Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment his Department has made of the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; and what recent steps his Department has taken to help tackle air pollution.

The World Meteorological Organisation’s State of the Environment 2021 report showed that levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in 2020 were 413.2 parts per million.

Air quality policy is led by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The Department regularly engages with Defra on a range of issues relating to air quality. In recent months, this has included detailed consideration of the Net Zero Strategy, and the interaction of economy-wide decarbonisation with the Government’s air quality objectives.