COP 29

Statement

The following Statement was made in the House of Commons on Tuesday 26 November.

“With permission, Mr Speaker, I shall make a Statement about COP 29.

I start by extending my sympathy to all those affected by Storm Bert. It has been a devastating event for people in different parts of our country, particularly in Wales, and my heart goes out to the families of those who have lost their lives and to all those whose lives have been disrupted.

I also want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Lord Prescott. He was a fighter for social justice and a champion of the environment. He rightfully has global recognition for his role in negotiating the Kyoto Protocol, and he showed how politics can change lives for the better. I send my deepest condolences to Pauline and his family.

The UK attended COP 29 to fight for our national interest—speeding up the clean energy transition in the interests of jobs, energy security and economic growth, and tackling the climate crisis for today’s and future generations. In Baku, our message was clear: Britain is back in the business of global climate leadership.

We know that the impacts of the climate crisis know no borders. We have already seen the extreme impacts we can face here in Britain, and we know that if we do not act those impacts will get much worse. That is why, as the Prime Minister said at COP 29, there is no national security without climate security. It is precisely because Britain represents only around 1% of annual global emissions that we have to work with others to ensure that the remaining 99% of emissions are addressed to protect the British people.

The focus of this COP was on finance for developing countries, because the reality is that unless we persuade developing countries to go down the path of clean energy development, we cannot hope to reduce emissions and prevent climate disaster. Those countries face the triple challenges of needing to invest in the clean energy transition, coping with the costs of climate vulnerability and needing to develop to take their population out of poverty. At the same time, developed countries, including Britain, face extreme pressure on our public finances.

The COP talks are always complex, but those circumstances made this set of talks particularly so. I put on record my thanks to our outstanding team of civil servants who supported me at COP. I was repeatedly struck by the enormous respect they have from so many countries around the world. The UK’s negotiating team was led by Alison Campbell, who is leaving to work with the UN Secretary-General. I want to put on record my special thanks to her in helping us to reach an agreement.

The agreement reached is to provide and mobilise at least $300 billion of climate finance by 2035 for developing countries. Much of that will come from the multilateral development banks, such as the World Bank, which have stepped up to set a target to substantially increase the climate finance they provide. Importantly, for the first time, the agreement reflects a new global landscape, where traditional donors will be joined by big emitters such as China to help finance the transition. That is fair and right.

The UK will decide what our own contribution will be in the context of our spending review and fiscal situation, and that will come from within the UK aid budget. I can inform the House that, if delivered with the same impact as UK climate finance, the $300 billion deal could lead to emissions reductions equivalent to more than 15 times the UK’s annual emissions, as well as helping to protect up to 1 billion people in developing countries from the effects of floods, heatwaves and droughts. Crucially, the agreement will accelerate the global clean energy transition, which offers the prospect of export and economic opportunities here in Britain. Let nobody be in any doubt: this agreement is absolutely in our national interest.

In other respects, the talks were more disappointing. At COP 28, the world made a historic agreement to transition away from fossil fuels. That agreement stands, but we did not reach agreement this year on how to take the commitment forward, not because the text put forward was too ambitious, but because it was not ambitious enough. In particular, many developing countries, including the small island states, felt that the text was inadequate given the scale of the climate emergency. Developed countries, including Britain, agreed with that view. That offers an important lesson. Under this Government, Britain is part of a global coalition for ambitious climate action that spans global North and global South—it is at the global centre ground of climate politics. We will seek to build on the agreement at COP 30 next year, in Brazil.

At COP 29, the UK also made important announcements on countering deforestation, scaling up private finance and nuclear co-operation as part of the clean energy transition. The Prime Minister also announced our nationally determined contribution to reducing emissions by at least 81% by 2035, compared with 1990 levels, following the advice that we received from the independent Climate Change Committee. Let me be clear: that target is right for Britain—for energy security, good jobs and growth.

On the same day as the announcement, ScottishPower and Siemens announced a £1 billion deal to invest in wind manufacturing in Hull. That will boost British manufacturing and support 1,300 good jobs in our industrial heartlands. It shows what the clean energy mission can do for Britain, and builds on the steps that the Government have already taken, which include: lifting the onshore wind ban; giving consent for nearly 2 gigawatts of solar; setting up Great British Energy; delivering a record-breaking renewables auction; kick-starting our carbon capture and hydrogen industries; and driving towards cheaper, cleaner heating through our warm homes plan.

It is in our national interest to use the power of our example to work with others to speed up the clean energy transition globally, just as the Climate Change Act 2008, which was supported by Members from across this House, inspired others to follow our lead. That is why at the G20 in Brazil, the Prime Minister launched the Global Clean Power Alliance, along with a number of other countries, to drive forward the transition.

That is just the start of the work that we need to do in the run-up to COP 30 to make next year’s talks a success, because the truth is that despite progress over the last two weeks, we are halfway through the decisive decade for limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Centigrade, and the world is way off-track. Other countries, such as Brazil, have also announced ambitious NDCs, and in the months ahead, we will continue to push others to go further, faster, on raising ambition, scaling up finance, protecting nature and forests, and driving forward the clean energy transition.

The COP process is tortuous and progress is too slow. However, this Government believe that while multilateralism—in other words, co-operating with others—is hard, it is truly the only way to fight for Britain. Those who say that we should disengage from the negotiations and step off the stage would let down our country, deprive us of a voice and leave future generations paying the price. Despite all the difficulties, at COP 29, one truth was overwhelmingly clear: the global transition away from fossil fuels and towards clean energy is happening, and it is unstoppable because clean energy is the route to energy security, unstoppable because it is the economic opportunity of our time, and unstoppable because people in Britain and around the world can see that the climate crisis is here, and that unless we act, things will only get worse.

In less than five months, this Government have shown that we will seize the opportunities of speeding up at home, and have demonstrated climate leadership abroad, in order to deliver energy independence, lower bills, good jobs, economic growth and the security of a stable climate. We are doing all we can to keep the British people safe, now and for generations to come. I commend this Statement to the House”.

My Lords, I must acknowledge that, for the past 14 years, the UK has been a global leader in this area. We are the only major economy to have halved carbon emissions since 1990. In that time, the US’s emissions have stayed the same and China’s have tripled. In fact, we account for just 1% of global emissions. Despite this, we have seen that other countries are not persuaded just because the United Kingdom is going further and faster than others; they are persuaded by living standards and prosperity.

At COP, the Secretary of State announced a new target to cut our greenhouse gas emissions by 81% by 2035, but he has not explained what this will cost the British public. Why is this? He also argues that he will deliver savings through energy policy, and that those plans will boost jobs, growth and national security, and will cut household energy bills. This is very debatable.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that the Secretary of State’s climate agenda will not lead to growth. There were also concerns about the National Energy System Operator’s report, which shows that the Government’s rush for clean power by 2030 will add costs to our energy system. In addition, the head of offshore wind development at RWE has warned that the RHG’s rush to meet the 2030 target will lead to price spikes, with consumers losing out. Yet, despite the costs, His Majesty’s Government’s plans would still leave gas pricing the system around 50% of the time, or they would leave the equivalent of a million of homes in the dark, waiting for the wind to blow or the sun to shine.

Billions of pounds of British taxpayers’ money will go to China, the world’s largest polluter, powered 60% by coal, which dominates clean-tech supply chains. Will the Minister set out an assessment of the increased reliance on coal-powered Chinese imports for the Government’s clean power by 2030 goal? What does this mean for global emissions?