Keir Starmer is taking the lead on tackling the climate crisis. With the US backing away, now is the moment when other nations must step up
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ith the once-familiar pillars of the old world order crumbling and the US stepping away from action on climate crisis, it falls to others to assume global environmental leadership. Those leaders who understand the urgency should seize the opportunity afforded by Brazil hosting Cop30 this month to build a coalition of committed countries determined to turn back the climate deniers.
Many now see China – the most successful manufacturer of solar, wind, battery and electric vehicle technologies – as the global low-carbon powerhouse. But its national emission goals, recently submitted to the UN, are underwhelming and it is unclear whether China is willing to take up the mantle of climate leadership.
It is the EU, Norway and the UK who have led the west in sustaining green industrial policies through thick and thin, and who are, along with Japan, the main providers of climate finance to the global south. Yet today the EU looks uncertain of itself, under pressure from major sectors lobbying to weaken climate targets and from far-right parties seeking to move the continent away from the once solid cross-party consensus on net zero goals.
