The UK under Labour will push a “new international law of ecocide” and will support developing countries struggling under the impact of climate change, the shadow foreign minister will announce at Cop27 tomorrow.
David Lammy will tell delegates in Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday that Labour would put the environment at the top of the international agenda by pushing for climate action to “become a fourth pillar of the UN”, under Britain’s “first ever green foreign policy”.
Speaking at the UN’s climate summit he will also pledge to ensure those responsible for unlawful destruction of the environment are held criminally responsible, as well as upholding commitments to international climate finance following government failures.
He will say: “Global heating is not a distant threat. It is here today. Wildfires in California and Australia. Biblical floods in Nigeria and Pakistan. Devastating sandstorms in Baghdad. Even 40 degree summers in England.
“As we meet today at COP27, we know the world is not yet on a path to climate safety, when we can still see the meteor heading towards us and have not managed to divert it from its path.
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“The climate crisis is the greatest challenge the world faces, which is why while Rishi Sunak tries to dodge climate action, Labour will turn up by introducing Britain’s first ever Green Foreign Policy.
“We will use our diplomatic leverage to push for climate action to become a fourth pillar of the UN, work to create a new international law of ecocide, and target development aid to support developing countries facing destruction as a result of the climate crisis.”
During his time in Egypt, the MP for Tottenham will also put pressure on the Egyptian government to secure consular access and the release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah, the jailed British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist.
His family say they have received proof he is alive after a hunger strike,
A letter to his mother written two days ago says he is “drinking water again” and “receiving medical attention”.
“I can sleep today without nightmares,” his sister said in response.
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His family had not heard from him since he started refusing water on 6 November to coincide with the start of the COP27 climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh.
Last Thursday, his mother said she had been told by officials at Wadi el-Natrun prison, north-west of Cairo, that he had undergone an unspecified “medical intervention with the knowledge of a judicial authority”.
David Lammy, who is the the constituency MP of El-Fattah’s sisters, said: “It is a great injustice that Alaa Abd El-Fattah is imprisoned in Cairo simply for sharing his belief in democracy and it is a shocking failure of the UK government that he has still not received consular access.
“The UK government must now make clear there will be serious diplomatic consequences if UK diplomats are not granted diplomatic access immediately and Alaa is not released and reunited with his family.”