UK "Ditched" Climate Pledge For Australia Trade Deal: Environmental Group Greenpeace

Environmental Group Greenpeace has claimed that British government had "lied to the public" as leaked emails appeared to show backtracking on climate commitments to secure a trade deal with Australia.

Greenpeace on Wednesday said the British government had "lied to the public" after leaked emails seen by the environmental group appeared to show backtracking on climate commitments to secure a trade deal with Australia. In the correspondence, Greenpeace UK said senior ministers Liz Truss, David Frost and Kwasi Kwarteng "are named as agreeing to ditch references to the temperature commitments in the Paris Agreement on climate in order to get the Australian trade deal 'over the line'." In response, the government insisted it "will not sign trade deals that compromise our high environmental protections". Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote to environmental NGOs promising that any deal with Australia would "include a chapter on trade and environment which not only reaffirms commitments to multilateral environmental agreements, including the Paris Agreement, but also commits both parties to collaborate on climate and environmental issues."