Oral Answers to Questions Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Wera Hobhouse
Main Page: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)Department Debates - View all Wera Hobhouse's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
(1 month, 2 weeks ago)
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Seema Malhotra
The UK continues to engage with China on climate and environmental issues. During the recent UK-China environment dialogue, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs secured agreement for greater collaboration with China on ecosystem resilience, biodiversity, conservation and multilateral environmental processes. Our Himalayan resilience action plan is building regional resilience through nature-based solutions, tackling water insecurity, air quality management and promoting dialogue through the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development. As countries come together in pursuit of these solutions, it is important that affected communities are consulted.
Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)
The Tibetan Parliament in exile, which the all-party parliamentary group on Tibet visited a couple of weeks ago—we have engaged extensively with it—is terribly worried that the central Tibet Autonomous Region is completely closed off by the Chinese Communist party to any outside access. Little comes out and almost nothing goes in. Is the Minister not worried about the complete secrecy in which the Chinese authorities can conduct environmental destruction that has a massive global impact?
Seema Malhotra
The hon. Lady raises an important concern. We are concerned by reporting from the UN special rapporteurs that large-scale environmental projects in Tibet risk the forced displacement of Tibetans from their ancestral villages. It is important that we keep these issues on our radar.