Britain has a “huge opportunity” to get ahead of other countries in the race for green investment after the election of Donald Trump as US president, Keir Starmer has said, as he arrives in Azerbaijan for the Cop29 summit.
Trump’s election victory last week has cast doubt on global efforts to tackle climate change, which the president-elect has called a “hoax”. But as the most senior world leader attending the summit in Baku, Starmer said the global political turmoil could benefit the UK economy.
Asked about Trump’s position on the climate crisis, Starmer said: “The climate challenge is something that we have got to rise to and that’s why I’ve repeatedly said we’ve got to show leadership.
“But I do think it’s more than just an obligation, it’s a huge opportunity. The UK has a huge opportunity to get ahead here when it comes to renewables – that’s why I’m encouraging as much investment as I can when it comes to carbon capture, when it comes to hydrogen, when it comes to offshore wind.”
He added: “There’s a global race on now to be the global leader on this. I want us to be in the race and I want us to win the race.”
Starmer arrived in Baku on Monday evening as one of only two G7 leaders to attend the summit, alongside Italy’s Georgia Meloni. Several other developed countries have been engulfed by political uncertainty, including Germany, where the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is facing a confidence vote, and France, where president Emmanuel Macron lost a parliamentary election earlier this year.
This year’s climate conference has also been overshadowed by last week’s US presidential election result, given that Trump has promised to pull the country out of the Paris climate agreement for a second time. During the campaign, the incoming president called climate change “a big hoax”, and condemned Biden’s package of green subsidies as the “green new scam”.
British government officials believe that if Trump begins to unwind the Biden-era incentives it could drive international investors to other countries, with the UK hoping to capture much of that money.
As part of that effort, ministers announced on Monday evening they would give offshore wind developers an extra £27m for every GW of capacity they create to help build up the supply chain. The money will be paid on top of the subsidies developers already get as part of the government’s auction process.
The government is also launching a new financial instrument to be launched on the London Stock Exchange, allowing international investors a fast and easy way to put money into the UK green industry.
Starmer told reporters on Monday: “Look where investors are putting their money – they are choosing to put it into renewables because they know that’s where the next big opportunity is.”
The prime minister stopped in Paris on his way to Baku, where he spent the morning at a Remembrance Day event alongside the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
He told reporters afterwards that he had used a bilateral meeting with Macron to discuss Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invasion, which European leaders fear Trump will no longer be willing to fund. Donald Trump Jr, his son, posted a picture of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, over the weekend with the caption: “POV: You’re 38 Days from losing your allowance”.
Starmer said after his meeting in Paris: “I’ve always said that we support Ukraine for as long as it takes, and we’re stood by that.”
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He would not say however whether the pair had discussed trying again to persuade the outgoing president, Joe Biden, to allow Ukraine to use Storm Shadow missiles against Russian territory – one of Zelenskyy’s key demands.
When he arrives in Baku, Starmer will spend much of his time talking about climate finance, with this year’s Cop being badged as an opportunity to talk about private investment into green industries.
“Now is the time for the private sector to start paying their fair share in relation to these commitments,” the prime minister said, as he promised to hit Boris Johnson’s target of spending £11.6bn on international climate finance between 2020-21 and 2025-26.
On Tuesday, he will announce how much the government plans to cut carbon emissions by 2035. The Climate Change Committee has recommended the UK cut its emissions by 81% from their 1990 levels, though the country is already behind a separate target of cutting them 68% by 2030.
Starmer’s trip to Baku is one of several foreign visits he is making over the autumn, with the prime minister expected to have spent 22 days out of 77 outside the country since the start of September.
The prime minister defended his foreign travel on Monday, saying it helped further his two main priorities: the economy and immigration.
Those priorities present a narrower vision of his government’s ambitions than the five missions he set out before the election. But they are also the two main reasons voters in the US say they voted for Trump.
