The Prime Minister laid down the gauntlet in a speech at the United Nations, 40 days before Glasgow hosts the landmark COP26 summit. He compared humanity to a growing adolescent who now needs to get serious in order to reduce the risk of catastrophic global warming.

       Mr Johnson said: “We are awesome in our power to change things and awesome in our power to save ourselves.

       “And in the next 40 days we must choose what kind of awesome we are going to be.

       “I hope that COP26 will be a 16th birthday for humanity in which we choose to grow up, to recognise the scale of the challenge we face, to do what posterity demands we must. And I invite you in November to celebrate what I hope will be a coming of age and to blow out the candles of a world on fire.

       “See you in Glasgow.”

       Mr Johnson describes his priorities as “coal, cash, cars and trees” – eliminating coal use worldwide by 2040, ending the petrol-powered vehicle sales by 2035, spending $100billion a year on climate finance and ending deforestation in nine years.