Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether her Department has conducted an environmental impact assessment on the potential effect of UK membership of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) on the UK's domestic energy industry.
On 22nd June 2021 the Government published a Scoping Assessment which outlined the potential environmental impacts of the UK joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). It indicates that UK membership is unlikely to have a significant effect on the domestic energy industry.
Acceding to CPTPP will not prevent the UK regulating in the public interest, including in relation to the UK's net zero ambitions. CPTPP explicitly reaffirms states' right to regulate under international law. It also protects this right through numerous safeguards, including procedural provisions to minimise the impacts of frivolous and unsuccessful investor-state dispute settlement claims faced by states.