Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions he has had with his (a) NATO (b) other international counterparts on reducing carbon emissions from military activities.

The Ministry of Defence engages with NATO and with key partners such as the USA, Canada, France and Australia at Official level through various fora and bilaterally to build shared understandings, increase climate literacy, and exchange methods and approaches on reducing carbon emissions and military adaptation.

At the Royal International Air Tattoo in July 2023, I signed the Defence Aviation Net Zero Strategy on behalf of the department, which outlines the steps necessary to meet the commitment to decarbonise Defence’s aviation capability, whilst also mitigating potential risks to operational effectiveness that are likely to arise as a result of climate change.