Emissions a team effort, says UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab

Britain’s top diplomat Dominic Raab says his nation wants to work with Australia to get its carbon emissions down.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and his Australian counterpart Marise Payne in Canberra on Thursday. Picture: Getty Images

Britain’s top diplomat, Dominic Raab, says his nation wants to work with Australia to get its carbon emissions down as it prepares to host the next UN climate change conference in November.

Between meetings with Scott Morrison and Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne in Canberra on Thursday, the British Foreign Secretary also defended the decision to allow Huawei to participate in Britain’s 5G network, saying it would not threaten the sharing of sensitive data with Five Eyes partners, including Australia.

Mr Raab said Britain wanted to forge a “modern partnership for the future” with Australia, and hoped a new free-trade agreement between the two nations would be among the first wave of post-­Brexit deals to be signed.

Boris Johnson’s most senior minister said Britain had watched with concern Australia’s “heartbreaking” fires. But he would not comment on Australia’s climate change record, or say whether Britain would push for new clim­ate change policies in the trade deal. “We are looking forward to welcoming Australia to Glasgow later this year when we host the climate summit COP26,” he said. “We want to lead in producing a step change in the global response to this challenge of our times.”

Mr Raab said he and Senator Payne had a “constructive conversation” about how they could work together to get emissions down. “We’ve got, and I know Australia has got, the innovators and the entrepreneurs who can come up with green technology which can help us in finding a way forward,” Mr Raab said. His comments came two days after the British Prime Minister called for all countries to set timetables to eliminate carbon emissions, and announced an end to the sale of internal combustion cars in Britain by 2035.

Mr Raab said the government’s new “Global Britain” push was about “being a force for good in the world”. “We are obviously going to be talking to all the countries about their contributions to getting emissions down,” he said.

“It’s going to be a team effort right across the board. We hope we are leading by example by our commitment to get emissions down to net zero by 2050.

“But there is a whole range of other things we can talk about. What we’ve got to try and do is make this a win-win.”

Senator Payne said she was confident Australia could strike a “very positive FTA” with Britain.

But there have been tensions between the two countries over the decision to allow Huawei to participate in its next-generation communications network.