who are most hostile to him, now pretty much across the board accept. so for me and having put me in a position where i was able to be part of that progress, that story i feel very grateful to him. and i will continue to try and build on what was achieved. so the theme so far of our conversation is that you care above and beyond anything else about doing your best to help this country meet the environmental challenges it faces ? outside of my family, it s the only thing i care about. the only thing you care about? it s the only thing i care about. well, why on earth did you choose to resign when, in the words of former tory minister, your colleague andrea leadsom, she says, it is so much easier to throw your toys out of the pram. like you did, and become a protester than it is actually to stay inside the tent finding solutions ? because i did four years as a minister, i got an enormous amount done. in the last few months, every day, i d have discussions with my brilliant offi
that pledge was being broken. you say, because it was a pledge of something over. £11.6 billion over five years. ..over five years to be invested in international climate change programmes and efforts. yes. you say quite clearly that the government was way off target to meet that pledge. but the government and ijust checked with the number 10 website they say, absolutely false, we are still committed to that target, and they re still on track. the government is, i mean, look, it s great that the government is saying that they re committed to 11.6, but mathematically, it is impossible for us to meet that target unless the treasury intervenes, unless the prime minister intervenes. it s simply impossible. if you look at the trajectory of expenditure, in order to fulfil that promise, the first year of the next government, which may or may not be this government, it might be the labour party, will have to spend over 80% of all of its bilateral aid on climate finance, and that obvious
country meet the environmental challenges it faces? outside of my family, it s the only thing i care about. the only thing you care about? it s the only thing i care about. well, why on earth did you choose to resign when, in the words of former tory minister, your colleague andrea leadsom, she says, it is so much easier to throw your toys out of the pram. like you did, and become a protester than it is actually to stay inside the tent, finding solutions ? because i did four years as a minister, i got an enormous amount done. in the last few months, every day, i d have discussions with my brilliant officials about how difficult things were getting, and i realised that i was losing the battle on notjust small things, but big things like the 11.6 billion. and i was going to have to stand up in parliament and pretend we re going to hit 11.6, pretend that all those commitments we made to small island states are valid, that we re not going to betray them, when i know, and i knew then, be
thank you for having me. it s a pleasure to have you here. just a couple of months ago, you left rishi sunak s government and, as you left, you lobbed a political grenade in his direction. why did you do that? my concern is that, you know, i m maybe a rare thing, a minister who cares passionately, or cared passionately about my portfolio. and ifound myjob was becoming untenable, it was becoming impossible for me to go forward. it was becoming virtually impossible to prevent government from sliding back. and the key issue is this pledge which was made by borisjohnson, repeated by liz truss, repeated a few times by rishi sunak around our international climate finance, from which so much of what the uk has done over the last few years flows, and that pledge was being broken. you say, because it was a pledge of something over. £11.6 billion over five years. ..over five years to be invested in international climate change programmes and efforts.
but big things like the 11.6 billion. and i was going to have to stand up in parliament and pretend we re going to hit 11.6, pretend that all those commitments we made to small island states are valid, that we re not going to betray them, when i know, and i knew then, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that that was not true, and i couldn t do that. and i felt that by resigning, by blowing the whistle on the 11.6, that the government would feel obliged to prove me wrong. and some of the quotes that you read out earlier give me a little bit of hope that maybe that happened, maybe they will struggle, find something down the back of the sofa to honour that pledge. but it s not going to happen unless the government, that the prime minister or the chancellor directly intervene, and that is what we need to hope for. and until they do, they should not be allowed, in my view, to pretend that this 11.6 promise is going to be honoured, because it isn t. it is a mathematical impossibility. 0k, got tha