Lammy calls climate change a bigger threat than fascism

David Lammy has warned that climate change is a more urgent threat than terrorism or Vladimir Putin in a major speech in which he pledged to put the emergency at the centre of British foreign policy.

- KATE DEVLIN

Tackling the crisis, which is “accelerating towards us”, will also boost growth in the UK, the foreign secretary said. “The threat may not feel as urgent as a terrorist or an imperialist autocrat. But it is more fundamental. It is systemic. Pervasive. And accelerating towards us,” he warned.

Mr Lammy blasted Russia’s “fascism” and “imperialism” last week on a visit to war-torn Ukraine. He made the vow after the death toll in central Europe rose to at least 15 in the wake of a series of devastating floods.

As war rages on the edge of Europe and in the Middle East, the foreign secretary also warned that in the future “there will be no global stability without climate stability”. And he accused the Tories of being “climate dinosaurs” as he branded the previous administration a “fossil fuel government”.

Putting the climate crisis “central to all that the Foreign Office does” would also help consumers at home, he predicted.