Green Climate Fund

Debate between Baroness Verma and Lord Clark of Windermere

Monday 27th October 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

My noble friend is absolutely right, and I could not have put it better than he has.

[Lord Clark of Windermere (Lab)]

My Lords, the Minister carefully explained to the House the expenditure by HMG on international climate initiatives, but can she be quite specific? Is she saying that in November the Prime Minister will actually make a pledge to the Green Climate Fund?

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, in case I was not clear in my initial Answer, I repeat that the Prime Minister, like leaders from a number of other countries, will pledge our support in November.

Energy: Hydropower

Debate between Baroness Verma and Lord Clark of Windermere

Wednesday 10th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, my noble friend mentioned the angling community, and I agree with him that it is a very important and large community. When it raises concerns, we take them very seriously. But the trust is fully engaged in ongoing work to review the Environment Agency’s hydropower good practice guidelines.

[Lord Clark of Windermere]

Is the Minister aware that three years ago there was an ongoing working party composed of the Forestry Commission and the Department of Energy and Climate Change looking at the difficulties of generating hydropower on public land? Could she dust down that report and see whether we can progress a bit further and contribute more to producing green energy?

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, I will have to dust down the report because I have not yet sighted it. I reassure the noble Lord that there will be opportunities coming up early in the new year as regards consultation and reviews of what we are carrying out. That would be a most appropriate time to raise concerns or issues.

Rainforests

Debate between Baroness Verma and Lord Clark of Windermere

Tuesday 13th September 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

My noble friend has put the case perfectly for why we need to work incredibly hard. That is why the UK has supported developing countries to participate in the United Nations study on the economics of ecosystems and biodiversity which estimates, as I have said, that the financial cost is immense but the cost to species is even greater, and the initial long-term impact will be on us.

[Lord Clark of Windermere]

My Lords, does the Minister appreciate that one of the largest single sources of global emissions is actually deforestation, often illegal logging? The British Government took the initiative a number of years ago to push for reforestation, and we are one of the few countries in the world with experience of it. Can we have an assurance from the Government that they will redouble their effort for reforestation as well as stamping out illegal logging?

[Baroness Verma]

The noble Lord is absolutely right. It is about working with other countries, which we are doing aggressively. We have worked very closely to get all our partner countries to sign off the new EU timber regulation that came into force last December. It is about being persistent in our argument. I agree with the noble Lord that it is really a devastation to all countries if we do not tackle this issue right now.