Two weeks of protests planned at Treasury as Cop31 climate summit begins

As ministers head to Cop31, climate campaigners are taking their fight to the Treasury, demanding Labour abandons new fossil fuel projects and steps up its green ambitions

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Prime Minister Andy Burnham is expected to enter his first climate talks as PM tomorrow, but Fossil Free London called his record on the question “abysmal” and Friends of the Earth demanded higher taxes on the oil and gas industry to fund environmental clean-ups and climate mitigation.

Fossil Free London held the first of six protests planned for the next fortnight, demanding the government rule out approval of the Rosebank oil field in the North Sea.

Its director Robin Wells said: “We know that [Cop31] is a busman’s holiday for the fossil fuel industry, and usually awash with an oil slick of fossil fuel lobbyists.

“Andy Burnham’s record on climate so far is abysmal. Not only did he grant Shell a climate-wrecking gas field, Jackdaw, the government has just cut the warm homes programme, pledged to veto new wind farms and will potentially roll back the electric vehicle mandate.”

Rejecting Rosebank would place Labour on a collision course with industry unions, which argue the collapse of the North Sea oil and gas industry without a planned transition to renewables would abandon communities and threaten energy security.

Friends of the Earth said the government should go further than rejecting Rosebank by vetoing expansion of Heathrow airport and placing a moratorium on the construction of new data centres.

Chief executive Asad Rehman said: “Instead of trying to keep the fossil fuel economy alive, which is a dead end for workers like those in the North Sea, the UK must get behind efforts to accelerate the transition to a fairer, more equitable future and do its fair share to protect those on the front lines of the climate crisis — both here and overseas.”

Speculation is rife that the government is set to cut its sales target for EVs this week from 80 per cent of new car sales by 2030, though it insists no decision has been taken. Left Labour group Momentum said any watering down of the target would be “disappointing” amid “record-breaking temperatures across the UK this summer… the government should go much further and faster in delivering a just transition. Burnham made his position clear on preventing a climate catastrophe just two months ago. Now it’s time to put his words into action.”

Green Party Westminster leader Dr Ellie Chowns said a year of wild weather made the case for climate action stronger than ever.

“After a summer of deadly heatwaves, wildfires, and drought devastated communities across the UK, the danger climate breakdown poses could hardly be clearer,” she said.

“The UK cannot credibly call itself a climate leader on the global stage while our government weakens the investment and ambition needed to deliver change at home,” she charged, citing the decision to green-light the Jackdaw gas field and cuts to home insulation and clean heating funds.

And FBU general secretary Steve Wright said: “Our members are on the front line of the impact of climate change and directly suffer the consequences of extreme changes to whether patterns.

“With the El Nino phenomenon taking hold alongside record temperatures recorded in 2026, we must make the country resilient to wildfires, flooding and other emergencies. That is why we need thousands more firefighters recruited and trained in the UK to meet these challenges.”

About 70,000 people are expected to attend Cop31 in Antalya, Turkey, over the two weeks.

The Turkish government is pushing internationally co-ordinated electrification to cut emissions.

“This is the first [Conference of the Parties] where it is clear beyond reasonable doubt that the world will overshoot the 1.5°C target” (the limit to global warming set by the Paris Agreement of 2015), said Turkish Environment Minister Murat Kurum. “We will not look away, and we will not lower our ambition.”

The continued absence of the United States, which now refuses to attend climate talks, underlines the difficulty of securing co-operation on meeting targets.

“The absence of an official US presence at the Cop31 climate summit epitomises state capture of the Trump adminstration by the fossil fuel industry. It has parallels with the grip of the military industrial complex on US foreign policy,” Communist Party of Britain international secretary Kevan Nelson said.

But pressure for real action on the climate continues from below, he insisted.

“The attendance of a large US civil society delegation, including trade union just transition campaigners, ensures that the real voice of the American people will be heard in Turkey.”