COP31: Burnham must reject Rosebank or “commitment” on climate meaningless

• The call comes following the approval of the Jackdaw gas field last month, which has damaged the UK's climate credibility, say campaigners
• Honouring UK emission reduction targets, supporting countries on the frontlines of climate breakdown, and fostering cooperation for delivering a fair and green transition must be top of the UK's agenda
• ***Friends of the Earth's chief executive, Asad Rehman, is available for interview and broadcast opportunities during this year's talks, from London during week one, and in Antalya from Saturday 14th - Saturday 21st November***

As international negotiators descend on Antalya in Turkey today, environmental justice campaigners are urging the Prime Minister to use this year's UN climate talks as an opportunity to prove the UK is committed to climate action, by rejecting plans for further fossil fuel development in the North Sea.

With the world's eyes expected to be on Andy Burnham this coming Wednesday (11th November) as he attends his first climate negotiations as Prime Minister, Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland says he must announce that his government will not back the highly contentious Rosebank development if the UK is to engage in the talks with any credibility.

This must come alongside saying no to Heathrow Airport expansion and a moratorium on new data centres, say the campaigners, otherwise the UK will be unable to meet its legally-binding climate targets. With more than 100 new data centres in the pipeline across Britain, Friends of the Earth is urging the government to pause further development until it has produced a proper strategy examining how data centres can align with climate goals.

The call comes following last month's approval of another North Sea development - the Jackdaw gas field - which has put the UK's climate credibility under the microscope. Last month's Budget also cast further doubt in the Burnham government's commitment to climate action, after £1bn was slashed from the Warm Homes Plan - vital funding that would help to cut both emissions and bills, particularly while energy prices remain staggeringly high.

At a time when the UK needs to be doing all it can to foster global cooperation on the climate, pressing ahead with Rosebank, a third runway at Heathrow and unchecked data centre development would send entirely the wrong message globally. Instead, the UK should be using its influence to help steer the talks to success by setting a positive example through its own domestic climate policies, such as those that support the phasing out of fossil fuels.

Last month, the UN warned that the world is on course to overshoot the 1.5 degree guardrail brought into international law under the Paris Agreement - the threshold at which global temperature rise should be limited to prevent the worst climate impacts. All countries, but particularly those with the greatest historical responsibility for fuelling climate breakdown - like the UK - must raise their ambition and accelerate the pace of action to avoid breaching 1.5 to catastrophic proportions.

Asad Rehman, chief executive of Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland, who will be in Antalya for the Global Day of Action (Saturday 14 November) and the second week of the talks, said:

"Andy Burnham has a real opportunity to course-correct after the recent disastrous decision to green light more fossil fuel development in the North Sea, by rejecting Rosebank once and for all. Not only will it be significantly more polluting than the last project and do nothing to bring down the nation's energy bills, standing strong against further fossil fuel extraction is just as important symbolically as it is in terms of the literal emissions.

"This must come alongside saying no to a third runway at Heathrow and unchecked data centre development, which will unleash even more planet-warming emissions into the atmosphere and put our climate goals in jeopardy.

"The UK was a key player in driving forward the fossil fuel roadmap in Belém last year - allowing these oil and gas-guzzling projects to go ahead would clearly shatter the UK's integrity. Instead of trying to keep the fossil fuel economy alive, which is a dead end for workers like those in the North Sea, the UK must get behind efforts to accelerate the transition to a fairer, more equitable future and do its fair share to protect those on the frontlines of the climate crisis - both here and overseas."

While phasing out fossil fuels is likely to remain a key theme of this year's talks, 2026's worsening weather extremes have catapulted issues including climate adaptation and the need for meaningful international climate finance to the top of the conference's agenda.

August's catastrophic Nepal-Tibetan floods driven by glacial-melt, which left 1,400 people dead and thousands more missing, have played a large part in bringing these issues into focus, as well as the numerous deadly heatwaves, wildfires, droughts and floods felt globally this year, many of which have been turbo-charged by the Super El Niño climate phenomenon.

Progress on adaptation, both in the UK and globally, remains well behind where it needs to be. In the UK, the government's National Adaptation Programme - its plan for adapting to climate change - falls woefully short.

