COP30

Debate between Ed Miliband and Rosie Wrighting

Tuesday 25th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rosie Wrighting (Kettering) (Lab)]

For a long time there has been a consensus on the need to take action against climate change in this House, so it is disappointing and saddening to see the Secretary of State, Members on the Government Benches and the Lib Dems having to come to this House to defend a position that used to be shared. I was proud to be at COP with my hon. Friend the Member for Stratford and Bow (Uma Kumaran) and with my hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich (Sarah Coombes), who I wish a happy birthday, to see UK negotiators and Ministers taking a leading role in action to protect my generation and generations to come. Does the Secretary of State agree that Reform UK’s dangerous anti-climate politics show that with them our future is at risk?

[Ed Miliband]

My hon. Friend speaks incredibly well about this issue, and it is worth pausing and recognising what she has said. Since I have been involved in this issue, all the way back to David Cameron—I call him my nemesis—there has been a competition in this House for climate ambition. That was good, and it was recognised across the world—that was when the Conservative party won elections. My hon. Friend has said something really important; the sooner we can get back to that, the better. I do not think the British people want a culture war on climate. They do not want an imported US-style culture war, and the sooner the Conservative party recognises that, the better.

State of Climate and Nature

Debate between Ed Miliband and Rosie Wrighting

Monday 14th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Ed Miliband]

The hon. Lady raises an issue that I believe is essentially about devolved funding, but the wider issue she raises about the costs facing farmers is so important. We are not talking about theoretical events or theoretical future costs; they are happening now. Farmers are facing those costs, and the hon. Lady is right to draw attention to that.

[Rosie Wrighting (Kettering) (Lab)]

When I speak to young people in Kettering, and in fact when I have conversations with my friends, they tell me that they are worried about the future of the world that we have inherited. With that in mind, the climate delay rhetoric coming from the Tories and Reform is both deeply irresponsible and really disappointing. Can the Secretary of State outline that only if we work with urgency to take action will my constituents see the restoration of our natural world—a world that we can pass on to the next generation?

[Ed Miliband]

My hon. Friend puts it incredibly well. This is an obligation that we owe to young people. We hold the planet in trust for future generations. The young people of today speak for themselves, but they also speak for future generations. Frankly, we owe it to them to act when the evidence is before our eyes.