Sharma 'in running' for global climate chief role at the UN

Alok Sharma, the UK cabinet minister who led last year's Cop26 climate summit, is in the running to be the UN's global climate chief, at a crucial time for international action on greenhouse gas emissions.

- Fiona Harvey

The UN's current top climate official, Patricia Espinosa, will step down next month, leaving a vacancy as the world prepares for the next stage in vital negotiations.

Scientists have warned it is "now or never" for climate action, as only decisive measures in the next few years can give the world a chance of avoiding irreversible changes to the Earth's climate.

The former business secretary, known through two years of fraught negotiations as "no-drama Sharma" for his calm exterior, stunned observers when he became emotional in the final dramatic moments of the Glasgow summit last November, as the hoped-for deal was nearly sunk in the final stage by disputes with China and India. His management of the conference, which led to the Glasgow Pact, in which world leaders agreed to limit global temperatures to 1.5C, won plaudits.

He is understood to have been approached about the UN role and would be willing to take it on. It would be a first for the UK and would be a coup for Boris Johnson's attempt to position "global Britain" on the world stage post-Brexit.

However, if he were appointed, Downing Street would face a tricky byelection in his Reading West seat, formerly a Tory stronghold but now regarded as a potential target. The prime minister, badly wounded by this week's confidence vote, is already facing two other byelections the Tories could lose.