Internationally, countries on the frontlines of climate breakdown desperately need much more support to help them adapt and prevent enormous loss of life when climate disasters happen. Typically, these are the same countries that have done least to cause the crisis. The wealthiest countries that have done most to fuel global heating, however, are failing to provide the support and funding that climate-vulnerable nations need.

Under Keir Starmer, the UK's contribution to international climate finance was slashed as part of the shrinking of the UK's aid budget to fund military and defence spending. This is a trend that has occurred across many of the world's major economies, putting the already paltry commitment on international climate finance into further jeopardy.

To make matters worse, one of Andy Burnham's first acts as Prime Minister was to slash climate finance further by changing climate grants within the aid budget to repayable loans, as a means to fund cheaper bus fares at home.

While the UK is in desperate need of affordable, climate-friendly transport, the world's most marginalised communities shouldn't be left to shoulder the costs when the biggest polluters globally, including the oil and gas industry, are failing to contribute meaningfully to pay for climate action.

Friends of the Earth maintains that debt-creating loans are not a legitimate form of climate finance, because they only entrench the global inequalities that have created the climate crisis and are putting the lives of those least responsible at risk. Instead, the UK must contribute its fair share towards international climate finance given its historical and continued role in fuelling climate breakdown.

Last year in Belém, one of the key results that came out of the conference was an agreement to introduce a Just Transition Mechanism - a pathway for helping deliver a fair, green and equitable global transition. Despite initially blocking the global agreement, rich countries like the UK finally backed the move after much pressure and lobbying from campaign groups, including Friends of the Earth.

Getting the Just Transition Mechanism up and running will be high on this year's agenda, though it remains to be seen whether richer nations will help to facilitate these efforts, or work to delay progress once again.

Communities already being devastated by rising global insecurity and conflict, hunger and humanitarian crises, face an even greater threat from a climate-crisis-fuelled Super El Niño.

Among those is Palestine, where the UN has warned that heavier, more severe rainfall and flooding will exacerbate the already catastrophic living conditions in Gaza.

With Israel's genocide against the Palestinian people entering its fourth consecutive year, Friends of the Earth will use the talks as a critical opportunity to defend the need for international law, institutions - including the International Criminal Court - and global cooperation, to ensure justice, accountability and an end to the occupation.

The group will also use the talks to highlight how the deliberate destruction and harm to the environment resulting from Israel's bombardment of Palestine has, along with the ongoing genocide, created an intolerable and catastrophic humanitarian and environmental crisis in Gaza.

At COP31, Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland is calling on the UK government to:

• Reject Rosebank, and commit fully to phasing out fossil fuels - starting with no new oil and gas projects
• Honour the UK's climate targets by going much further and faster to slash emissions, including by saying no to Heathrow Airport expansion and unchecked data centre development
• Deliver a stronger National Adaptation Programme at home, and help countries on the frontlines of climate breakdown adapt by providing the UK's fair share of international climate finance
• Make polluters - including the oil and gas industry and those amassing extreme wealth - pay for the damage they cause by taxing them fairly, and use the funds to deliver a fairer, cleaner future
• Foster global cooperation on delivering a fair and green transition through the Just Transition Mechanism, to ensure no one gets left behind as we build a zero-carbon global economy

ENDS

Notes:

1. Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland's chief executive, Asad Rehman, will be following the climate negotiations during the first week of the conference, and will be available for comment and analysis from London. From Saturday 14th - Saturday 21st November he will be attending the talks in Antalya and available for media requests. Asad has decades of experience as a policy expert at the UN climate negotiations and has been a key player in the global climate justice movement. Please contact the Friends of the Earth press team if you would like to arrange an interview.

2. Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be attending the talks as part of the wider Friends of the Earth International delegation. Members from sister organisations around the world will also be attending - to explore opportunities to interview spokespeople from our international delegation, please contact the Friends of the Earth press team.

3. Friends of the Earth is taking the government to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), alongside two co-claimants whose lives are already being upended by the climate crisis, over the government's inadequate National Adaptation Programme. The group argues that the plan fails to protect people, properties and infrastructure from the foreseeable impacts of climate change.