While the world gathers in Glasgow over the next fortnight to make progress on tackling climate change, 10,000 miles away the city’s namesake will provide a stark reminder of why urgent action is needed.

An enormous body of ice in Antarctica has been formally named the ‘Glasgow Glacier’ by researchers at the University of Leeds to mark the COP26 Summit.

PhD researcher Heather Selley identified 14 glaciers in the Getz basin of West Antarctica that sped up by an average of 25 per cent between 1994 and 2018 due to climate change. Her study, published in February, found that 315 gigatonnes of ice has been lost from the region over the last 25 years, adding the equivalent of 126 million Olympic-sized swimming pools of water to the world’s oceans.

Scientists Heather Selley and Dr Anna Hogg requested that the nine unnamed glaciers in her study be named for the locations of major climate treaties, reports and conferences, the most recent of which is Glasgow. Her proposal was submitted by the UK Government and supported by the UK Antarctic Place-names committee. The names will now be added to the international Composite Gazetteer for Antarctica, for use on maps, charts and future publications.

Today at the G20 the Prime Minister will tell world leaders that time is running out to save civilisation from catastrophic climate change.

As the foremost gathering of the world’s largest economies – who between them account for 75 per cent of global emissions – the G20 has a unique ability and responsibility to prevent climate change. There has been progress in recent weeks, but barely half of G20 countries have set out more ambitious plans for cutting carbon emissions since 2015 and there are still two G20 members who have not committed to net zero.

The Prime Minister said:

By naming this glittering giant of nature after the city where next week humankind will gather to fight for the future of the planet, we have a stark reminder of what we are working to preserve.

Glasgow represents our best chance. Just as the G20 shares a collective responsibility to act, so the solutions are in our hands. I hope countries will gather next week in a spirit of responsibility and ambition so we can keep the goal of 1.5 degrees alive.

The Prime Minister is expected to tell fellow G20 leaders at their Summit in Rome today that the UK’s experience shows how countries can continue to grow while cutting carbon emissions. He will point out that fifty years ago the UK derived around 80 per cent of our electricity from burning coal, nine years ago that number was nearly 40 per cent and today it is below 2 per cent. The UK will phase out the use of coal in power generation completely by 2024.

The UK is calling on the world’s richest economies to do everything they can to reach Net Zero carbon emissions domestically by 2050, while helping developing countries transition to clean energy, and halting and reversing deforestation and land degradation by 2030.

Dramatic changes in ice cover and images of Antarctica have become synonymous with climate change. Over the past 40 years, satellites have observed huge iceberg calving events, changes in the flow of glaciers and rapidly thinning ice demonstrating the devastating impact of global warming.

University of Leeds researcher Heather Selley said:

Naming the glaciers after the locations of major climate treaties, conferences and reports is a great way to celebrate the international collaboration on climate change science and policy over the last 42 years. We wanted to permanently mark the outstanding effort the scientific community has put into measuring the present day impact of climate change and its predicted future evolution.

Dr Anna Hogg, Associate Professor in Leeds’ School of Earth and Environment, said:

The climate crisis effects all of us, whether through flooding of our homes, increased storm frequency, reduced crop harvests, or the loss of habitats and biodiversity in the natural environment, with some communities impacted much more than others. While these new glacier names celebrate the knowledge gained through scientific collaboration and the action taken through policy, it’s clear now that much more must be done.

Two and a half million Afghans, most of them women and girls, will receive urgent life-saving humanitarian support thanks to £50 million of funding announced by the Prime Minister today.

The funding, which is drawn from the UK’s £286 million aid commitment to Afghanistan announced by the Prime Minister in September, will be channelled via UN agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan has rapidly deteriorated since the Taliban seized control of the country in August. Under the UK’s evacuation effort ‘Operation PITTING’ 15,000 British nationals and vulnerable Afghans were brought to the UK.

Since the conclusion of the NATO withdrawal two months ago we have provided extensive support to those Afghans now starting their lives in the UK, including £25 million to provide housing, schooling and healthcare this year. Further UK military flights have also brought additional Afghans to the UK in the last fortnight.

The funding announced today will help the critical need for food, nutrition, shelter and medicine over the winter months in Afghanistan and bolster the UN’s wider humanitarian response. Protecting women and girls from gender-based violence will also be prioritised.

The Prime Minister said:

Two months ago this week NATO withdrew its final forces from Afghanistan after the most extensive evacuation effort in the alliance’s history, an effort which saved a huge number of lives.

We now have a responsibility to protect the people of Afghanistan most at risk under the Taliban regime, particularly women and girls.

Today’s funding will provide urgent protection for the most vulnerable people. But preventing a humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan and preserving the gains of the last twenty years will require a truly global effort.

At the G20 Summit today the Prime Minister will underscore the need to prioritise the rights of women and girls in all our international development efforts. In particular he will highlight the role girls’ education can make in unlocking opportunities for both individuals and whole societies.

Addressing a session on sustainable development, the Prime Minister is expected to say:

We must educate our daughters as surely as we educate our sons. That is the silver bullet, the Swiss army knife, the Black and Decker toolkit that solves an abundance of problems.

For every extra year a girl in the developing world spends in secondary school, her future income rises by 25 per cent and her own children will be twice as likely to go to school themselves – and 50 per cent more likely to be immunised against killer diseases.

In July, the Global Partnership for Education summit in London raised $4 billion to support education in developing countries. The Prime Minster will also use his intervention at the G20 to call for countries to step up to raise the further $1 billion the organisation needs to fund its activities over the next five years.

