It was disappointing that we didn’t manage to get an agreement on the roadmap towards eradication of fossil fuels at COP 30.
I asked the SoS what he is doing to ensure there is an agreement on the roadmap before COP 31 in Turkey next year.
Transcript
Toby Perkins: Thank you very much, Madam Deputy Speaker. It was absolutely clear meeting international colleagues at COP30 the extent to which the UK’s track record on this and the policies of this Government are hugely respected and we are right to reflect that and actually whilst there was huge support for many of the steps this Government is taking there was also a great respect for the steps the previous Government had taken and share his despair that the current version of the Conservative Party doesn’t only oppose his politics but trashes their own history, which is in this area at least, should be a proud one.
Does he agree with me that whilst I absolutely believe that we wouldn’t have got the statement that we did get without his work and the work of his colleagues over there it is disappointing we didn’t get that roadmap towards the eradication of fossil fuels agreed and on that basis can he say what more he’s going to be doing to try and bring that coalition together to get greater agreement when we get to Turkey or even before that next year round?
Secretary of State: Can I first of all thank my Hon. Friend, the Chair of the EAC who does a really outstanding job and also my Hon. Friend who is the Chair of the DESNZ Select Committee too. Look, I think his observations about the Conservative Party are right. I won’t add to them because he put them well. On the transition away, I think this is the hardest part of the negotiations, as I said, and in a sense it’s not surprising because there are countries who are extremely reliant and who are very, very reluctant and I think in retrospect are quite reluctant about what was agreed at COP28, which is part of the difficulties we’ve got. I think what we’ve got to – I agree with him about continuing to push for this to be part of the negotiations. I also think we have got to accept, as I said in my statement that part of what we did on coal, to be fair the last Government did on coal, is work with others. You know, work as much as you can inside the formal negotiations but also work with others outside the formal negotiations to drive these issues forward and the lesson of the COP history is that you keep pushing forward on these issues and it’s slightly 3 steps forward 2 steps back, but you do make progress.