P4P hosts Mary Robinson to discuss climate justice and leadership for a sustainable future

At what is a critical moment for the net zero transition in a changing world, P4P brought together Peers from all sides of the House to gather insights from one of the world's most experienced climate visionaries on how politicians can provide long-term leadership and bring the public with them on efforts to tackle the climate and nature crises.

The event brought together cross-party supporters of Peers for the Planet, the Lord Speaker and Energy Minister, Lord Hunt to hear from Mary Robinson - former President of Ireland, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and former Chair of international justice and sustainability champion group, The Elders – who delivered a powerful speech, calling for a renewed and urgent global approach to the climate crisis grounded in fairness, scientific understanding and mutual collaboration.

Reflecting on her own journey, Mrs. Robinson revealed that it was after her tenure as President of Ireland and through her later work on health and rights in Africa and the UN, that she came to realise the severity of climate impacts hitting developing nations and how the dimensions of climate injustice became starkly apparent - from the role wealthy nations have played in expending the world's carbon budget, the barriers poorer nations face in growing their own economies, to the role gender and intergenerational justice play.

Now one of 20 global “Guardians of the Planetary Boundaries” at the Potsdam Institute, she warned Peers that the science tells us six of nine critical ecological systems are already in the danger zone.

It’s not just about emissions – it’s about neglect of nature and the failure to act. But we now have the tools: an annual planetary health check. The question is whether we have the courage to act on it

Mary Robinson

Robinson singled out the UK’s leadership in setting its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and urged EU leaders to match those ambitions on the road to COP30. However, she was critical of the lackluster outcomes from Baku at COP29, where wealthy nations failed to bring forward a substantial plan on climate finance to close the $1.3tn gap needed to reach net zero, warning that this placed added pressure on Brazil’s COP presidency.

Solving the need for resourcing, she argued, must be both fair and creative as she backed proposals for solidarity levies on shipping and aviation, underscoring the need for a Global Stocktake - a COP benchmark of country's progress on net zero - that is ethical and that takes into account the importance of engaging subnational actors such as cities across the world, US states and communities at the grass root level.

During a dedicated Q&A, Peers sought to gain a better understanding of lessons learnt to counter misplaced narratives that net zero policies were behind the cost-of-living crisis and how the current process for negotiating COP could be improved to bolster negotiating outcomes. Asked about hope, Mrs. Robinson spoke to the inspirational work of Project Dandelion – a women-led initiative to galvanise grassroots action, reminding Peers that “there are so many people on the right side of the world. We are on the cusp of a safer, better, cheaper future.”

Looking to the future, Mary closed by urging Peers to recognise there was a collective obligation to act on the nature and climate emergencies. Ultimately, short-term and populist thinking could offer no answers to the issue faced by the planet and nor could it be solved by any one country, but rather through global collaboration and a long-term view underpinned by science, reason and empathy.