G7

Caroline Lucas Excerpts

Wednesday 10th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We have not picked the fight with Russia; Russia has brought this on herself by destabilising and encouraging separatists to take Ukrainian territory. As for whether Ukraine is a country, we should recognise that the Ukrainian people themselves have decided that it is a country; it is recognised by the United Nations. The whole point we have to learn is that redrawing the lines and maps of Europe by force can end in disaster for everyone in Europe, including the people here in this country.

[Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion) (Green)]

The G7 pledge on climate action is very welcome, but a new report from Oxfam warns:

“Coal plants in G7 countries are on track to cost the world $450 billion a year by the end of the century”.

Given that the Committee on Climate Change recommended that we should end unabated coal generation by the early 2020s, will the Prime Minister put in place a policy framework to try to achieve that?

[The Prime Minister]

We all want to see an end to unabated coal, but the key is in the term unabated. We need to make sure that we invest in carbon capture and storage so that we can accelerate the decarbonisation of electricity, but in a way that does not damage our economic interests.