Sunak commits billions to climate fund – as world warned it is ‘on highway to hell’ | COP27 latest

The new British prime minister’s short visit to the climate summit is his first outing on the international stage since he took the top job. 

And – as far as we can tell – it appeared to go smoothly. 

Here are some of the notable moments from his appearance… 

A friendly meeting with Macron 

Mr Sunak’s first in-person meeting with the French president resulted in some chummy-looking photographs.

The pair greeted each other with hugs and smiles, before heading into a bilateral meeting that discussed the war in Ukraine, the climate crisis and Channel crossings. 

They both are likely to have wanted to move past the more strained relationship between French and UK leaders during Liz Truss’s short period as prime minister.

National statement

Taking to the world stage for the first time, Mr Sunak made a key speech at the gathering of leaders and said he wanted to support clean growth. 

“By honouring the promises we made in Glasgow and by directing public and private finance towards the protection of our planet, we can turn our struggle against climate change into a global mission for new jobs and clean growth,” he said. 

“And we can bequeath our children a greener planet and a more prosperous future. That’s a legacy we could be proud of.”

He also announced the UK is tripling its funding to help nations adapt to the impacts of climate change to £1.5bn by 2025.

Questions on Boris Johnson

The prime minister faced questions on one of his predecessors after Boris Johnson also turned up at the climate summit. 

Asked about Mr Johnson, he said: “Oh, it’s great that the former prime minister is here. 

“And I think it says something great about the UK that not only have we got the current prime minister here, we’ve got a former prime minister here.

“It just demonstrates our leadership on this issue globally. And Boris was a stalwart champion of building a greener future. He deserves enormous credit and praise for that.”

Questions over detained activist

Ahead of his trip to Egypt, Mr Sunak had written to the family of jailed British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd el Fattah promising to raise his case with the Egyptian authorities. 

The family of Mr Fattah has warned the activist could die in an Egyptian prison while he is on hunger strike. 

Downing Street later confirmed Mr Sunak had brought up the case with the Egyptian president and that he had stressed the government’s “deep concern on the issue”.