Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Chinese counterpart on climate change.
Answered by David Lidington
The Department of Energy and Climate Change leads the UK’s effort to tackle climate change. Securing a global and binding climate deal, in December this year, that keeps alive prospects for limiting global warming to within 2C is also a top foreign policy priority for the FCO. Together we raise climate change with a wide range of countries at ministerial level and through the Special Representative for Climate Change. Sir David King, the Foreign Secretary's Special Representative for Climate Change and my Rt Honourable friend the Member for Kingston and Surbiton continue to raise climate change with Chinese counterparts, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Minister responsible for climate change. Sir David King most recently visited China in January 2015.Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Mexican counterpart on climate change.
Answered by David Lidington
The Department of Energy and Climate Change leads the UK’s effort to tackle climate change. Securing a global and binding climate deal, in December this year, that keeps alive prospects for limiting global warming to within 2C is also a top foreign policy priority with the FCO. Together we raise climate change with a wide range of countries at Ministerial level and through the Special Representative for Climate Change. It was recently raised bilaterally at FCO ministerial level and will be a priority for the forthcoming state visit to the UK.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Philippines counterpart on climate change.
Answered by David Lidington
The Department of Energy and Climate Change leads the UK’s effort to tackle climate change. Securing a global and binding climate deal, in December this year, that keeps alive prospects for limiting global warming to within 2C is also a top foreign policy priority for the FCO. Together we raise climate change with a wide range of countries at ministerial level and through the Special Representative for Climate Change.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Bahrainian counterpart on climate change.
Answered by David Lidington
The Department of Energy and Climate Change leads the UK’s effort to tackle climate change. Securing a global and binding climate deal, in December this year, that keeps alive prospects for limiting global warming to within 2C is also a top foreign policy priority for the FCO. Together we raise climate change with a wide range of countries at ministerial level and through the Special Representative for Climate Change. Although there has been no engagement at ministerial level with Bahrain recently, we are exploring with DECC options for future engagement.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Indian counterpart on climate change.
Answered by David Lidington
The Department of Energy and Climate Change leads the UK’s effort to tackle climate change. Securing a global and binding climate deal, in December this year, that keeps alive prospects for limiting global warming to within 2C is also a top foreign policy priority for the FCO. Together we raise climate change with a wide range of countries at ministerial level and through the Special Representative for Climate Change. My Rt Honourable friends the Members for Kingston and Surbiton, Sheffield Hallam and Richmond all raised climate change with their counterparts during visits to India last summer. We are exploring with DECC options for future engagement.Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Brazilian counterpart on climate change.
Answered by David Lidington
The Department of Energy and Climate Change leads the UK’s effort to tackle climate change. Securing a global and binding climate deal, in December this year, that keeps alive prospects for limiting global warming to within 2C is a top foreign policy priority for the Government. Together we raise climate change with a wide range of countries at ministerial level and through the Special Representative for Climate Change. I discussed climate change with my Brazilian counterpart on 6 January and it will also feature at our Strategic Dialogue on 26 February.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Peruvian counterpart on climate change.
Answered by David Lidington
The Department of Energy and Climate Change leads the UK’s effort to tackle climate change. Securing a global and binding climate deal, in December this year, that keeps alive prospects for limiting global warming to within 2C is also a top foreign policy priority for the FCO. Together we raise climate change with a wide range of international partners at ministerial level and through the Special Representative for Climate Change. Sir David King, the Foreign Secretary's Special Representative for Climate Change met with Peruvian Ministers several times in 2014 before and during the UN negotiations in Lima in December.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to the Egyptian government about the case of Karim Ashraf Mohamed al-Banna.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
Our Embassy in Cairo is closely monitoring the case of Karim Ashraf Mohamed al-Banna. I raised the importance of protecting the human rights enshrined in Egypt’s constitution, which include freedom of belief and worship, with a number of senior figures in the Egyptian Government, most recently during my visit to Cairo on 12-16 January. UK officials also discussed the importance of religious freedom with the Egyptian Deputy Assistant Minister for Human Rights, Dr Mahy Abdel Latif, on 14 January 2015. Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ministers have been clear throughout recent events in Egypt that freedom of religion or belief needs to be protected. We deplore all discrimination against any individual on the basis of their religion or belief as well as constraints on their freedom to manifest their religion or belief. As article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of possible Iranian reactions to increased sanctions; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
Under the Joint Plan of Action (JPoA) the E3+3 committed, for the JPoA's duration, not to introduce new nuclear-related sanctions against Iran. The Government believes that further sanctions legislation between now and 30 June - when the JPoA expires - would severely undermine Iranian confidence in the negotiations on a comprehensive nuclear agreement and would risk derailing the process. This is why the Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), made the case against new sanctions legislation on his recent visit to Washington.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to the Turkish government on freedom of speech.
Answered by David Lidington
We regularly raise human rights issues with the Turkish government and are, this week, contributing to the UN’s Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights in Turkey. I raised concerns over media freedoms with my Turkish counterpart on 18 December 2014.
We continue to encourage Turkey to work towards meeting EU standards on human rights, especially in the areas of freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and minority rights. We welcome the progress to date including the implementation of a fourth Judicial Reform Package and the adoption of an Action Plan for the Prevention of Human Rights Violations in 2014.
There is more to be done. The EU’s Annual Progress Report 2014 on Turkey underlines that further work is required to strengthen the human rights institutional framework and bring Turkish human rights legislation in line with European and international standards. The report highlighted areas of concern over the restrictions on the freedom of expression (including temporary bans on Twitter and YouTube), the independence and impartiality of the judiciary, and the rule of law. We support this assessment and, together with our EU partners, expect Turkey as an EU candidate country, to respect all fundamental freedoms and remain committed to supporting further progress on its continuing reform agenda.