UK foreign secretary calls for 'hard-headed' approach to tackle climate change

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - The British foreign secretary on Tuesday said that climate action will be central to "all" foreign policy as he called for a "hard-headed" approach to address the climate crisis.

"Action on the climate and nature crisis will be central to all the Foreign Office does," David Lammy told at Kew Gardens, South West London, in his first major speech on climate change as foreign secretary.

He stressed that nothing could be "more central to the UK's national interests" than slowing climate change worldwide.

"This is critical given the scale of the threat, but also the scale of the opportunity."

Confirming that he will be reinstating the UK special representative for climate change role and will create a new UK special representative for nature, Lammy affirmed his department's commitment to the "global clean energy transition."

"So our goal is progressive, a livable planet for all now and in the future, but we need a hardheaded, realist approach towards using all levers at our disposal, from the diplomatic to the financial," he said.