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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 26 October 2018 to Question 181237 on Carbon budgets: Climate change, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to amend the fourth and fifth carbon budgets and place the UK on the steeper decarbonisation pathway recommended by the Committee on Climate Change.

The UK was the first country to introduce long-term legally binding emission reduction targets through the Climate Change Act 10 years ago, and since then we have galvanised action and initiative across the UK and internationally, including helping secure the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015 and launching the Powering Past Coal Alliance.

The fourth and fifth carbon budgets require ambitious emissions reductions equivalent to 51% and 57% over the periods 2023-27 and 2028-32 from a 1990 baseline, and we have some of the most stringent legislative targets in the world.

Following the recent IPCC report, we commissioned advice from the Committee on Climate Change on our long-term targets. As noted by the CCC, this may include an update of their advice on the most cost-effective pathway for emission reduction. We will consider that advice carefully when it is received.