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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the United Nations on Wednesday that he did not agree with environmental activists who use climate change as an excuse to attack capitalism.
In a speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Johnson said: It’s far from that. “
Extinction Rebellion, a group of climate activists driven by extreme anti-capitalist ideologies, has deliberately caused confusion in recent years, trying to bring people to its cause.
The group held long-term demonstrations in April and October 2019 and September 2020, with protesters blocking entrances, stopping traffic, adhering to buildings and roads, and British wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill. It smeared the statue and interfered with the printing of newspapers.
British Home Secretary Priti Patel described the group as “the so-called eco-crusade turned into a criminal,” and the Metropolitan Police said last month that more than £ 50 million ($ 68 million) has been spent on Extinction Rebellion since 2019. He said he was spent cracking down on protests.
Earlier this month, activists from another campaign group, Insulate Britain, closed some of Britain’s busiest highways, the M25, five times in just over a week.
But Johnson argued that capitalism and the free market actually helped reduce emissions, suggesting that the activist anti-capitalist message was going in the wrong direction.
“The overall experience of the COVID pandemic is that the way to solve the problem is through breakthroughs and investments made possible by science and innovation, capitalism and the free market, and through Promethean’s belief in new green technology. We are reducing emissions in the UK, “he said.
To reduce emissions, the United Nations has urged wealthy countries to stop using coal-fired power by 2030, and other countries in the world should do so by 2040.
“This is an” ambitious “goal,” Johnson said, but “the UK experience shows that it is possible.”
“When I was a kid, we produced almost 80% of our electricity from coal, which is now down to less than 2% and will be completely gone by 2024,” he said. Told.
Last year, Johnson said Britain had a “huge and huge gust” and wanted to turn Britain into “wind-powered Saudi Arabia.”
But earlier this month, the wind was so weak that the country’s wind power plants couldn’t produce as much electricity as expected, forcing Britain to start coal-fired power plants to secure its electricity supply.
The power plant, West Burton A, is the only remaining coal-fired power plant in the energy company EDF. In March, the company announced that it had decided to shut down the plant in September 2022.
At the time, EDF said it was “the right time” to make a decision “in this important year for Britain’s leadership on climate change.”
Lily Zhou contributed to this report.
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