On Tuesday 17th December, Ellie spoke about the continued lack of agreement at the end of COP25, saying that international accord must be reached to tackle the climate crisis.

Speech:

Madam President, as a British Green I have experienced two significant disappointments in the last few days: first of all, the result of the British general election and, secondly, the failure of COP25 to make sufficient progress. That is an especially bitter disappointment because of the unprecedented green wave of protests that we’ve seen over the last year calling for unity around the science, and those citizens are disappointed.

As Mr Timmermans said, our task is now more urgent than ever and we in Europe have a particular historic responsibility. I am actually tired of hearing excuses from other Members of this House about the responsibilities of China and so forth. We owe a carbon debt to low-income countries, in particular, for the loss and damage caused by climate change. We need to put our own house in order; we cannot keep kicking that can down the road.

Now my country, the UK, is hosting COP26 next year and I have a message to Boris Johnson, our new Prime Minister: ‘The world is watching. Will you sell out climate change with a race to the bottom trade deal with Trump or will you step up?’ The world is watching, not waiting. We will continue to mobilise until action matches the urgency of the climate crisis.