Asked by: Charlie Maynard (Liberal Democrat - Witney)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to foster international cooperation towards the aims of (a) increasing the use of renewable energy and (b) reducing global reliance on fossil fuels.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Building on our ambition to make Britain a clean energy superpower, the UK is working closely with international partners through the UNFCCC process, multilateral organisations and UK-led initiatives such as the Global Clean Power Alliance (GCPA), Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA), Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETP) and Green Grids Initiative (GGI) to enable a global, just clean energy transition that delivers on the Paris Agreement and energy security.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to the press release entitled Prime Minister launches Global Clean Power Alliance as UK leads the global energy transition, published on 19 November 2024, which (a) countries and (b) international organisations have formally signed up to that alliance.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Global Clean Power Alliance (GCPA) is organised around tangible “Missions”, which bring interested partners together to overcome shared barriers to clean power deployment. Initially, we are focusing on mobilising private finance and enhancing supply chains.
Brazil, Australia, Barbados, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Morocco, Mozambique, Norway, Tanzania and the African Union are partners of the GCPA’s Finance Mission, endorsing its founding statement, with the European Commission also supporting. All are working with the UK on the Finance Mission to build investment opportunities and provide the assistance developing countries need to get clean energy finance flowing.
The UK’s Green Finance Institute and the World Bank’s ESMAP (Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme) are key delivery partners of the Finance Mission. At the time of launch several financial institutions, international organisations, philanthropies and industry representatives committed to supporting energy transitions in the Global South supported a related non-governmental statement. An update to the Finance Mission was issued on 15 November Global Clean Power Alliance: finance mission update (November 2025) - GOV.UK
Australia, Canada, Kenya, the Netherlands and Zambia, alongside the International Energy Agency and Utilities for Net Zero Alliance (facilitated by IRENA), are partners of the Supply Chains Mission, with continued inputs from Chatham House and support from the European Commission and the COP30 Presidency. All agreed to endorse its vision statement Global Clean Power Alliance: supply chains mission vision - GOV.UK
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has provided funding for intersectional climate action since July 2024.
Answered by Catherine West
We have provided funding to the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action and to the Equality Fund - both expanding support to grassroots women's rights organisations with Equality Fund grants focussed on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 3 June 2025 to Question 54446 on Environmental Land Management Schemes: Lancashire, which (a) stakeholder groups and (b) representative farming organisations his Department has consulted on the development of the future Sustainable Farming Incentive offer.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Defra is working closely with farmers and industry stakeholders, including the National Farmers Union, the Country Land and Business Association, the Tenant Farmers Association, the Nature Friendly Farming Network, the Agricultural Industries Confederation, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, National Trust and the Green Alliance and a further group of 30 industry stakeholders, to design a future Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer that fairly and responsibly directs funding. Further details about the reformed SFI offer will be announced later in the summer.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the recommendations set out in the report The nature of our economy: Implementing the Dasgupta Review, published by the Green Alliance on 18 March.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government agrees with the central conclusion of the Dasgupta Review that nature, and the biodiversity that underpins it, sustains our economies, livelihoods and wellbeing. It is therefore committed to integrating nature into economic and financial decision-making, and the institutions and systems that underpin it.
The Treasury continues to make progress and explore ways to strengthen processes for assessing the climate and environmental impacts of fiscal decisions and improve the Green Book in line with emerging evidence and best practice. For example, building on the extensive guidance already provided for evaluating and monetising natural capital impacts, the Government has published updated supplementary guidance to the Green Book on Enabling a Natural Capital Approach, including additional guidance on valuing biodiversity.
The UK was one of the first countries to publish natural capital accounts as part of its National Accounts, and the Office for National Statistics will continue to implement its roadmap to ensure the further development of the natural capital accounts through to 2026.
As set out in the Budget last October, the Government is continuing to invest in the natural environment, confirming £5 billion over two years to support the transition to a more productive and environmentally sustainable agricultural sector in England, and at least £400 million for tree planting and peatland restoration to protect soils, rivers and biodiversity. To help deliver its environmental ambitions, the Government is also seeking to create the conditions to mobilise additional private finance into nature, including by driving the development of high-integrity nature markets for the UK.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2024 to Question 381 on Liver Diseases: Screening, where the 12 Community Diagnostic Centres planned to have fibroscans are located; and what further plans she has to roll out fibroscans by March 2025.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
There are currently eight community diagnostic centres (CDCs) offering FibroScan testing, which are:
- Andover CDC in Andover, Hampshire;
- Bexhill CDC in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex;
- Ely CDC in Ely, Cambridgeshire;
- Gloucestershire Quayside CDC in Gloucester, Gloucestershire;
- New QEII Hospital CDC in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire;
- Poole Dorset Health Village CDC in Poole, Dorset;
- St Helens CDC in St Helen’s, Merseyside; and
- Woking Community Hospital CDC in Woking, Surrey.
There are six additional CDCs planning to offer Fibroscan testing in 2024/25, which are:
- Bolton CDC in Bolton, Lancashire;
- Bradford District and Craven CDC in Bradford, West Yorkshire;
- Northern Care Alliance Oldham CDC in Oldham, Greater Manchester;
- Peterborough CDC in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire;
- Wisbech CDC in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire; and
- Wood Green CDC in Haringey, London.
In total, NHS England plans to have rolled out FibroScan testing to 14 CDCs by 2024/25, and continues to explore further rollout of Fibroscans by March 2025.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support private investment in ocean recovery.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Ocean conservation and the protection of marine biodiversity is a global challenge and one that is critically underfunded. Through the UK’s £500m UK aid Blue Planet Fund and in line with the 10 Point Plan for Financing Biodiversity and the International Development White Paper, we are supporting innovative projects that aim to attract and scale up private investment in ocean recovery. These initiatives include restoration and protection of blue carbon habitats and increasing coastal community resilience, funded through programmes led by the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (£13.9m), the World Bank’s sustainable blue economies programme- PROBLUE (£37.5m), and the Global Fund for Coral Reefs (£33m), amongst others. In June 2023, Lord Benyon hosted a joint UK-GFCR Investors Roundtable event, which showcased the GFCR as a viable investment opportunity and supported investor mobilisation for the GFCR Investment fund. At 28th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP28), the GFCR Coalition announced the mobilisation of more than $200 million USD as an initial direct investment toward the newly established 2030 Coral Reef Breakthrough targets, these include mobilising $12bn for corals and protecting 125,000 km2 of corals (50% of ~250,000km2 global total) by 2030.
As set out in Mobilising Green Investment: 2023 Green Finance Strategy, we are also taking action to meet our target to raise £1bn in private finance into nature’s recovery in England every year by 2030, both on land and at sea.
Asked by: Lord Naseby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what (1) economic, (2) logistical and (3) technological support they are providing to ensure that sea-level rise does not endanger the continued existence of Small Island States.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Building resilience to the impacts of climate change, economic shocks and natural disasters is at the heart of the UK vision for Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Our £11.6 billion commitment for climate finance and our role as a major contributor to global climate funds has enabled the UK to support SIDS resilience. We will provide $2 billion to the Green Climate Fund's (GCF) second replenishment (2024-27). This equates to £1.623 billion and is the biggest single funding commitment the UK has made to help the world tackle climate change. We provide approximately £200 million of aid annually to SIDS, including:
• the £36 million Sustainable Blue Economies (SBE) programme supporting development of prosperous ocean-based economies while protecting nature and increasing climate resilience.
• £40 million 'Small Island Developing State Capacity and Resilience' (SIDAR) programme, supporting better access to funding and building state resilience.
• The UK's £350 million Caribbean Infrastructure Fund supports resilient infrastructure for states acutely vulnerable to natural disasters as does our £10 million contribution to the Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS) facility (announced at COP26 by PM Modi and PM Johnson). We are also providing further support to SIDS through other global Blue Planet Fund programmes, including being part of Defra's Ocean Country Partnership Programme (£65 million), the Global Fund for Coral Reefs (£33 million), and Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (£13.9 million).
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what range of impact assessments they expect Thames Water to provide regarding the consequences for local wildlife habitats arising from construction of their proposed Teddington direct river abstraction on green spaces categorised as Metropolitan Open Land, such as Ham Lands and Moormead Park in St Margaret’s.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
Thames Water is required to provide further assessments through the RAPID (Regulators Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development) gated planning process to ensure that all potential impacts of the Teddington direct river abstraction (DRA) scheme are assessed and investigated, including any impacts on green spaces. The design and location of elements of the scheme are still at the conceptual design stage of development. Any scheme developed will have to meet environmental and planning requirements. The suite of assessments required will depend on the final design of the scheme and nature/location of impacts which are expected to be identified through the Gate 3 planning process.
The proposed Teddington DRA is expected to take the Development Consent Order planning route, which will require an Environmental Impact Assessment of the scheme’s impacts as part of the planning process. Where possible we expect environmental enhancements to be included in the scheme design.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to (a) protect and (b) restore marine (i) habitats and (ii) wildlife.
Answered by Trudy Harrison