After the Climate Change Conference held in Copenhagen during December, Nia Griffith MP asked the Prime Minister Gordon Brown during the first Prime Minister's Question Time of the year about further action the government will be taking to find solutions to the problems of climate change.
The Prime Minister responded by reaffirming his commitment to securing further international agreements on cutting carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. The question and answer, taken from hansard (6th January) can be found below.
Nia Griffith (Llanelli) (Lab): Given the somewhat disappointing finish to the Copenhagen conference, what action will my right hon. Friend be taking in order to keep up the momentum on this absolutely vital task of tackling climate change?
The Prime Minister: For the first time, the world was able to agree that we should not have a climate change policy that did not address the problems of rising temperatures, and the 2 per cent. limit was agreed by all countries. We also have agreement that countries will notify what they will do by 2020, and they have got to do so by 31 January. We are obviously pressing for countries to be in a position where they can reduce the amount of gigatonnes in carbon and greenhouse gas emissions from about the mid-50s in 2020 to the mid-40s. There has been greater transparency achieved, with every country agreeing to report what it is doing, but we have not yet got the international treaty that we need, and we have not yet got the announcement from all countries that they support the 50 per cent. reduction by 2050. That is work that is still to be done. I agree with my hon. Friend that we must now talk to all those countries that were reluctant to come into these talks with a view to getting a treaty to persuade them that a treaty is necessary. I think that she will see further announcements in the next few days about what we are going to do.
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