After a decade of inaction, is Labour ready to turn the UK into a climate leader?

Beneath the massive skeleton of a blue whale in London’s majestic Natural History Museum, the UK’s environment secretary, Steve Reed, greeted dignitaries and campaigners from around the world on Monday evening. “The UK is back on the international stage on nature,” he declared.

Since Labour won July’s election, incoming ministers have made a flurry of announcements with the environment and climate at the centre. Labour has vowed at home to fix the severe problems the UK has with river pollution; taken the first steps to set up a new renewable energy company; withdrawn support for a new coalmine and announced an end to new oil and gas licences, and reaffirmed its commitment to protecting 30% of the country’s land and seas.

This week, the new government also turned outwards in its environmental ambitions. More, after this week’s most important environment stories.

At Monday’s event, Reed welcomed Colombia’s Susana Muhamad, president of the Cop16 UN biodiversity summit taking place next month.

On the same day Ed Miliband, the new energy and net zero secretary, made a major speech saying the UK’s national security depends on taking leadership on the climate crisis. Miliband had already invited Mukhtar Babayev, president of November’s Cop29 climate summit, to London in July, and in August undertook an extensive trip to Brazil, which will host Cop30. Miliband will host a global energy security summit in the UK next year with Fatih Birol, chief of the International Energy Agency.

To cap the ministerial triumvirate, the UK’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, took to Kew Gardens in west London to vow to an audience of ambassadors, academics and international activists that he would make the climate and nature “central to all that the Foreign Office does”.

This marked a radical change in tone, compared with the previous Conservative government – who Lammy scathingly characterised as “climate dinosaurs”. Former prime minister Rishi Sunak skipped international meetings, made a major policy U-turn on net zero and downplayed climate concerns. Lammy is appointing two global envoys to help forge international alliances – for the first time, there will be an envoy for nature, and the post of climate envoy (axed by Sunak) will be restored.

International climate experts told the Guardian they were delighted at the new government’s stance. Look around at the other major developed economies, and few are willing to step up with the strong leadership needed at present.

Joe Biden’s White House is concentrating on the campaign race, against a big oil-funded Donald Trump. The latter’s blueprint for government is likely to involve the wholesale dismantling of Biden’s actions on the climate, including the Inflation Reduction Act which poured investment into the green economy and withdrawal from the Paris agreement.

Kamala Harris has disappointed some by laying little emphasis so far on the climate and environment. The election on 4 November comes just days ahead of the start of Cop29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, and uncertainty over the outcome is already overshadowing preparations.

Other erstwhile climate champions are also in trouble. France’s Emmanuel Macron , who has played a key role in climate finance talks aimed at reforming global institutions such as the World Bank, faces domestic turmoil. Olaf Scholz, chancellor of Germany, continues to stick up for climate action but is also down in the polls. The new European Commission, announced this week, has some formidable green champions in its ranks, including Teresa Ribera, a former Spanish environment minister, and Dan Jørgensen, the longstanding Danish climate minister who helped put together the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance. But Europe faces attacks on climate policy from the resurgent far right.

Next week, when leaders from around the world gather for the UN’s annual general assembly, the UK is expected to call for action to help the developing world with the growing impacts of the climate crisis. Alliances with key developing countries will be the most important way in which the UK can show its worth. Lammy, Miliband and Reed are in a strong position to do that – Lammy spent much of his time in opposition talking to the vulnerable countries of the world, as well as the most powerful, and is said to have a good rapport with the small island developing states who are the moral fulcrum of the climate talks.

Miliband is widely respected around the world for his long history in climate negotiations – he attended the Copenhagen climate conference as serving climate minister in 2009, and more recently the Cop27 and Cop28 summits as shadow energy secretary. His signal that he would take personal charge of the Cop29 negotiations was well received by other countries and campaigners. Major figures in global climate diplomacy speak well of him, and he has a broad team to call on of experienced civil servants.

Reed has less international experience, but has also made a good start, with warm words and a clear personal rapport with Muhamad this week.

If Labour can fulfil its promises on the world stage, it could reinvigorate climate and nature diplomacy at a vital time – before it is too late.

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Down to Earth readers on the eco-friendly changes they made for the planet

Reader Therese Delfel emailed Down to Earth to advocate for her peaceful approach to gardening: eschewing neatness and instead embracing all matter of flora and fauna that grow there.

“All weeds are medicinal or edible plants or fodder for animals – and in any case, all of them are essential for all kinds of small creatures that subtly sustain the complex chain of life,” she says. “It is a mere matter of not letting the wild plants take over, of finding a balance.”

She only has two rules: no pesticides and no plastics. Even if you aren’t the most green-fingered person, do not be discouraged. “Every garden is unique, just as every gardener is,” Delfel says. “Simply make do with what you have.”

“Above all, make space for the unexpected and let diversity be the rule.”

Let us know the positive change you’ve made in your life by replying to this newsletter, or emailing us on downtoearth@theguardian.com

Profiling the Earth’s most at-risk animals

Population: 200,000
Location: The Galápagos islands
Status: Vulnerable

The world’s only ocean-going lizard likes to take a break every now and then, which is when you’ll find them resting on the rocky shores of the Galápagos islands. Climate change has affected the body temperature preferred by the species, while the importance of their nesting zones in the Galápagos national park has been marked out so tourists are aware.

For more on wildlife at threat, visit the Age of Extinction page here

One image that sums up the week in environmental news

Credit: Claudia Morales for the Guardian

Once clean enough to drink, the water of Lake Uru Uru, Bolivia was poisoned by mining pollution and urban waste. But now, Sarah Johnson reports, Indigenous women are using giant reeds to revive the vital ecosystem.

For more of the week’s best environmental pictures, catch up on The Week in Wildlife here