Green Party leader Zack Polanski has said he was not reassured by the speech delivered by UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham to the Cop31 climate summit, which is now in its third day of leaders’ addresses. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Polanski criticised the message from the prime minister as falling short of what the climate crisis demands.
His criticism came alongside a separate decision that he said undercut the government’s climate commitments. Energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh has approved drilling at the Jackdaw gasfield, which lies in the North Sea. Polanski described the approval as one step forward and two back, arguing that it sends a mixed message at a moment when world leaders are gathered to discuss cutting emissions.
The contrast between the two developments sits at the centre of the debate. Summit speeches are typically intended to signal national ambition on reducing fossil fuel use and tackling global warming, and opposition voices often measure those signals against domestic policy decisions. Polanski’s remarks suggest that, in his view, approving new fossil fuel extraction while presenting a climate-focused address to the summit leaves a gap between words and action.
The Jackdaw approval is the decision Polanski returned to most often in his critique. By his account, new drilling in the North Sea runs against the direction the summit is meant to set, and it weakens the case the government is making abroad when it speaks about cutting emissions at home. The issue is not only one of messaging but of whether domestic decisions match the commitments announced in international forums.
The Cop31 talks are continuing, and the reaction from Polanski adds to the pressure on the government to show how its climate pledges will translate into concrete measures. The prime minister’s address and the approval of the Jackdaw project are the two points on which the criticism has focused so far, and the summit’s later sessions will show whether the government moves to answer that criticism.
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