Responding to today’s new UK climate target at COP29, Steve Trent, CEO and Founder of the Environmental Justice Foundation, said:

“Today’s announcement by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at COP29 marks a welcome shift in ambition for the UK’s climate agenda. Committing to cut emissions by 81% from 1990 levels by 2035 puts the country back on a path towards real climate leadership, a much-needed change from the previous government’s backsliding. In particular the emphasis on expanding offshore wind energy is a clean, cost-effective solution that will mean greater domestic energy security, lower bills, and a wave of good green jobs at home. Renewable energy is the best investment we could possibly make.”

"However, it’s concerning that this government continues to back carbon capture and storage (CCS) and biomass. The first of these is unproven, and the second actively destructive. We need a much greater focus on the vital role of nature in keeping carbon out of the atmosphere, including through funding to protect and restore wetlands and blue carbon ecosystems. The UK is one of the most nature-degraded countries in the world, and every penny we put back into the bank of nature will be returned many times over.”

"All in all, this could be a new era of UK climate ambition, and we are hopeful that these bold promises will be swiftly translated into action on the ground.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

For more information on how funding for wetlands can deliver global climate targets, please visit here.

For more information on how blue carbon ecosystems are the ‘blue beating heart’ of our planet, please visit here.

EJF works internationally to inform policy and drive systemic, durable reforms to protect our environment and defend human rights. We investigate and expose abuses and support environmental defenders, Indigenous peoples, communities, and independent journalists on the frontlines of environmental injustice. Our campaigns aim to secure peaceful, equitable, and sustainable futures.

Our investigators, researchers, filmmakers, and campaigners work with grassroots partners and environmental defenders across the globe. Our work to secure environmental justice aims to protect our global climate, ocean, forests, wetlands, wildlife and defend the fundamental human right to a secure natural environment, recognising that all other rights are contingent on this.

For more information or to speak to one of our expert staff, please email media@ejfoundation.org.

Photo: wind farms off the coast of Norfolk, courtesy of Nicholas Doherty.