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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact that ceasing to use fossil fuels would have on (1) controlling climate change, and (2) preventing the extinction of species.

Ceasing emissions from the use of fossil fuels would substantially reduce future warming, however continued emissions from other sectors, including agriculture, cement and waste, would still result in rising temperatures, albeit at a slower rate of warming. If we reach net zero carbon dioxide emissions across all sectors, and stabilise or reduce emissions of short lived greenhouse gases such as methane, then at that point, our best current understanding is that warming would cease.

There is a strong scientific consensus that climate change is impacting on biodiversity, including contributing to species extinction, and that tackling global warming would have significant benefits for the natural world. Those impacts are predicted to grow substantially without action to limit future warming.