UK to ask Australia, allies to join global clean power alliance

In his first major policy speech, UK Foreign Secretary will ask allies to join a British-led clean energy transition to wind, solar, hydrogen and nuclear across the world.

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy appearing on the BBC. Picture: BBC/AFP.

Australia and other allies will be approached by the British Foreign Secretary to build a Global Clean Power Alliance to accelerate a British-led clean energy transition – to wind, solar, hydrogen and nuclear – across the world.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy is to deliver his first major policy speech in London on Tuesday. But instead of addressing Russia’s war on Ukraine, the Israel-Gaza conflict, or relations with major countries like China and the United States, or even post-Brexit Europe, Mr Lammy is positioning his portfolio around the climate and nature “crisis” as the globe’s defining challenge.

In notes released ahead of the speech, Mr Lammy says the British government has set a goal to be the first major economy to deliver clean power by 2030.

Mr Lammy wants to drive global investment and finance to close the clean power gap by helping more countries transition to renewable power systems. He also wants to speed up the supply of critical minerals and “inject impetus” into expanding energy grids and storage.

Mr Lammy is to say: “This crisis is not some discrete policy area, divorced from geopolitics, conflict and insecurity. The threat may not feel as urgent as a terrorist or an imperialist autocrat. But it is more fundamental. It is systemic. Pervasive. And accelerating towards us.”

He is to add: “Today, I am committing to you that while I am Foreign Secretary, action on the climate and nature crisis will be central to all the Foreign Office does.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has already lifted a ban on onshore wind in England and ended new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea. In one of the first moves of his government, Mr Starmer launched Great British Energy, a publicly owned, clean power company for Britain to invest in floating offshore wind, nuclear power, and hydrogen.

“We will leverage that (net zero in six years) ambition to build an Alliance committed to accelerating the clean energy transition,’’ Mr Lammy is to say.

“And today we are firing the starting gun on forming this new coalition.

“While some countries are moving ahead in this transition, others are being left behind.

“We need to accelerate the rollout of renewable energy across the globe in the way that this Government is doing at home.”

UK Special Representatives on climate will be appointed to the Foreign Office to add diplomatic heft to the plan. It is unclear at this stage which countries will help Britain drive the alliance.