British Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Türkiye, on Thursday, November 12, that the global consensus on climate action has broken down — and pledged a "new era of British leadership" over the next decade, recommitting the United Kingdom to reaching net zero by 2050.

Source: Press Association via The Oldham Times

Burnham, attending the annual United Nations climate gathering for the first time as prime minister, was the first speaker at Thursday's session. The BBC reported that he addressed a half-empty plenary hall, with Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband and London Mayor Sadiq Khan in the audience.

Source: BBC News live coverage via Morningstar / Alliance News

"We should all recognise the summer was not normal. The climate crisis is upon all of us now," Burnham told delegates, pointing to a summer of extreme heat, wildfires and drought. "The message I carry here, in my first Cop as Prime Minister, is that the UK remains determined to reach net zero by 2050 and to work with our partners to build a clean energy future."

"The world has changed. The consensus we once enjoyed on science and climate action has broken down," he said. In the delivered speech, reported by the Press Association, he added that the world will now reach 1.5 degrees of warming, and that climate leadership had become more urgent: "Britain is back and ready to play its full part."

Only G7 leader at the summit

Burnham is the only G7 leader addressing the summit in the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya. United States President Donald Trump declined to send an official delegation for the second year running, after the United States withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. The leaders of China and India, Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi, are also absent, as are France's Emmanuel Macron, Germany's Friedrich Merz and Italy's Giorgia Meloni, while around 50 European leaders gather in Ireland.

First climate security envoy named

The prime minister announced that Dame Madeleine Alessandri, former chairwoman of the Joint Intelligence Committee — the body that provides ministers with national security assessments — has been appointed special representative for climate security. Her role will involve strengthening international partnerships and ensuring climate and nature risks are treated as a matter of national security, identifying risks before they develop into crises.

Dame Madeleine said she would "work with partners across government and internationally to strengthen our understanding of climate threats, build resilience, and ensure we are better prepared for the challenges ahead."

Money, electricity and the road ahead

At COP31, Burnham will announce further UK investment in the Climate Investment Funds' Amplifi initiative, which aims to attract up to £12 in private investment for every £1 of public funding; BBC live coverage put the programme's aim at securing £5 billion in new private finance (£5 billion — yaani about 500 crore pounds). He also endorsed host nation Türkiye's pledge to raise the share of global energy demand met by electricity from 21 per cent to 35 per cent by 2035, and his government will publish a clean electrification road map. The UK currently ranks 15th among G20 nations on electrification of its energy system, according to analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit.

Ahead of the trip, Burnham welcomed a £12 billion investment — including £1 billion from the state-owned National Wealth Fund — in offshore wind farms off the Norfolk coast (£12 billion — yaani about 1,200 crore pounds). On the margins of the summit he is set to meet Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to discuss protecting the Amazon rainforest, reversing deforestation and Britain's support for the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, according to Downing Street.

Burnham spoke a day after UN Secretary-General António Guterres opened the leaders' summit by warning that fossil fuels must "go the way of the dinosaurs" and that the world is on a path to mutually assured destruction. Read the Guterres COP31 leaders' summit story

Praise abroad, pressure at home

Burnham's green commitment is contested at home. His government faces accusations of deprioritising the green agenda, speculation that ministers may cut a target for electric vehicle sales by about a quarter, and environmentalist anger over approval of the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea. Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh has yet to rule on the larger Rosebank oil project. Ruth Fuller, chief climate adviser at WWF, said any commitments at COP31 "will ring hollow" if Rosebank drilling is allowed and EV targets are rolled back, while Friends of the Earth chief executive Asad Rehman urged the prime minister to commit to phasing out fossil fuels fully and reject Rosebank.

The Prince of Wales is expected to attend COP31 alongside a UK delegation including Miliband, Fahnbulleh and climate minister Katie White. Burnham will fly from Antalya to Dublin on Thursday for the European Political Community meeting, where he is expected to announce further sanctions against Russia and discuss hybrid threats to European security. COP31 runs in Antalya until November 20, and a UK-EU reset summit follows in Brussels next Friday.