Energy: Self-sufficiency

Debate between Baroness Verma and Lord St John of Bletso

Monday 15th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, I refute the noble Lord’s point that we are not taking a robust approach. We are, but we also need to make sure that we are able to decommission safely and dispose of the decommissioning waste that we have.

[Lord St John of Bletso]

My Lords, can the Minister elaborate on the potential for the commercialisation of shale gas in the United Kingdom?

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, we need to make the most of all our domestic energy resources, and exploitation of shale gas reserves is just one way we can do this. We must also ensure that any development is sensitive to community concerns and consistent with our carbon objectives.

Rainforests

Debate between Baroness Verma and Lord St John of Bletso

Tuesday 13th September 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

My noble friend is right about Congo. However, as with the previous question, it is about all partner countries being able to respond with severe penalties when they see illegal timber coming through their borders. Of course, the important thing is that these are conversations that continue. They are not had at one conference—it is a continuous conversation at many conferences, and it will arise again at the Durban conference in December.

[Lord St John of Bletso]

My Lords, can the noble Baroness give any indication as to whether our Government will be following the moves by Switzerland and Germany to investigate money-laundering of the proceeds of timber corruption by the chief minister of Sarawak in Malaysia? What other measures are being taken to identify and sanction those large international logging companies which do not ensure best practice in sustainable logging?

[Baroness Verma]

The noble Lord talks about a specific case, which I will not refer to. In a more general response, I would like to say to noble Lords that we are ensuring that we respond proactively to the difficulties we are all facing with this issue. The multinational companies that deal in illegal logging will find that the penalties for this will be severe. That is the agreement we are trying to get from all our partner countries so that it is not just a small group of countries that are willing to apply severe penalties, but that the penalties will be severe at every border that illegal timber comes through. It is about greater partnership but it is also about recognising that we are only a small cog when it comes to dealing with these issues and it is really for the whole world to respond collectively.

Malawi

Debate between Baroness Verma and Lord St John of Bletso

Wednesday 20th July 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

My noble friend raises a number of key issues here. The support that we were giving was in order to have oversight of good governance and to ensure that economically the country was following the right paths for the delivery of budget aid. However, I bring the noble Lord back to the original Question, the answer to which is that we are continuing to work with the Malawian Government but we will need to direct general budget aid through programmes that we can have oversight of.

[Lord St John of Bletso]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that while it is vital that our Government continue to support Malawi through the aid programme, it is just as important in the medium and long term for our Government to assist the African Union as well as SADC to promote trading blocs to promote more trade and inter-African trade for sustainable economic growth?

[Baroness Verma]

The noble Lord is right. I know that he shares a great interest in that region with the Government. We wish to see greater economic development there, which is why we are encouraging private sector investment but also working with Governments to ensure that they are able to move much more strongly in revisiting their systems and ensuring that good governance overreaches all areas of their government as well as where the budget aid is going.

Zimbabwe

Debate between Baroness Verma and Lord St John of Bletso

Wednesday 10th November 2010 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

My noble friend can feel reassured that we will be working very closely with SADC and South Africa to ensure that the reforms we want to see in Zimbabwe are happening. On his final point: yes, of course, we will make sure.

[Lord St John of Bletso]

My Lords, can the Minister explain what support is being given in order to expedite and help with the drafting of the new constitution of Zimbabwe? Does she agree that until such time as a constitution is implemented, there is very little chance of free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, and that the expectation is that there will be an election in June of next year? Surely, without a referendum and a credible voters’ roll, this is an unrealistic time assessment.

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, it is up to the people of Zimbabwe to ensure that they hold their Government to account; we can only offer assistance to ensure that the processes are as fair as possible. However, we will offer assistance if it is asked for.