UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

John Robertson Excerpts

Thursday 18th April 2013 Westminster Hall

[John Robertson (Glasgow North West) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I do not intend to take up too much time, but I was fortunate to be the representative of the Select Committee on Energy and Climate Change at COP 18, and I thank my colleagues for allowing me to do that.

COP 18 was an interesting event, and I met the Minister there, but for the next conference of the parties, his Department could look into the fact that I did not have delegate status—I was just a visitor. I believe that I was excluded from meetings that might have been of some advantage to the Committee and of help to the Government. I believe that the current Committee and the one during the previous Parliament have been helpful to both Governments. We might discuss and occasionally argue points, but in general terms there is no political bias and we are all, as we and the Prime Minister would say, in it together. We should therefore point out the problems.

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[Mr Andrew Turner (in the Chair)]

Order. That is enough, Mr Gardiner.

[John Robertson]

I totally agree with my hon. Friend’s point. What he says would have been helpful on occasion. Some of the delegations that I met had made an assumption that I would be at a subsequent meeting, believing that it was important that Britain took a lead, but I could not be there. Not only would my being there have been helpful for the Select Committee; it would have been helpful for Parliament, in effect, to be represented by a member of the Committee. That is something to consider for the future.

Mexico has been mentioned. Along with some of the other countries, Mexico is really taking on board the leadership that has been shown by this country. I met a number of Mexican delegates and people who told me that they were trying to emulate what we did here some years ago, going down the route of a Bill that would give them an energy and climate change policy written in statute. They were impressed by what we had done, to such an extent that I have since met more of them, with my hon. Friend the Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn), who is well known in Mexican circles. I met their energy and climate change MPs when they were here, and saw how important the subject was to them.

If a country such as Mexico, which is an emerging nation, can take that subject on board, perhaps there is hope for some of the countries—Brazil, and even China for that matter—that we might say have not been helpful in promoting climate change properly. However, we are all talking, which is a good thing, but talk is cheap and we must ensure that we get some kind of development from it.

I have noticed that some countries—particularly developing nations, although not Mexico in this case—still harbour ill will towards us, the Americans and any others who have done the things that we are telling them not to do. I have pointed out to them that it is important to look at history, from which we can learn for the future. There has always been a nation or some kind of empire leading the way in development. In the UK, that happened during the industrial revolution, which I do not think we should apologise for, because it was an evolutionary step between what went before and what came after. We have moved on from there, and the next evolutionary step is to start to look after our climate. I believe that, with the work that can be done and with cross-Bench co-operation, we can do that and go forwards.

GLOBE was very helpful, as was my hon. Friend the Member for Brent North (Barry Gardiner), in setting it up for me to go to COP 18, because I had never been to anything like it. What should also be taken on board before we send someone else is the need to ensure that they know what will happen when they get there and who to contact. Being a delegate would of course make a big difference.

GLOBE hopes that countries such as Mexico and Brazil will sign up to more on climate change; I think that Mexico will—it has done so—and I hope that other countries will, too. The one country not mentioned by the hon. Member for South Suffolk (Mr Yeo) was the United States. It has not signed up to anything, but I must say that some of the work done there is way beyond much that we have done. The Select Committee recently went to California, which is still ahead of us on this kind of thing. People there tell us that we are doing a great job, and they look to us; yet what they are doing on efficiency levels and such matters is way beyond what we have done until now. We will get better, however, and we will do it.

I believe that, with the support of the Select Committee and my party—I look forward to the speech of my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Luciana Berger)—we can ensure that this country is still one of the leaders. In years to come, we will think of Tony Blair as the man who started it all off in relation to bringing energy and climate change into the political arena.

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[Luciana Berger]

I am not sure how that point relates to mine about our responsibility to continue in our leadership role on the international stage—a role for which, in the past, we have been held in high esteem and taken seriously—and about remarks recorded in the report that show a diminishing in our standing, and therefore our effectiveness, on that international stage. As I said, 2% of global emissions come from the UK. We have a responsibility, domestically, to reduce them, but we cannot solve the problem alone.

[John Robertson]

Does my hon. Friend agree that leadership from this country is important in the international arena, mainly because we were the country that set the pace, with the first ever Bill that had climate change in it?

[Luciana Berger]

We were, proudly, the first country in the world to do that, when we passed the Climate Change Act 2008, with a view to reducing our emissions by 2015 in relation to 1990 levels. The Act is held in high regard in countries that I have visited, but legislation is not enough if it is not acted on and if the Government’s actions do not match it. That is why it is important that the Government do all they can to live up to their ambition to be the greenest Government ever, and not slip behind. Then they would be held in high esteem on the international stage.