, I am today announcing the appointment of Dame Madeline Alessandri, as the first UK special representative for climate security. 

We know also that the transition must be paid for and here the UK is uniquely placed to help. 

The City of London has become adept at taking a modest amount of public funding and converting it into significant sums of private investment. 

Building on that success, I am today announcing UK support for the Amplify programme. 

It will aim to secure 5 billion pounds of new private finance for clean energy projects around the world. 

Last week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting brought home to me the climate premium paid by developing nations as they bear the brunt of this crisis. 

As the UK takes up the presidency of the G20 next year, we will put climate resilience back on the agenda, with debt, development and insurance as key issues. 

We recognise that the work at this COP is about the future of our natural world too and the condition in which we pass it on to the next generation. 

And the UK will proudly maintain its support to preserve tropical forests and oceans, helping nations protect these precious ecosystems for the benefit of all people. 

So, in conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, Britain will live up to its commitments. We will help our friends as they live up to theirs. 

Britain is back and ready to play its full part. Thank you very much indeed for listening.

From: Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street and The Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP