Oral Answers to Questions

Alex Norris Excerpts

Thursday 20th June 2019 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Alex Norris (Nottingham North) (Lab/Co-op)]

1. What recent discussions he has had with the Minister for the Cabinet Office on including provisions to tackle the environment and climate emergency in future Government contracts.

[The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Michael Gove)]

How grateful I am, Mr Speaker, to hear you say that there can indeed be no opposition.

Tackling the climate change and environment emergency is a cross-Government priority and an issue that I discuss regularly with Cabinet colleagues. The greening government commitments include specific targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving sustainable procurement. Those commitments demonstrate the Government’s leadership in improving the environmental sustainability of their own estate, and the 2018 revisions to the Green Book have also improved the evaluation of the natural capital impacts of Government decision making.

[Alex Norris]

Tomorrow, young people in Nottingham will demonstrate because we are not moving quickly enough on our climate emergency. This House declared such an emergency on 1 May, saying that the Government should

“set ambitious, short-term targets for… low carbon energy and transport”.

When we will see those targets?