UK to build Global Clean Power Alliance to speed up energy transition

Delivering global progress on arresting rising temperatures is central to the UK’s national interest, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said on Tuesday as he announced the government will be forming a Global Clean Power Alliance, a new coalition focused on speeding up the clean energy transition.

“This Government has set a landmark goal – to be the first major economy to deliver clean power by 2030. We will leverage that ambition to build an Alliance committed to accelerating the clean energy transition,” Lammy said in his first major foreign policy speech.

The Alliance should focus on scaling up global investment to help more countries leapfrog fossil fuels to renewable power systems. It should also focus on diversifying the production and supply of critical minerals, the UK Foreign Secretary said.

In addition, the Alliance could help drive grid expansion and storage, as well as the commercialisation of innovative clean energy tech.

The UK’s diplomatic effort to tackle the climate crisis will also be focused on improving the availability of international climate finance and reversing the decline in global biodiversity.

Lammy argued that demands for climate action from the world’s most vulnerable and the requirements for delivering security for British citizens, are fundamentally aligned as the climate and nature crisis is not a separate issue from geopolitics and insecurity.

“Look around the world. Countries are scrambling to secure critical minerals, just as great powers once raced to control oil – we cannot let this become a source of conflict,” he added.

Lammy further said that the global warming effects such as worsening droughts and hurricanes are failures of politics, regulation and international cooperation that are pouring fuel onto existing conflicts and regional rivalries.

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