Sunak: Putin’s war is ‘a reason to act faster’ on climate

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday framed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as motivation for accelerating global action against climate change.

“Putin’s abhorrent war in Ukraine and rising energy prices across the world are not a reason to go slow on climate change. They are a reason to act faster,” Sunak said at the United Nations (U.N.) climate change summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

The British leader called upon countries to harness public and private financing to protect the planet while fostering growth in developing countries.

Sunak urged nations to diversify their clean energy supplies and invest in renewables as insurance “against the risk of energy dependency.” Doing so, he continued, would generate a robust source of jobs and economic growth.

“It is morally right to honor our promises, but it is also economically right too. Climate security goes hand in hand with energy security,” Sunak said.

The British prime minister, who took office on Oct. 25, generated widespread criticism for an initial declaration that he would not attend the international climate summit, citing the need to prioritize domestic issues.

But Sunak eventually reversed course, and Downing Street confirming his attendance last week. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson is also attending the summit.

Looking back to last year’s U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, Sunak said that countries embarked on a global path “to unlock billions of pounds of private finance for the development of new green infrastructure.”

“So instead of developing countries being unfairly burdened with a carbon debt of richer nations and somehow expected to forgo that same path to growth, we are helping those countries deliver their own fast track to clean growth,” the prime minister continued.

The world’s richest nations have received abundant criticism for their failure to live up to a promise made in 2009 to provide $100 billion annually to less wealthy nations by 2020.

Nonetheless, Sunak touted the United Kingdom’s efforts to deliver on its commitments, stressing that the country will be tripling its funding on adaptation efforts to 1.5 billion pounds ($1.7 billion) by 2025. He also cited an investment of 65 million pounds ($75 million) in green energy projects in Kenya and in Egypt.

“By honoring the promises we made in Glasgow and by directing public and private finance towards the protection of our planet, we can turn our struggle against climate change into a global mission for new jobs and clean growth,” the British leader added.