Kermit was right: being green isn’t easy, for politicians like Boris Johnson

For many environmentalists, the Prime Minister’s words to the UN on combating climate change ring hollow when compared to his record.

By Tim Ross

Picture by Jeremy Selwyn - WPA Pool/Getty Images

In what may be a unique moment in global diplomacy, Boris Johnson invoked the Muppets as on Wednesday (22 September) he told world leaders at the UN General Assembly in New York that they must intensify their efforts to combat climate change.

Kermit the frog, Johnson said, was “wrong” when he sang “it’s not easy being green”. But the UK Prime Minister’s own record suggests that with politicians, at least, the puppet had a point.