UN climate summit president thanks Australian states – but not Morrison government – for backing net zero

UK energy minister Alok Sharma urges all of you who have not already done so to join the race' to net zero emissions by 2050

The British president of the next major UN climate change summit has pointedly thanked Australia's states and territories for backing a goal of net zero emissions by 2050 while urging unnamed others - including the Morrison government - to join them.

In a speech to an Australian audience on Wednesday, Alok Sharma, the president-designate of the COP26 summit in Glasgow and a member of Boris Johnson's Conservative cabinet, said more than 120 countries had announced carbon neutrality or net zero emissions targets and urged others to follow.