Australian Bushfires

Debate between Joanna Cherry and Heather Wheeler

Thursday 9th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Wheeler]

Very regrettably, it is widely reported on social media that 75% of the fires were started by arsonists.

[Joanna Cherry (Edinburgh South West) (SNP)]

It is a real pleasure to see you back in your rightful place, Madam Deputy Speaker.

I spent one of the happiest years of my life living in Melbourne, and would be the last person to criticise Australia. However, my friends who live in Australia are very concerned about the current Government’s lack of appreciation of the impact of climate change on the disaster they are now facing. What can the Minister and the Government do to persuade their sister party in Australia to take the science of climate change seriously?

[Mrs Wheeler]

My sympathies are with the hon. and learned Lady’s friends who are out there right now. It is without doubt clear that the UK and Australia have their own approaches to climate change. As chair of COP26, the UK looks forward to continued discussions in the run-up to that conference. We hope to work with Australia and others to increase their ambition in line with the Paris principles. I stress again that, because of Australia’s federal system, there is a really interesting dynamic there right now, whereby states are already saying that they will be decarbonise by 2050—the same as us—so all is not necessarily painted as black as we think.