Sir Keir Starmer was in Baku this week for the COP29 climate conference. At the conference, Starmer laid out his vision for Britain’s role in tackling the climate crisis, but much more notable than Starmer’s words was the lack of high-level attendance from almost all the other major carbon-emitting nations.

COP29 was supposed to go the same way every COP event does: the worlds’ leaders, policy experts, and academics meeting to discuss how, working together, we might turn the tide of climate change. That’s the theory at least. But when this supposedly crucial global conference is kicked off by Azerbaijan’s President, Ilham Aliyev, calling oil, gas, and other fossil fuels a ‘gift from God’ and reports emerge of major oil and gas deals being struck on the conference’s sidelines, it becomes easy to feel disillusioned with the entire thing. Most world leaders didn’t go at all. Starmer only went because he’d criticised Rishi Sunak for not committing to travel during the election.

Having flown all the way to Baku, Starmer told the conference he was setting out the ‘ambitious’ target of reducing Britain’s emissions by 81% by 2035. He was also quick to add that the burden to secure this would not fall solely on individuals, adding that he was not going to ‘tell people how to behave.’

There are question marks about Starmer’s use of the label ‘ambitious’, and to what extent this target serves any real purpose without accompanying funding and reforms. Granted, it does raise Britain’s target from 68% to 81%. But it is worth noting Britain already has legally binding targets as part of its wider goal of achieving ‘net zero’ by 2050 and this new number is in keeping with these previously established targets.

Such statements also call into question the relevance of the COP conference structure. Starmer’s statement is indicative of a conference which is full of platitudes on the need to act, but repeatedly fails to produce new ideas or comprehensive commitments of the magnitude required. Multilateral engagement looks good on the international stage, but when the leaders of China, India and the USA are not present, it sends a clear signal about the efforts those nations are willing to put into the COP structure.

It might worth asking whether the carbon footprint Starmer leaves behind travelling to Baku was worth what was established in his presence. Perhaps COP is doing more damage than good by flying leaders across the world to do nothing but shake hands and discuss the issues rather than setting an example by putting words into actions.

(Photo provided by Sky News)