I want to congratulate all the delegates who attended this year COP28 in Dubai and worked day and night to achieve a landmark deal. For the first time ever, around 200 nations agreed to transition away from fossil fuels. The deal is a good first step in keeping the world to 1.5 degree warming but more must be done.

The Prime Minister was at COP28 for less than 12 hours. In contrast, Keir Starmer, David Lammy, Shadow Foreign Secretary and Ed Miliband, Shadow Secretary of State of Climate Change and Net Zero, all attended the conference, met with leaders and delegates and put forward Labour’s bold vision. Whether the Government likes it or not, climate change must be tackled collectively. We must work with all other nations and this requires trust, accountability and transparency. In his speech, Keir, who spent three days at the conference, promised that under a Labour Government, the UK will come back to the world stage and lead from the front. He reaffirmed our plan to invest up to £28bn a year in climate projects and to decarbonise by 2030. I believe we showed true leadership – climate is one of our five national missions and we are absolutely committed to this.

During the summer, the PM watered down several climate commitments and in doing so, he has favoured short-term political expediency and trashed our international reputation. I want to be clear – delaying action on climate change will cost everyone more in the long-term. It’s easy to set targets but the real work is acting so you can meet them. I remain deeply concerned that this Tory Government, led by a net-zero sceptic Prime Minister, is being dishonest with the international community. At home, Ministers are opening a new coal mine, scrapping domestic emissions targets and approving hundreds of new North Sea oil and gas licenses. The climate emergency and our vital net zero targets have become part of the culture war. This is a terrible message to businesses, investors and the international community. How can we tell the world, especially developing countries, that they need to reduce their emissions when we are going full steam ahead?

Labour will never ask other countries to do things that we are not committed to doing at home. A Labour Government would look at creating a Green Power Alliance – a coalition of countries coming together with big ambitions in decarbonising their electricity grids and to share knowledge and learnings. We want to make London the green finance capital of the world, where financial institutions and the FTSE 100 would be obliged to follow the 1.5 degree transition plans. This is another way that the private sector can rightly play their part.

Countries will reconvene next year at Cop29, which will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, and after this, in Brazil. In the meantime, I will continue to call on the Government to take seriously its own climate commitments, follow the science and show domestic and international leadership.