Commonwealth Parliamentary Association

Lord Hunt of Chesterton Excerpts

Thursday 8th September 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Chesterton]

My Lords, I welcome this debate, introduced by the noble Baroness, Lady Hooper. My father was a diplomat in the Commonwealth Relations Office, so I was brought up to this. As a boy, I saw the Union Jack coming down in Kuala Lumpur in 1956 and heard the music changing—we had a musical discussion earlier this afternoon. In my career, I have visited scientific, meteorological and governmental institutions in about 14 countries. I declare an interest as a visiting fellow of the Malaysian Commonwealth Studies Centre at Cambridge. In my remarks I should like to point out how the UK might reorientate its diplomacy to combine more strongly its roles in the Commonwealth and in Europe, particularly to help deal with global issues of climate change, the environment and developing science and technology-based business. The UK high commissioners could, I believe, do more to help promote the idea in Commonwealth countries of flying the European as well as the UK flag. You can be quite sure that when the French have their embassies in countries in the francophonie, they will be flying the European and the French flag.

The present and the previous Governments have worked closely with other European countries and the EU to establish Europe’s leading research position in climate change and to establish policies for mitigating emissions of greenhouse gases and for assisting developing countries to adapt to climate change and reduce their damaging impacts. Collaboration with Commonwealth countries is growing; we are having strong policy initiatives. The Australian Government are introducing bold legislation and, I am glad to say, ignoring the trumpeting by certain present and previous Members of this House who are very loud and noisy. In Singapore, the Prime Minister has set up a climate change secretariat and foresees greater collaboration with south-east Asians. As I found in a meeting interview with him, there is great concern in that area about the rising sea level, which for reasons of physics is stronger in that part of the world, as the noble Lord, Lord Glenarthur, has just emphasised. However, one has to say that the Canadian Government policy is not helpful in following the United States. I hope that there will be vigorous discussion with the Canadian Government at the forthcoming meeting of Commonwealth Prime Ministers.

In July this year, the Divecha Centre for Climate Change at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, together with the Malaysian Commonwealth Centre, held a workshop to review the special aspects of science and policies on climate change in Asia. The severity of the impacts, from the sea level rise to the melting glaciers in the Himalayas, were highlighted and the need to combine policies for energy and food was emphasised. Indian policy specialists commended the EU leadership for their climate policy and urged the EU, and the UK working with the EU, to keep up the pressure on the US Government to take a more constructive position, or at least not to prevent international collaboration.

The EU and the Commonwealth could work better to promote high-tech business and trade. Many of the most advanced projects in the UK are part of EU programmes—for example, Airbus and projects in space and the environment. In Singapore, I met the EU representatives—many Commonwealth countries have EU representatives. I believe that they and the UK High Commission could do more to explain how EU programmes are world leading and could be used more to help collaboration between the high-tech and advanced countries of the Commonwealth and the UK and Europe. Of course, many of these Commonwealth countries, as I again saw in Singapore, are now in a very advanced position in terms of their own work. Some of the leading groups and universities in the United States are setting up establishments there. UK funding, by Her Majesty’s Government, of UK technology at trade fairs is, in the views of many business people I have met, a poor shadow of the funding provided by other countries, including EU countries such as Germany. Perhaps, given the difficulties of our finances, Her Majesty’s Government should collaborate more effectively and economically with the EU in the promotion of UK industry and its development globally.

Finally, I should like to return to the point I have made several times before in this House and elsewhere that it is quite extraordinary that when scholars and researchers come to this country to work in universities—I have had many myself—there is no funding, no encouragement, nothing to bring these people to London, to Westminster, to show them what goes on. They know nothing. They go back to their countries—some of them become Prime Ministers—and they know nothing about the UK. It is quite extraordinary. Only Chevening scholars, a highly select group, are given, as it were, the treatment, but that is a tiny proportion, whereas when you go to other countries, they really use the opportunity to tell them about the country. After all, that is part of the reason why we do this.

One more thing: if they come to the UK, they should also learn that the UK is part of Europe, and perhaps that is how we should be moving. I have very little faith in this. I have spoken to leaders of the British Council and the Foreign Office, and they do not seem to understand that scientists need to know about the world in which they live, so there is a thought.