Britain to urge rest of world to end sales of new petrol cars by 2040

Britain will urge the rest of the world to end sales of new petrol cars by 2040 as part of the Cop26 international climate summit, its president has said.

Alok Sharma said the summit should also herald the end of coal power, deforestation, and tackle methane emissions to meet the aims of limiting warming under the Paris Agreement.

"If we are serious about 1.5 degrees, Glasgow must be the Cop that consigns coal power to history, the Cop that signals the end to polluting vehicles," Mr Sharma said in a speech outside the Whitelee wind farm in Glasgow on Friday, where the UN conference will be held in six months.

"We are calling on countries to commit to all new cars being zero emission by 2040, or earlier."

Britain has already committed to phasing out new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, and the most polluting hybrid cars by 2035. It is among the most ambitious commitments from around 14 countries, trailing only a 2025 deadline from Norway.

The ambition for global commitments to phase out coal power will be the main prize for the UK as co-hosts of the summit.

Britain is on track to eliminate coal from its power system by 2024, but has faced charges of hypocrisy over plans to open a new deep coal mine for steel production, which have now been put on hold.

"If the UK can as COP26 president broker a 2030 coal phase-out in the OECD, and support others to end new coal construction and pivot to clean energy, it will have been pivotal in getting emissions reductions on track," said Leo Roberts, coal transition expert at think tank E3G.

Current pledges on climate action are so far not adequate to keep warming below 2C, according to analysis by Climate Action Tracker. This means the world will miss the aim of the Paris Agreement without new commitments.

"This is our last hope of keeping 1.5 degrees alive," Mr Sharma said, beyond which "millions more people" would be impacted by climate change.

Mr Sharma also said the UK was committed to holding the conference in person, and was considering the roll-out of vaccines and testing in order to make it feasible.

The summit is attended by around 30,000 delegates in a normal year, but with a much smaller core group of negotiators from the 197 member states.

Beyond new pledges to ensure warming is kept to 1.5C, the meeting in Glasgow must also resolve outstanding issues within the Paris Agreement on carbon markets, and negotiations over financing for developing countries to transition away from fossil fuels.

"It is vital that the developing countries are able to sit face-to-face with the larger countries and big emitters," Mr Sharma said.

Meanwhile, several Cabinet ministers made visits across the UK to sites involved in the green transition, including Justice Minister Robert Buckland, who announced the next four prisons to be built in Britain will be net zero.