With files from Walid Tamtam.
At the United Nations COP30 climate summit in Brazil, U.K. Net Zero Minister and former Labour leader Ed Miliband offered glowing praise for Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, calling him a “great guy” and a “good friend.”
True North journalist Walid Tamtam caught up with Miliband outside a COP30 event in Belém. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer had delivered an address at the conference’s prelude alongside Prince William last week.
When asked about Carney’s leadership and climate policy record, Miliband replied, “I think Mark Carney’s a great guy. He’s a good friend of mine. And I believe he’s really important.”
Asked if he and Carney were still in contact and planning to collaborate on climate initiatives, Miliband added, “Absolutely.”
Tens of thousands of delegates, including a Canadian contingent led by Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin and Canadian Identity Minister Steven Guilbeault, are attending the United Nations’ latest climate conference in the Amazon.
Carney, who served as Governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020, has been a central figure in the global climate finance movement.
He has used his influence in banking and government to push for aggressive decarbonization targets and ESG-driven investment policies.
While Carney chose not to attend COP30 himself, his allies are well represented. The Canadian delegation under Dabrusin and Guilbeault is set to arrive this week.
Despite its green branding, this year’s COP conference has faced criticism for the extensive environmental damage caused by hosting the event. Tens of thousands of acres of rainforest and wetlands were destroyed to make way for a new “sustainable” four-lane highway and port expansion in Belém. This has displaced local communities and destroyed açaí berry harvests that once sustained them.
To accommodate more than 50,000 international attendees, two massive cruise ships, the MSC Seaview and Costa Diadema, have been docked in the Amazon River, serving as floating hotels for delegates. The port upgrades alone cost Brazilian taxpayers roughly $45 million.
Environmental critics have highlighted the irony of fuel-guzzling, carbon-heavy cruise ships hosting climate delegates in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. Meanwhile, locals living a few hundred metres from the newly paved highway say they’ve lost both their trees and their livelihoods.
