Despite the UK’s self-proclaimed status as a “climate leader”, the UK is fuelling climate breakdown – and Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip – by investing in fossil fuels and weapons, rather than solutions to the climate crisis.
People in the Global South are facing the worst effects of climate breakdown, despite doing the least to cause it – including 18 million people in Bangladesh, who are currently facing disastrous and deadly flooding.
Yet the UK is refusing to pay its climate debt – money it owes to Global South countries on the frontlines of climate breakdown for causing the climate crisis, while growing rich from these polluting industries.
The UK has the money to pay up – it’s just choosing to spend it on destructive fossil fuel projects and weaponry – with the new UK government committing to increasing military spending to an eye-watering £87.1 billion pounds. The UK is still transferring arms to Israel, which Israel is then using in its genocide against Palestinians.
As the UK government prepares for the upcoming UN Climate Summit later this month, COP29 (11 – 22 November), demand that the UK acts as a real “climate leader” by defunding militarism and fossil fuels — and investing in climate justice.
Write to The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband now.
