Foreign Office climate staff cut by 25% under Boris Johnson

The number of full-time officials dedicated to climate change in the Foreign Office has dropped by almost 25% in the two years since Boris Johnson became foreign secretary, according to data released under freedom of information (FoI) rules.

Johnson has also failed to mention climate change in any official speech since he took the office, in marked contrast to his two predecessors.

The cutback in climate change diplomacy has come despite the prime minister, Theresa May, asserting that the UK leads the world on climate action. The UK has been praised for its past climate diplomacy, which helped pave the way to the landmark Paris agreement.

“It is extremely disappointing,” said Prof Sir David King, who was the foreign secretary’s special envoy for climate change from September 2013 until March 2017.

“Yes, we have the Paris agreement, but everybody knows the difference between what the agreement says – if possible no more than 1.5C rise – and what countries have promised is enormous,” he said. “There is a very big amount of work to be done. Other countries have had an enormous amount of respect for what Britain has delivered. If you then cut back the British effort then of course there is a real danger that the focus drifts away.”

Johnson gave an assurance that King’s work would continue under his replacement. But FoI documents show that the number of officials working full time on climate change fell from 72 to 55 between early 2016 and 2018, despite the issue being a “network-wide priority” across the UK’s diplomatic corps.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said climate change is one of the Foreign Secretary’s key priorities.

“Climate diplomacy could not be more important,” said Barry Gardiner, shadow minister for international climate change. “This is the year countries are supposed to ratchet up their Paris commitments, but so far the government has failed to step up and increase their aspirations. Sadly this government’s rhetoric versus reality is skewed.”

In January, May said: “We are supporting the world’s poorest as they face up to the effects of rising sea waters and the extreme weather events associated with climate change. We will continue to lead the world in delivering on our commitments to the planet.”

In April, climate change minister Claire Perry said: “The UK is leading the world in tackling climate change while growing our national income, ensuring we are best placed to help other countries reduce harmful carbon emissions.”

However, Johnson has yet to mention climate change in an official speech. His predecessors as foreign secretary made strong speeches on global warming, with Philip Hammond saying at a 2015 event in Washington DC: “Unchecked climate change, even under the most likely scenario, could have catastrophic consequences … Our history shows us that when the US and the UK take a lead, we can persuade the world to follow. And we must take that lead.”

In 2011, William Hague said: “Climate change is perhaps the 21st-century’s biggest foreign policy challenge. You cannot have food, water, or energy security without climate security.”

Johnson has given speeches about ending the illegal ivory trade that drives the poaching of elephants and has ordered a ban on avoidable single-use plastics from the Foreign Office’s UK operations by the end of 2018.

In a newspaper column in 2015, the hottest December ever recorded, Johnson cited climate change sceptic Piers Corbyn as saying “the whole global warming theory is unsound, to say the least”.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: “The UK was instrumental in securing the Paris agreement on climate change. We are helping other countries to meet their targets and we are confident that we will be able to meet our own groundbreaking target of reducing emissions by 80% by 2050.”

She added: “We have repeatedly made our views clear to the US Administration.”