At the on-going COP29 climate meet-up in Baku (which pulled in 50k people) many big-time carbon producers chose to skip the event‚ but Sir Keir Starmer showed up ready to make fresh promises
The UK leader came with a new-fangled plan: cutting green-house gases by 81% compared to 1990s numbers by mid-30s; thats more than the previous govts 78% target. His goal is keeping earth warming under 1.5C‚ but UKs tiny part in world emissions makes this target kind of pointless
The rush to show off climate leadership brings up real-world concerns. Starmer stated that: “no national security‚ no economic security and no global security without climate security“ However this catch-phrase doesnt match up with what a modern industrial country needs
These over-the-top promises at big events (where leaders feel pushed to say something important) might come back to bite when the real-life effects of quick net-zero changes hit the country in coming years - especially since UK cant really change global warming by itself