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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a national office for carbon removal.

There is no doubt that climate change is one of the greatest global challenges we face, and that action is urgently needed in the UK and across the world. The UK already has a world-leading framework for emissions reduction.

The Climate Change Act 2008 was the first of its kind in the world and made the UK the first country to introduce a legally binding, long-term emissions reduction target. The Act introduced our innovative framework of carbon budgets to ensure continued progress towards that target, capping emissions in successive five-year blocks. It also established the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) which independently provides expert advice to the Government on climate change mitigation and adaptation.

In June 2019, the UK became the first major economy to legislate for net zero - a 100% emissions reduction target by 2050 (relative to 1990 levels). The Prime Minister chairs a new Cabinet Committee on Climate Change to oversee this effort and drive forward action across the whole of government.

Through this strong legal framework and ambitious policy action, we have shown that cutting emissions and growing the economy can go hand-in-hand – reducing our emissions by over 40% since 1990 while growing the economy by three quarters. Our carbon budgeting, supported by independent expertise from the CCC, is widely accepted as global best-practice and provides the right framework for the UK to deliver our commitment to net zero.