Asked by: Jane Dodds (Liberal Democrat - Brecon and Radnorshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking with his UN counterparts to determine a venue for the COP25 climate summit.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
Chile has made the difficult decision not to host the COP Climate Change Conference this year, taking into consideration the current circumstances in the country. The Government welcomes the UN's decision to hold the summit in Madrid under a continued Chilean Presidency. The UK is strongly committed to international action to tackle climate change, and we look forward to working closely with partners in the UN and across other governments at COP25.
Asked by: Jane Dodds (Liberal Democrat - Brecon and Radnorshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his UN counterparts on improving humanitarian access in Yemen.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
In September, under UK leadership, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany, Kuwait and Sweden, met and signed a communiqué reiterating the need to increase the pace and scale of the humanitarian response. The Group was clear that a political settlement is the only way to address the humanitarian crisis, but given the risk of starvation faced by millions in Yemen, the Group called on all donors to disburse promptly their pledges to the UN humanitarian response. It also called on the conflict parties to facilitate safe, rapid and unhindered humanitarian access in compliance with Security Council Resolution 2451. Our Permanent Representative to the UN also reiterated the need to bolster efforts on humanitarian access in her statement of 17 October to the UN Security Council.