Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps the Government is taking to ensure progress on international climate change negotiations is made at the Lima conference of the parties.

If we are to meet the objective of the Convention and avoid dangerous climate change, it is imperative that we secure an international, legally binding agreement with mitigation commitments for all in Paris in December 2015. We want Lima to pave the way for countries to bring forward their mitigation contributions for the new agreement in early 2015, and to agree the draft elements of a negotiating text - these are important milestones for the 2015 agreement.

In order to facilitate this, I have pressed our case at a number of international ministerial climate change meetings this year, as well as bilaterally with my counterparts in governments and with other key actors across the globe – including China, the US and India – at incoming and outgoing visits. I also attended the UN Secretary General’s climate summit in September; the first meeting of leaders focused solely on climate change since 2009.