Former UK environment secretary, Michael Gove, who now serves as the kingdom's cabinet office minister, on Tuesday implicitly condemned the US and Brazilian leaders for denying the ongoing impact of climate change
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th February, 2020) Former UK environment secretary, Michael Gove, who now serves as the kingdom's cabinet office minister, on Tuesday implicitly condemned the US and Brazilian leaders for denying the ongoing impact of climate change.
"I shan't mention any world leaders by name in a critical fashion. However, it's important in the United States and in Brazil that we recognise that there will be people, at the state and at the city level, who can play a vital role in driving change that we all need to see," Gove said at the Green Alliance conference in London, as quoted by the Guardian newspaper.
The minister added that his country, which is set to host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow in November, bore a "moral responsibility" to lead a green revolution.
"We have a responsibility on the first in, first out basis to ensure that the country that pioneered the industrial revolution, and thus played the biggest role in powering the change in our climate that hydrocarbon extraction and burning for energy created, we have a responsibility to lead a green industrial revolution as well," the media outlet quoted Gove as saying.
The former UK environment secretary went on to say that the COP26 would be the most transparent of all summits previously held and engage ordinary citizens.
Yet, when asked whether the minister would become the event's president, Gove refused to comment, according to the Guardian newspaper.
COP25, which was held in Madrid last December, ended with far less than what was excepted from the marathon negotiations.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said back then that the conference was a commercial game played by rich, mostly European, countries.
On November 4, the US, one of the biggest economies and the country responsible for nearly 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, officially informed the United Nations of its plans to exit the international climate accord in exactly a year.
