Ed Miliband urges progressives to unite around green policies ahead of Cop30

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband says climate policies can be a strength in tackling the rise of populist political parties ahead of the Cop30 summit in Brazil.

World leaders are gathering in the Amazon city of Belem for the United Nations climate summit against a gloomy background of the United States, China and India snubbing the gathering and warnings that the target of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 1.5C in the Paris Agreement is almost certain to be missed.

Mr Miliband insists that green issues can provide a rallying point for progressive political parties because a significant number of people disagree with the stance taken by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who have both pledged to row back on climate policies and support North Sea oil and gas.

“People who want to shrink back from this argument and want to somehow soft pedal on this argument are just plain wrong,” Mr Miliband told The Guardian.

“Nobody ever won an argument by soft pedalling or not making the argument.”

“Our agenda is a hopeful agenda. The agenda of our opponents is the agenda of despair, that nothing can be done and we’ve just got to accept the inevitable of climate breakdown.

“I’m not giving up on 1.5C. I think actually we’re seeing some positive tipping points – you’re seeing an absolute transformation in different parts of the world around solar power.”

Mr Miliband insisted people in his Doncaster North constituency were not seeking a return to coal mining.

“It’s unbelievably patronising and wrong when Nigel Farage says ‘let’s bring back the coalmines’,” he said.

“Mine is an ex-mining constituency. People don’t ask to bring back the coalmines. People ask for the good jobs of the future, and that’s what we’ve got to do.

“We’re not going to give up and the progress that we’ve already made should give us heart.”

He continued: “Giving 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.

“We can fight back. Climate is a strength, not a weakness. We’re about giving a better future for people’s kids and grandkids.”

Mr Miliband was speaking after Sir Keir Starmer challenged opposition critics with a promise to double down on net zero, as he admitted the “consensus is gone” on climate change.

The Prime Minister staunchly defended his Government’s clean energy agenda, but conceded unity on “science that is unequivocal” has splintered since the Paris Accord a decade ago.

Sir Keir sought to make the economic case for net zero by arguing the green transition would create jobs and lower household bills.

He said: “Ten years ago, the world came together in Paris … united in our determination to tackle the climate crisis.

“A consensus based on science that is unequivocal and this unity was not just international – it was there within most of our countries too.

“There was cross-party consensus in the UK. The only question was how fast we could go. Today, however, sadly that consensus is gone.”

He described green policies as a “win-win” despite pressure from US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly criticised Britain’s net zero agenda.

In an appeal for unity, the Prime Minister said: “The greater our collective ambition, the more progress we make in tackling the climate crisis, and the greater the opportunities we create.

“Just for UK businesses… providing goods and services for the global net zero transition could be worth £1 trillion by 2030.”

World leaders had warned on Thursday that time is running short for urgent and decisive action to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the gathering with harsh words for world powers who he said “remain captive to the fossil fuel interests, rather than protecting the public interest”.

Allowing global warming to exceed the key benchmark of 1.5C would represent a “moral failure and deadly negligence,” Mr Guterres said, warning that “even a temporary overshoot will have dramatic consequences… every fraction of a degree higher means more hunger, displacement and loss”.