Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability

Lord Reid of Cardowan Excerpts

Monday 11th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Grimstone of Boscobel (Con)]

My Lords, the UK has been a long-standing supporter of multilateral efforts to promote fossil fuel subsidy reform. There is some technical disagreement as to exactly what comprises a fossil fuel subsidy. For example, we would not want the £200 winter fuel payment that we make to pensioners to be included as a subsidy. Some debate is still going on about the coverage of this matter.

[Lord Reid of Cardowan (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, on 1 September, the Minister for Trade Policy claimed:

“Having left the EU, the UK has a unique opportunity to design a set of policies to tackle climate change.”


He added that the Government were actively exploring trade policy options to support ambitious action in this direction. What is the nature of this exploration and what contact have we had with any of the parties to the agreement?

[Lord Grimstone of Boscobel (Con)]

My Lords, as I said earlier, we consider this subject to be very important. At the March 2020 WTO General Council, the Secretary of State for International Trade announced that the environment, including climate, was one of the three key priorities for UK ambition and leadership in its position as an independent member of the WTO.