Oral Answers to Questions

Peter Bone Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd March 2022 Commons Chamber

The President of COP26 was asked—

[Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)]

1. What his timeframe is for the succession of the UK presidency following the COP26 conference.

[The COP26 President (Alok Sharma)]

The UK took on the COP26 presidency on 31 October last year at the start of the COP26 conference in Glasgow. We hold the presidency throughout this year until the start of COP27 in November, when we pass the presidency baton to Egypt. We are already working closely with Egypt and other partners to ensure that countries deliver on the commitments they made at COP26.

[Mr Bone]

Will the Minister use his remaining time as President to pivot the conference away from making climate change the No. 1 goal to making energy security the No. 1 goal?

[Alok Sharma]

My hon. Friend raises an important point. One of the reasons the UK has reduced its dependency on gas is precisely that we pushed out in terms of renewables. We have the second-biggest offshore wind sector in the world and we want to quadruple it. What I want, as part of the solution to tackling climate change, is a clean energy transition across the world.