LONDON (AP) — Britain's Treasury chief Rachel Reeves said Friday that she is “not satisfied” by official figures showing the British economy's rebound from recession slowed down sharply in the third quarter of the year, with most sectors stagnating.
The Office for National Statistics said growth during the July to September period was just 0.1%. That was lower than the 0.5% recorded in the previous three-month period and below market expectations for 0.2%.
The statistics agency said overall output in September actually shrank, a development that has further fueled accusations from critics of the new Labour government that its pessimism dragged the economy down in its first few weeks in office.
On coming to power in July for the first time in 14 years, the government described its economic inheritance from the former Conservative administration as the bleakest in decades, requiring urgent action to fix the public finances. The Conservatives' Treasury spokesperson, Mel Stride, sought to pin the blame for the slowdown on the new government, saying the deterioration in business and consumer confidence was a direct result of it “talking the economy down."
Reeves used the budget to raise taxes sharply, mainly on business, as well as increasing spending on public services, such as the state-run National Health Service, and borrowing on investments.
“Improving economic growth is at the heart of everything I am seeking to achieve, which is why I am not satisfied with these numbers,” Reeves said following Friday's figures.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said raising economic growth his government's number one priority over the next five years. Since the global financial crisis in 2008-9, the British economy has underperformed relative to previous years and actually slipped into a modest recession in 2023.
The Resolution Foundation think tank said the British economy has been a “rollercoaster” over the past year and that its medium-term performance has been “staid and stagnant”
As a result of the third-quarter slowdown, the think tank said the U.K. has fallen below the U.S. at the top of the growth leaderboard of the Group of Seven leading industrial economies.
“This all serves to highlight that the government’s mission to renew strong economic growth is both extremely hard, and absolutely necessary," said Simon Pittaway, the think tank's senior economist.
One factor hobbling the economy, many economists say, is Britain's departure from the European Union in 2020, which has made trade more difficult. Though the post-Brexit trade agreement between the two sides ensured there would be no tariffs placed on goods, exporters are finding life tough.
As part of Brexit, the U.K. also left the frictionless single market and the customs union, which means firms have to file forms and customs declarations for the first time in years.
On Thursday evening, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said the “changing trading relationship” with the EU has weighed on the economy.
“It underlines why we must be alert to and welcome opportunities to rebuild relations while respecting the decision of the British people," he said.
Starmer has said he wants to improve the trading relationship with the EU but has ruled out the possibility of Britain rejoining the single market or the customs union, or of a return of the freedom of movement of people.
For many, that means there can only be limited improvements to the current trading arrangements.
FILE - People walk in a decorated arcade near Piccadilly Circus in London, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, File)
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves delivers her first Mansion House speech on financial services in the City of London, during the Financial and Professional Services Dinner, in the Egyptian Hall of Mansion House, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (Isabel Infantes/PA via AP)
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves delivers her first Mansion House speech on financial services in the City of London, during the Financial and Professional Services Dinner, in the Egyptian Hall of Mansion House, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (Isabel Infantes/PA via AP)
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Cities in Asia and the United States emit the most heat-trapping gas that feeds climate change, with Shanghai the most polluting, according to new data that combines observations and artificial intelligence.
Nations at U.N. climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan are trying to set new targets to cut such emissions and figure out how much rich nations will pay to help the world with that task. The data comes as climate officials and activists alike are growing increasingly frustrated with what they see as the talks' — and the world's — inability to clamp down on planet-warming fossil fuels and the countries and companies that promote them.
Seven states or provinces spew more than 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases, all of them in China, except Texas, which ranks sixth, according to new data from an organization co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and released Friday at COP29.
Using satellite and ground observations, supplemented by artificial intelligence to fill in gaps, Climate Trace sought to quantify heat-trapping carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, as well as other traditional air pollutants worldwide, including for the first time in more than 9,000 urban areas.
Earth's total carbon dioxide and methane pollution grew 0.7% to 61.2 billion metric tons with the short-lived but extra potent methane rising 0.2%. The figures are higher than other datasets “because we have such comprehensive coverage and we have observed more emissions in more sectors than are typically available,” said Gavin McCormick, Climate Trace's co-founder.
Shanghai's 256 million metric tons of greenhouse gases led all cities and exceeded those from the nations of Colombia or Norway. Tokyo's 250 million metric tons would rank in the top 40 of nations if it were a country, while New York City's 160 million metric tons and Houston's 150 million metric tons would be in the top 50 of countrywide emissions. Seoul, South Korea, ranks fifth among cities at 142 million metric tons.
“One of the sites in the Permian Basin in Texas is by far the No. 1 worst polluting site in the entire world,” Gore said. “And maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised by that, but I think of how dirty some of these sites are in Russia and China and so forth. But Permian Basin is putting them all in the shade.”
China, India, Iran, Indonesia and Russia had the biggest increases in emissions from 2022 to 2023, while Venezuela, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States had the biggest decreases in pollution.
The dataset — maintained by scientists and analysts from various groups — also looked at traditional pollutants such as carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, ammonia, sulfur dioxide and other chemicals associated with dirty air. Burning fossil fuels releases both types of pollution, Gore said.
This “represents the single biggest health threat facing humanity,” Gore said.
Gore criticized the hosting of climate talks, called COPs, by Azerbaijan, an oil nation and site of the world's first oil wells, and by the United Arab Emirates last year.
“It’s unfortunate that the fossil fuel industry and the petrostates have seized control of the COP process to an unhealthy degree,” Gore said. “Next year in Brazil, we’ll see a change in that pattern. But, you know, it’s not good for the world community to give the No. 1 polluting industry in the world that much control over the whole process.”
Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has called for more to be done on climate change and has sought to slow deforestation since returning for a third term as president. But Brazil last year produced more oil than both Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
On Friday, former U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, former U.N. climate chief Christina Figueres and leading climate scientists released a letter calling for “an urgent overhaul” on climate talks.
The letter said the “global climate process has been captured and is no longer fit for purpose” in response to Azerbaijan's president Ilham Aliyev saying that oil and gas are a “gift of the gods.”
U.N. Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andresen said she understands much of the frustration in the letter calling for massive reform of the negotiation process, but said their push to slash emissions fits nicely with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ constant prodding.
One key benefit of the U.N. climate talks process is it is the only place where victim small island nations have an equal seat at the table, Andersen told The Associated Press. But the process has its limits because “the rules of the game are set by member states,” she said.
An analysis from the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition said Friday that the official attendance list of the talks featured at least 1,770 fossil fuel lobbyists.
At a press conference with small island nations chair Cedric Schuster said the negotiating bloc feels the need to remind everyone else why the talks matter.
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Eric Njuguna, of Kenya, participates in a demonstration against fossil fuels at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Eric Njuguna, of Kenya, participates in a demonstration against fossil fuels called weed out the snakes at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
Former Vice President Al Gore speaks during a session on Climate Trace, a database that monitors emissions, at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Former Vice President Al Gore speaks during a session on Climate Trace, a database that monitors emissions, at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
