Tackling the climate emergency is one of the key issues that could turn the tide against hard-right populists across the world, the UK\u2019s energy secretary has said.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the eve of the UN\u2019s climate summit, Ed Miliband<\/a> said it was the cause progressives could rally around, because most people recognise populist parties have got it wrong.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not going to give up and the progress that we\u2019ve already made should give us heart,\u201d he said. \u201cGiving up would be a total betrayal. Defeatism never took a single of a fraction of a degree of global warming. It never created a single job. It never did anything.\u201d<\/p>\n Miliband spoke as world leaders have been meeting in Bel\u00e9m, Brazil, before the crucial Cop30 conference<\/a> begins on Monday, at which governments of every stripe will attempt to forge a pathway that limits global temperatures and avoids the ravages of climate breakdown.<\/p>\n The UN secretary general, Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, struck a note of desperation when he warned this week<\/a> that efforts to limit heating to 1.5C above preindustrial levels \u2013 the goal of the Paris climate agreement, and the last safe point, according to scientists \u2013 had failed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to be the bearers of hope,\u201d Miliband said. \u201cWe can fight back. Climate is a strength [in the battle against hard-right populism] not a weakness. We\u2019re about giving a better future for people\u2019s kids and grandkids.\u201d<\/p>\n He warned that populists wanted people to slip into gloom and defeatism over the prospects of climate breakdown. Progressives must make the climate their core rallying cry, as most people around the world want climate action, he said.<\/p>\n Miliband\u2019s words also seemed aimed at some within his own party, who have sought in backroom briefings to play down the UK\u2019s climate policies for fear of having them targeted by Reform UK. Some aides to Keir Starmer, the prime minister, sought to prevent him from going to Cop30<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ed Miliband and Keir Starmer, left, attend Prince William\u2019s Earthshot prize award ceremony in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday. Photograph: Bruna Prado\/AP<\/p>\n \u201cPeople who want to shrink back from this argument and want to somehow soft pedal on this argument are just plain wrong. Nobody ever won an argument by soft pedalling or not making the argument,\u201d Miliband told the Guardian.<\/p>\n \u201cOur agenda is a hopeful agenda. The agenda of our opponents is the agenda of despair, that nothing can be done and we\u2019ve just got to accept the inevitable of climate breakdown.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the world should not give up on limiting global heating to the crucial 1.5C threshold, as we could be on the verge of a rapid global shift to clean energy that will defy predictions of doom.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not giving up on 1.5C<\/a>,\u201d said Miliband. \u201cI think actually we\u2019re seeing some positive tipping points<\/a> [that will trigger a rapid move to a low-carbon economy]. You\u2019re seeing an absolute transformation in different parts of the world around solar power.\u201d<\/p>\n Renewable energy now attracts double the global investment<\/a> \u2013 more than $2tn \u2013 of fossil fuels, and large emitters of carbon such as China <\/a>and India<\/a> are moving rapidly to low-carbon energy in place of coal.<\/p>\n Downplaying the issue of climate breakdown would not work in the battle for voters by progressive parties against populists, in Miliband\u2019s view. Rightwing parties were winning elections and topping polls because \u201cpeople are deeply unhappy with the status quo\u201d, he said. \u201cAnd they\u2019re not wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The planet’s most important stories. Get all the week’s environment news – the good, the bad and the essential<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Miliband rejected the idea that large numbers of people in the UK, where the climate-denying Reform party is riding high in the polls, wanted a return to fossil fuels.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievably patronising and wrong when Nigel Farage says \u2018let\u2019s bring back the coalmines\u2019. Mine is an ex-mining constituency. People don\u2019t ask to bring back the coalmines. People ask for the good jobs of the future, and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve got to do.\u201d<\/p>\n In Bel\u00e9m, the pre-conference world leaders\u2019 summit on Friday saw pleas for action from some of the world\u2019s most vulnerable countries. Somalia\u2019s deputy prime minister, Salah Ahmed Jama, made a powerful speech, saying his country was responsible for only 0.01% of greenhouse gas emissions, but was among the four nations most affected by drought, floods and other extreme weather disasters.<\/p>\n \u201cFor us, climate crisis is a reality. It is the mother who has to walk 10km to get water. It is the pastoralist who is losing his herds. It is the children who end up in a camp suffering hunger and disease.\u201d He urged world leaders to find funds to support vulnerable nations, saying climate finance was their main hope now that governments were cutting overseas development aid.<\/p>\n Kenya\u2019s deputy president, Kithure Kindiki, said: \u201cExtreme drought alternating with floods continues to threaten livelihoods and wipe out the gains of our development agenda. As I am here, scores of people are being searched for after being buried under a landslide. Such incidents have become common.\u201d<\/p>\n Kenya\u2019s deputy president, Kithure Kindiki, second from left, gathers with other world leaders before Cop30. Photograph: Ant\u00f3nio Lacerda\/EPA<\/p>\n He said the lack of climate finance was an insult and an injustice to those suffering from the climate crisis. He also pointed out the positive story of the green energy revolution in Africa, noting that Kenya already gets 93% of its electricity from clean energy and was a vital source of critical minerals needed for wind turbines, solar panels and batteries. \u201cWe can help the world in its transition to clean energy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, the president of host nation Brazil, said: \u201cIt took 28 climate Cops for us to commit, in Dubai, to a just, orderly and equitable energy transition. The Earth can no longer sustain the development model based on the intensive use of fossil fuels that has prevailed for the last 200 years.\u201d<\/p>\n Although Lula leads a country that is among the top 10 oil and gas producers in the world, the president was sending a clear signal to his negotiators to keep the fossil fuel phaseout question alive at this conference, despite efforts by Saudi Arabia in pre-Cop talks to block it.<\/p>\n The pithiest reminder of the need for collective action came from Zimbabwe\u2019s environment minister, Evelyn Ndlovu, who said: \u201cThe climate crisis is not a competition. There is no winner or loser. Either we all win or we all lose.\u201d<\/p>\n