Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps the Government has taken to support the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The Government is committed to tackling climate change and to the Paris Agreement.

We have been among the most successful countries in the developed world in growing our economy while reducing emissions. Since 1990, we have cut emissions by more than 40 per cent while our economy has grown by two thirds. This is the best performance amongst G7 nations. PWC has recently found the UK is leading the G20 in clean growth, decarbonising faster than any other country.

This year the Government has announced a number of policy measures to support low carbon transition including: confirmation of the phase out of unabated coal power generation in Great Britain by 2025; new measures to support green finance; and £246 million for the ‘Faraday Challenge’ to support the design, development and manufacture of electric vehicles. We have held a Contracts for Difference auction which resulted in the cost of new offshore wind projects from 2022-23 being 50% lower than the first auction held in 2015. We will publish our Clean Growth Strategy shortly which will set out how we will reduce emissions through the 2020s.

The Government is working internationally to support implementation of the Paris Agreement. We actively participate in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations to agree detailed rules that will underpin the Paris Agreement. We are working closely with EU partners to agree the legislative package that will set out how the EU will meet its commitments under the Paris Agreement. The International Climate Fund of £5.8bn between 2016-2020 is helping to unlock investment in developing countries and raise ambition; and through our foreign policy network the UK is engaging countries around the world on delivery of their Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement.