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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have with local authorities regarding implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement.

The UK is firmly committed to the Paris Agreement and to our emissions reduction efforts under it. We are really pleased that many local authorities and their Mayors are already taking significant steps to implement the Paris Agreement, with over 30 signed up to international cities agreements like the Global Covenant of Mayors and London playing a leading role in the C40 cities movement. We are working closely with partner organisations like UK100 and APSE Energy to engage at official and political levels of local government.

We announced as part of the Clean Growth Strategy, our Local Energy Programme. This builds on this work and is a joint programme with local authorities, local enterprise partnerships, combined authorities and community groups to understand local aspiration and action on low carbon and on climate change. This programme also announced the creation of a local energy contact group which will provide regular advice and input from these groups on departmental policy.

We chair the national subcommittee for growth on sustainability which includes as members local authorities and oversees the funding through European Regional Development Funding for low carbon.

We also work closely with Local Authorities on adapting to the impacts of climate change. The Local Adaptation Advisory Panel, which includes local authority representatives from city and county councils, is a forum for discussion on climate change adaptation between central government and local government.