Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on the Government's preparations for the COP26 meeting.

The UK is committed to taking ambitious, far-reaching action to tackle climate change. We are therefore delighted to be hosting COP26 in Glasgow, in partnership with Italy. Delivering success at COP26 is a top international priority for the UK.

Nature, including nature-based solutions to climate change, will be a key focus of COP26. This is in recognition of the fact that climate change and biodiversity loss are interlinked and mutually reinforcing problems that must be addressed together. My department also supports the climate adaptation campaign for COP26 as domestic policy owner.

In this vein, Defra is working extremely closely with colleagues across the whole of Government to put the ambitious COP26 ‘Nature campaign’ into action. This of course includes close collaboration between myself and my right hon. Friend, COP President Designate Alok Sharma, including a recent fruitful discussion on COP26 priorities in November.

We will continue this strong collaboration over the coming months as we prepare for COP26.