Oral Answers to Questions

Kirsty McNeill Excerpts

Tuesday 1st September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Ms Julie Minns (Carlisle) (Lab)]

25. What steps his Department is taking with international partners to help tackle climate change.

[The Minister for International Development (Kirsty McNeill)]

Tackling the climate and nature crisis is an urgent priority for us all, as recent extreme wildfires and droughts have only served to reinforce. The UK is working with international partners to drive progress, whether through our forest partnerships with countries such as Brazil and Indonesia, or through our global clean power alliance to accelerate the worldwide transition to clean energy. The Foreign Secretary will act as the UK governor to the World Bank, taking personal leadership of the UK’s engagement on development and climate finance, and later this month he will also convene Foreign Ministers at the UN to address climate security challenges.

[Liz Twist]

My constituents in Blaydon and Consett have suffered through a summer of extreme heat, seeing trains cancelled, signal interruptions and wildfires. Climate change affects every single one of us—not only in the UK but globally, as we have heard today—so how is climate change resilience being embedded directly into our core diplomatic and security strategy?

[Kirsty McNeill]

I sympathise deeply with my hon. Friend’s constituents, who have been subject to such appalling disruption over the summer. We are very committed to strengthening international co-operation to anticipate, prevent and respond to climate-related risks of all sorts, including extreme weather. The French Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Foreign Secretary have recently reaffirmed their commitment to expand early warning initiatives, including through the climate risk and early warning systems programme, to strengthen protection for the most climate-vulnerable countries and populations, as well as for her constituents.

[Ms Minns]

The Minister will be aware that the world’s peatlands play a critical role in tackling climate change, storing twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests combined. Thanks to previous EU funding, work to restore the Bolton Fell Moss peatland in my constituency began in 2015. Can the Minister outline what international peatland restoration programmes the UK Government are currently engaged with, and will she press DEFRA colleagues to ensure that the UK continues to provide long-term funding to restore Cumbria’s upland bogs?

[Kirsty McNeill]

We are committed to peatland restoration, which is critical to tackling the climate and nature crisis and meeting our Environment Act targets, as my hon. Friend laid out. The UK supports international peatland conservation through programmes such as the Darwin Initiative. Darwin projects are, for example, helping communities in Peru and Indonesia to manage peatland ecosystems sustainably. Many tropical forests are also part of peatland ecosystems, and the UK has a long-standing portfolio of work supporting them. Of course, the Department continues to work closely with DEFRA to protect and restore important ecosystems.

[Vikki Slade (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD)]

After a horrendous summer of wildfires and the catastrophe in Nepal and Tibet, it is clear that if we are going to solve these problems, we need to act globally but think locally. It is really important that the public trust the information they receive on climate change. Will the FCDO work with Cabinet colleagues to ensure that the public are educated, and will it consider funding a national programme of public information, or perhaps screenings of the “People’s Emergency Briefing”, so that we can all understand more about the situation?

[Kirsty McNeill]

I could not agree with the hon. Lady more. It is very important that people trust the information they receive. She will have noticed the alert that was sent out across England, which was a sign of how seriously this Government take their commitment to communicate with the public responsibly.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank the Minister for her answer. There are 67 wars across the world—countries in conflict with other countries. What can she do to ensure that sworn enemies come together to tackle climate change, which is the real enemy of every country in this world?

[Kirsty McNeill]

I very much agree with the hon. Gentleman: climate change is a common enemy, and we have to face it across this House, across this country and across the world. We are committed to working with everybody who is taking climate action seriously.

[Richard Foord (Honiton and Sidmouth) (LD)]

10. What steps he is taking to improve UK-EU foreign and security co-operation.

--- Later in debate ---

[Gurinder Singh Josan (Smethwick) (Lab)]

T6. Will the Minister update the House about the steps that the Government are taking to tackle the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo?

[The Minister for International Development (Kirsty McNeill)]

We are working closely with international partners to support the African-led response. We acted early to allocate an initial £26.9 million to fund the immediate response in the DRC and Uganda and to support the World Health Organisation and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in co-ordinating the regional response. I am pleased to announce to the House a further £51.8 million, which takes our total funding to £78.7 million. We are also taking a leading role internationally. I met Dr Jean Kaseya, the head of Africa CDC, in Addis Ababa last week, and I will discuss this issue with ministerial counterparts ahead of the UN General Assembly later this month.

[James MacCleary (Lewes) (LD)]

T3. Last month, 12 protesters were arrested in Tbilisi just for displaying a banner criticising Georgian oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, who controls the Georgian Dream Government. The European Union and the United States have taken steps to sanction Mr Ivanishvili. When will the UK Government follow suit?