Global Conflicts Show Why We Need Clean Energy Fast: UK Climate Envoy Rachel Kyte | Exclusive Interview

Last Updated:March 10, 2026, 16:29 IST

Kyte discusses how the rising global tensions, energy crisis, and resource conflicts are colliding with climate emergency, upending lives worldwide, and the UK's response to it

Geopolitical tensions are complicating the global transition away from fossil fuels, as governments clash over securing energy supplies and access to critical resources. Amid all this, 2026 is well on track to become one of the hottest years, with global warming and climate impacts already upending lives and livelihoods.

CNN-News18 spoke with the United Kingdom’s Special Representative for Climate, Rachel Kyte, about what these developments mean for global climate cooperation, the future of energy transition away from fossil fuels and the UK’s response to meeting its climate commitments.

Excerpts:

With the war in West Asia, rising geopolitical tensions, and the US’s stepping back from its climate obligations, is climate cooperation at real risk? How is the UK responding?

These geopolitical tensions reaffirm the sort of correctness of our decision to become energy secure by investing in our own renewable energy so we become less vulnerable to international gas and oil markets and the price spikes. We learnt our lesson after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. So, steering away from a fossil fuel-based economy is absolutely fundamental to our national and economic security and our climate ambition. The foundation of our cooperation with India following the strategic partnership last year and following the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is the technical cooperation on renewable energy to allow India to make its transition quickly and smoothly.

In terms of climate diplomacy, the United States has decided to leave the Paris Agreement and the underlying convention, but everybody else is still in it, and everybody else understands the need for cooperation around energy transition, and that has to continue notwithstanding conflicts and tensions around the world. So, as I always say, science didn’t change, and economics didn’t change; politics remain difficult, and there is more tension now than we have seen in recent memory, so we have to find a way to continue to work together.

There are conflicting studies on the UK’s climate progress; how do you assess it? Is it on track to meet its emissions targets?

It is sort of fast and furious. The new government was elected in July 2024 and put mission control in place to ensure that our grid can absorb all the new energy we are building. We want to build clean energy as quickly as possible, giving us energy security. There has been a lot of reform to the regulatory framework and administrative rules. We had a successful auction for offshore wind and changed the policy around rooftop solar, inspired in large part by India’s ambition for rooftop solar. We have now changed the rules to allow for onshore wind and just opened our first geothermal plant last week to connect up to the grid.

We are moving ahead with our nuclear capability and investing in Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) at the sites of heavy industrial activities because it is going to be an essential part of a very small amount of gas that we will continue to use in our system. At the same time, we are working to keep energy bills affordable for people as we invest in upgrading the grid and its flexibility.

Let’s talk about climate finance—developed countries made several pledges at the last climate summit, but is the money actually reaching the developing countries?

Clearly, there are a number of countries, including us, that have diverted more funding into building up our defence capability in order to fulfil our obligations in a world that is experiencing war and conflict at a level we haven’t seen for many years. What we are working to do then is to leverage our public climate finance to attract other forms of finance, like private funding. We are working with other funding partners and using new instruments like guarantees to bring in more investment. This is at the heart of another area of cooperation between India and the UK, where we have a climate finance initiative in which we’re trying to make sure that India attracts more long-term investors into renewable energy in particular, so the pension funds and insurers who act as investors and other long-term finance see India and India’s green growth story as an attractive place for them to invest.

There is an international conversation going on about where we find new forms of finance, new streams of revenue for adaptation and resilience that are needed for the rising climate impacts that we’re seeing. We’ve just seen scientific reports coming out that sea level rise is actually going much faster than we thought, with impacts of extreme heat and floods around the world. So, we are working on new ways to advance insurance and the spread of insurance to cover more people.

India is going to be a testing bed of some of these innovations, and we are very involved in that. It is true that we’ve come to the end of an era of the traditional way of using public money. But, we are not walking away from our obligations under the convention; instead, we are trying to bring much more innovation into the discussion.

With developed countries experiencing climate impacts themselves, how are you building public support for international climate finance?

British people know that climate change is real because they see it in their gardens, the flowers blooming at the wrong time, and changes in the behaviour of birds. They are seeing persistent flooding, wetter winters, hotter and drier summers, and extraordinary temperatures they never experienced when they were young. And, when they watch the news, they see this happening all around the world. So, there’s no question that climate change is happening.

What this government has said is that the UK only contributes one per cent of emissions today; in the past we contributed more. But we cannot be as secure as Britain if we don’t help other countries secure their transition. So, I think previous governments have said if we only contribute one per cent why are we investing overseas? So, we are saying, “Well, because we are only one per cent." Investing in India’s success is a big part of securing our own security.

So, which are the key areas for UK-India cooperation in terms of climate action?

We have an offshore wind task force, which came out of the strategic partnership and the free trade agreement that was agreed last year and the meetings between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Keir Starmer. There is technical cooperation going on in long-duration battery storage, green hydrogen, and various aspects of energy transition. We have a climate finance initiative, which includes engaging with pension funds in the UK and bringing long-term investors and asset owners into India. We also have technical cooperation on grid stability, drawing on our extensive experience in grid regulation, achieving flexibility, and at the same time working on disaster risk management.

I mean, for a small country like the UK, we don’t succeed in our climate ambition if India doesn’t succeed.

The last UN Climate Summit in Brazil was the “COP of implementation". Has there been any concrete progress since then?

The rhythm is okay. There was COP, then we had different international meetings, the spring meetings of the World Bank and the IMF, and then there are now regional climate weeks. So, there is a different rhythm now because it’s an implementation era, and I think that’s really important. I don’t think we can have 11 months and then just a COP and then 11 months and then a COP. Of course, the Turkish hosts are very busy, and Australia managing the negotiations is very busy, but we’re focused on things that need to be delivered this decade. A big emphasis is on fulfilling the pledges to reduce methane because it’s an accelerator and a short-lived climate pollutant.

There is also a focus on how we fund adaptation and on countries that have yet to file their ly Determined Contributions (NDCs). We are really looking forward to seeing India’s submission.

News world Global Conflicts Show Why We Need Clean Energy Fast: UK Climate Envoy Rachel Kyte | Exclusive Interview

Read More