The WMO has said that 2015-2024 will be the warmest ten years on record with the loss of ice from glaciers, sea-level rises and ocean heating acceleration.
Labour’s Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, has hit back at Trump’s claims that climate change is a hoax as he pledged to do all he could to ensure Britain is at the forefront of the Green transition.
Trump has often denied the evidence of climate change and only a few months ago called climate change ‘one of the great scams’ following the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene, which killed more than 100 people, across the southeast US.
The world has seen increasing wildfires, droughts and record temperatures in recent years, with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) issuing a red alert on the first day of the UN Climate Change Conference, COP29.
The WMO has said that 2015-2024 will be the warmest ten years on record with the loss of ice from glaciers, sea-level rises and ocean heating acceleration, while extreme weather, like Spain’s recent floods and hurricanes that battered the USA, is wreaking havoc on communities and economies across the world.
“Climate catastrophe is hammering health, widening inequalities, harming sustainable development, and rocking the foundations of peace. The vulnerable are hardest hit,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
Miliband was asked about President-elect Trump’s denial of climate change, to which he replied: “I don’t believe it’s a hoax. It’s real, just look at events in Spain. Look at the fact that we had a 40 degree day in Britain two years ago, look at what’s happening in the U.S. It’s definitely happening.”
Asked about what the government’s message will be to Trump, Miliband replied: “The message for us is we’re going to do what’s in our national self-interest’.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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