Oral Answers to Questions

Anne McGuire Excerpts

Tuesday 20th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

The Prime Minister has made it clear that any Government of whom he is Prime Minister will be committed to that referendum.

[Dame Anne McGuire (Stirling) (Lab)]

T9. This week, as part of the congregation of Stirling Methodist church, I joined other local politicians in writing to the UN about a global climate agreement in Paris. Can the Secretary of State tell us what work is being done on the agreements reached in Lima in December 2014, leading up to the Paris conference in 2015?

[Mr Hammond]

As it happens, I can, because the item was on the agenda at the European Foreign Affairs Council yesterday, when there was an update report on the work programme that was agreed at Lima. My French colleague reported on the progress that is being made. The French are confident that we are making good progress towards a substantive agreement in Paris later this year. EU colleagues agreed that we should continue to lobby the countries that are perhaps considered to be back-markers; and, in particular, that European Union countries should seek to exert as much pressure as possible on China and the United States, both of which appear now to be in a good place on this agenda. We need to make sure that they stay there.