The UN agencies and ICRC will work with a number of international and national NGOs to deliver the £50 million Afghanistan funding announced by the UK today. No funding will be provided to the Taliban or through government systems. The partners we are working with have measures in place to ensure funding gets to those who need it most.

Action to get more trees in the ground, create more jobs and improve access to nature across the country has been stepped up today (Sunday 31 October) with a new £6 million ‘Trees Call to Action Fund’.

Grants of £250,000 to £500,000 will be awarded to projects across England, at least three of which will be for new regional partnerships set up to create woodlands at a large scale and improve people’s access to nature, following the Forest for Cornwall and Great Northumberland Forest partnerships.

The fund will competitively allocate funding to up to 24 regional or national projects managed by partnerships of environmental charities, not-for-profit organisations, local authorities and protected landscape bodies.

Funding will be targeted at regions, activities and costs which are not supported by other government funding for trees, aiming to increase community understanding of and access to trees and woodlands, and boost efforts to increase woodland cover in areas that need it most.

To increase the capacity and skills of the sector, the fund will also support projects to engage people with trees, create new jobs and develop skills and knowledge, for example this could be by developing training and placement programmes for new foresters and woodland managers.

Today’s announcement will support progress towards the Government’s commitment in the England Trees Action Plan to at least treble planting rates by the end of this Parliament. The Plan, supported by over £500 million from the Nature for Climate Fund, outlines how the government will deliver this target, by announcing a programme of measures to boost tree planting and improve woodland management in England. Projects will be required to outline how they can best deliver against the England Trees Action Plan.

Forestry Minister Lord Goldsmith said:

With the climate change summit COP26 just days away, there has never been a more important time for trees and tree planting.

This new Fund will help fund regional and national partnerships of charities, local authorities and others to turn ambitions into actions, to engage communities and landowners in tree planting, and to develop skills to help deliver our England Trees Action Plan.

Forestry Commission Chief Executive Richard Stanford said:

To meet the climate and biodiversity crises we need to grow and manage more trees – this needs to be done as a national effort so we are better connecting people with nature and creating more green jobs. This Fund will have a hugely important role in helping us realise these ambitions, as set out in the England Trees Action Plan.

I would urge any prospective applicant to apply, together we will grow trees, woods and forests to make our nation more resilient for future generations.

Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive, National Lottery Heritage Fund, said:

Trees are a critical part of our natural heritage, from capturing carbon emissions to mitigating pollution, they play a vital role in protecting and enhancing our landscape for all generations to enjoy. We are delighted to support this new Trees Call to Action Fund which will enable partnerships to create woodlands, enhancing our beautiful countryside and providing a huge benefit to our wildlife and our health and wellbeing, as well as helping to combat the impacts of climate change.

The fund will be delivered by the National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with Defra and the Forestry Commission.

Potential applicants can submit Expressions of Interest from 3 November. The Heritage Fund will also release further guidance and details of the application process on that date, with information available via their website, social media channels and e-newsletter.

Today’s announcement forms part of wider steps we are taking under the England Trees Action Plan and Nature for Climate Fund. This includes over £15 million this year alone for Forestry Commission’s flagship England Woodland Creation Offer grant, over £25m for existing Woodland Creation Partnerships this year, £6 million for the Urban Trees Challenge Fund for the next two years, and a £2.7 million Local Authority Treescape Fund.

More information on the fund and how to apply is available here.

We, the President of France, Chancellor of Germany, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and President of the United States, met in Rome today to discuss the risks posed to international security by Iran’s escalating nuclear program. We expressed our determination to ensure that Iran can never develop or acquire a nuclear weapon and shared our grave and growing concern that, while Iran halted negotiations on a return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) since June, it has accelerated the pace of provocative nuclear steps, such as the production of highly enriched uranium and enriched uranium metal. Iran has no credible civilian need for either measure, but both are important to nuclear weapons programs.

These steps have only been made more alarming by Iran’s simultaneously decreased cooperation and transparency with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). We agreed that continued Iranian nuclear advances and obstacles to the IAEA’s work will jeopardize the possibility of a return to the JCPOA.

The current situation underscores the importance of a negotiated solution that provides for the return of Iran and the U.S. to full compliance with the JCPOA and provides the basis for continued diplomatic engagement to resolve remaining points of contention – both our concerns and Iran’s. In this spirit, we welcome President Biden’s clearly demonstrated commitment to return the U.S. to full compliance with the JCPOA and to stay in full compliance, so long as Iran does the same.

We are convinced that it is possible to quickly reach and implement an understanding on return to full compliance and to ensure for the long term that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes.

Return to JCPOA compliance will provide sanctions lifting with long-lasting implications for Iran’s economic growth. This will only be possible if Iran changes course. We call upon President Raisi to seize this opportunity and return to a good faith effort to conclude our negotiations as a matter of urgency. That is the only sure way to avoid a dangerous escalation, which is not in any country’s interest.

We welcome our Gulf partners’ regional diplomatic efforts to deescalate tensions and note that return to the JCPOA would result both in sanctions lifting allowing for enhanced regional partnerships and a reduced risk of a nuclear crisis that would derail regional diplomacy. We also affirm our shared determination to address broader security concerns raised by Iran’s actions in the region.

We are committed to continuing to work closely with the Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China, and the European Union High Representative, as Coordinator, in resolving this critical issue.