'Britain cannot afford

BRITAIN does not have the financial resources to pay reparations” to low-income countries affected by climate change, Boris Johnson warned last night.

- Martyn Brown

The former prime minister hit out as campaigners said UK taxpayers should stump up 1trillion to help out. But his intervention puts him on a collision course with leader Rishi Sunak.

Downing Street has backed an agreement to discuss payments for countries affected by climaterelated disasters.

The revelations came at the COP27 summit in Sharm elSheikh, Egypt, where both Tory rivals are present.

Mr Johnson said that net zero carbon emissions would have to be achieved through investment from the private sector in partnership

with the international community, rather than through taxpayers in western countries.

He said: Two hundred years ago, we started it all and there’s no question that, per capita, people in the UK have put out an awful lot of carbon into the atmosphere.

“But what we cannot do is, you know, make up for that with some kind of reparations. We simply do not have the financial resources and no country could.

“The best way to fix this is not to look backwards and try to tot up some bill for loss and damage that the UK or other countries have done, but try to look at what the UK can do to help to take countries forward and help them achieve the carbon reductions and