Friday saw the start of the G7 summit, where global leaders arrived in Cornwall to discuss climate change.

As new data released shows that the level of carbon dioxide in the world’s atmosphere is at its highest levels in 4m years, the importance of the summit is more significant than ever.

“This is a crucial moment in history. Either we recover [from the pandemic] in a strong and sustainable way, or we do not,” said Lord Stern, the climate economist. “We are at a real fork in the road. This decade is decisive. The last decade was not very good, and this next decade could be just as bad or worse, if we make the wrong choices,”

Prime minister Boris Johnson has already faced ridicule over this arrival to Cornwall in a private jet.

Labour’s Shadow Environment Secretary Luke Pollard said the trip was “plane stupid. There’s no train line from Cornwall to Washington or Tokyo but there is to London. The Prime Minister should have taken the train not got a plane.”

Leaders from the US, the UK, Japan, Canada, Germany, France, Italy and the EU have agreed to that temperature rises should be no higher than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Jennifer Morgan, the executive director of Greenpeace International, said: “If you look at climate finance, we are far behind. Yet [given the sums the G7 are spending on coronavirus] it is pretty clear that there is enough money, and these economies are pumping money into fossil fuels.”