BAKU, Azerbaijan — U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned that “the path of inaction” on climate change will lead to global insecurity at a COP29 summit overshadowed by the reelection of Donald Trump and the threat of the U.S. walking away from its environmental commitments.
Speaking on the day world leaders met to set the direction of the two-week conference, Starmer said there are “two paths ahead” on climate as he positioned the United Kingdom as a “first mover” on green investment and emissions cuts.
While insisting he did not want to “start sending messages” to the president-elect — who as recently as last week called climate change a “hoax” — Starmer said the “lesson from history” was that countries that acted early during energy transitions would reap the benefits.
“The way I see it, there are two paths ahead,” Starmer said at a press conference at the Baku summit Tuesday. “One, the path of inaction and delay leading to further decline and vulnerability. Warming above [1.5 degrees Celsius] will expose hundreds of thousands more people in the U.K. to flood risk, greater economic instability and national insecurity.
