By Elizabeth Piper

BRIGHTON, England (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson must do the “hard yards of diplomacy” if he wants any kind of success at the COP26 climate change conference in November, Ed Miliband, opposition Labour’s climate policy chief, said on Sunday.

A few months before the world leaders gather in Glasgow to discuss COP26, campaigners and politicians worry that the United Nation summit may end up destroying what was seen as an opportunity to deal with the climate crisis.

A U.N. analysis of nation pledges revealed that the global emission levels would rise 16% by 2030 compared to 2010. That is far from the required 45% reduction that scientists believe is necessary.

Ex-Labour leader Miliband led Britain’s delegation at the 2009 U.N. Summit in Copenhagen. He said Johnson should be there to help Alok Sharma, COP26 president, win more support from big emitting countries and convince them to vaccinate all of the planet against COVID-19.

He told Reuters that “it’s more than a picture op” when he can speak Latin and resurrect a ancient myth and tousle his locks. This was in an interview at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton.

Based on his experiences in Copenhagen, Johnson’s advice was to “get across all the details, and do the tough yards of diplomacy.”

Johnson’s government has applauded the U.S. President Joe Biden’s pledge to double financial assistance to developing countries that are more vulnerable due to the climate crisis. Also, China’s decision to not expand its coal-fired power plants abroad.

The COP26 London team has not been able to convince major polluters like China and Russia to sign new emissions pledges. This is crucial for limiting global temperature rises to below 2° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit).

Miliband drew on the Copenhagen experience to say that Gordon Brown (then British prime minister) had to get “his hands dirty” in order for other leaders to “rescue something from the wreckage.”

Johnson’s missteps and inability to honor a promise to only vaccinate those nations that he needed to foster trust were some of the problems Britain had to face to persuade other countries, he stated.

“It is an inconvenient fact that we are miles from the place we should be, for Glasgow. miles away,” Johnson said.