The head of MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, said Sunday that Britain had launched “green espionage” on the world’s largest industrialized nations to make sure they were meeting their commitments to fight climate change.
Richard Moore told Times Radio that the climate crisis was “a major issue in international foreign policy for the country and the planet.”
“When people commit to climate change, our job is to make sure that what they really do reflects what they have signed up for,” he said.
“As someone said – trust, but check,” he said. “As for climate change, when you need everyone to play fair.”
A COP26 climate change conference will be held in the UK later this year.
Moore said after US President Joe Biden held a virtual summit at which he brought together world leaders to make the most of this “decisive decade”. The United States will take the lead, and Biden has promised that the United States will halve its emissions by 2030.
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson also spoke at a virtual summit, announcing a “global” goal to reduce emissions in the UK by 78% compared to 1990 levels by 2035 and 68% by 2030 – this is the most ambitious goal among the largest economies world.