Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department is taking steps to increase the number of green jobs in Washington and Sunderland West constituency.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Department is working with the Deparment for Education and local partners to ensure green skills are considered through Local Skills Improvement Plans, which will set out the key skills needs and the priority changes required to provision in an area. The North East Automotive Alliance has been designated to work with a range of employers to lead the Local Skills Improvement Plan for the area which includes Washington and Sunderland West. The Secretary of State for Education may only approve a Plan if satisfied that there has been consideration of the skills related to net zero targets, climate change adaptation, and other environmental goals.
Latest official statistics show there are already around 430,000 jobs in low carbon businesses and their supply chains across the country, and the Government is working with the Green Jobs Delivery Group to explore how central government, local government and businesses can further support local areas to deliver a successful net zero labour market transition.
Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland)
Question
To ask the President of COP26, what recent assessment he has made of the potential role of private finance in delivering COP26 objectives.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Action from private finance will be vital in helping to deliver many of the commitments made by countries and companies at COP26.
For example, the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, representing over 130 trillion dollars, will have a key role to play in mobilising capital to support green projects in emerging economies.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, who the members of the Clean Maritime Council were as at 23 June 2022.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
As at 23 June 2022, the member organisations of the Clean Maritime Council were: British Ports Association; Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Affairs; Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Department for Transport; ENGIE; Environmental Defence Fund; ING Bank; Innovate UK; Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology; Lloyd’s Register; Maritime and Coastguard Agency; Maritime Enterprise Working Group; Maritime London; Maritime UK; Offshore Renewable Catapult; Red Funnel; Smart Green Shipping Alliance; Strathclyde University; UK Chamber of Shipping; UK Major Ports Group, UN Climate Change Champion; University College London; Wightlink and Workboat Association.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question
To ask the President of COP26, what progress he has made since the COP26 conference on ending the use of coal.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
At COP26, all parties agreed to phase down the use of coal for the first time ever. The Global Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement gained over 70 signatures from countries, subnationals, and organisations, and the Powering Past Coal Alliance grew to 165 members.
In 2022, the UK COP Presidency remains fully committed to consigning coal power to history. The Energy Transition Council will run until at least 2025, and is ensuring that countries can access investment in clean power that is more attractive than new coal plants. We are working with international partners to secure more signatories to the UN No New Coal Power Compact and the Powering Past Coal Alliance. The UK will also support the implementation of ambitious announcements made at COP26, including the South Africa Just Energy Transition Partnership, the Green Grids Initiative, and the Just Transition Declaration. We must accelerate action to cut the global new coal plant pipeline, and to retire existing coal generation capacity.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by Green Alliance Closing the UK's green skills gap, published on 11 January; and what plans they have to develop a national framework for green jobs which (1) is regularly updated, and (2) outlines the skills required for the transition.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
We welcome the Green Alliance’s report on closing the UK’s skills gap. The government is committed to supporting green skills across the country and a number of measures are in place to ensure we are supporting the labour market transition to net zero.
At the recent Spending Review, we set out investment of £3.8 billion in further education and skills over the course of the parliament as a whole, to ensure people can access high-quality training and education that leads to good jobs, addresses skills gaps, boosts productivity and supports levelling up. This includes funding for programmes to support green skills crucial to the net zero transition.
In November 2020, we launched the Green Jobs Taskforce, working in partnership with business, local areas, skills providers, and unions, to ensure we have the skilled workforce to deliver net zero and our Ten Point Plan. Following that, and building on the Skills for Jobs White Paper, the Net Zero Strategy was published in October 2021 and set out how the government’s skills reforms will support teachers understanding of sustainability, strengthen links between employers and providers, support workers in high carbon sectors with the transition, and help to build a pipeline of future talent.
Through the Lifetime Skills Guarantee, we are supporting workers to gain the skills they need to transition to the green economy, including through targeted support for retraining. As part of this and through the National Skills Fund investment, we are delivering Skills Bootcamps, which are short, flexible courses covering digital, technical and green skills. Green Skills Bootcamps are available in areas such as housing retrofit, solar, nuclear energy and vehicle electrification.
The Free Courses for Jobs offer has, since April 2021, been supporting adults who do not have a qualification at Level 3 or higher to access over 400 Level 3 courses for free. The offer currently includes qualifications linked to green sectors such as Agriculture, Building and Construction, Engineering, Environmental Conservation, Horticulture and Forestry and Science. This offer replaces loan funding with grant funding for any adult over the age of 23 looking to achieve their first level 3 qualification. In addition, we have recently announced that, from April this year, any adult in England who is earning under the National Living Wage annually (£18,525) or unemployed will also be able to access these qualifications for free, regardless of their prior qualification level.
At post-16 level, we will continue to build on our apprenticeship reforms, to align the majority of post-16 technical education and training with employer-led standards by 2030. A strengthened system of employer-led standards, underpinning apprenticeships, T Levels and new higher technical qualifications will ensure employers, including in low carbon sectors, have a central role in designing and developing qualifications and training.
We are also introducing Local Skills Improvement Plans, which will be developed by employer representative bodies working closely with employers, post-16 education and training providers and key local stakeholders. These Plans will articulate unmet and future skills needs and key changes needed to ensure technical skills provision is responsive to local labour market skills needs. Through the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill, we are legislating to put the employer leadership of these plans on a statutory footing and ensure they consider skills needed to help deliver on our net zero target, adaptation to climate change, and other environmental goals.
Going forward, a new Green Jobs Delivery Group will be the central forum through which government, industry and other key stakeholders work together to ensure that the UK has the workforce needed to deliver a green industrial revolution.
The Group will include ministerial representation from the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department for Education, the Department for Work and Pensions, and other departments as required. It will also importantly be co-chaired by an industry representative to ensure an inclusive view of the action on green jobs needed for net zero and wider environmental goals.
The Group will be active for the duration of this parliament and will aim to drive forward industry and government action across a range of topics, which might include: ensuring we have the skilled workforce to deliver net zero and wider environmental goals in line with the UK’s levelling up agenda; ensuring workers and communities in high carbon sectors are supported with the transition in the wider context of the UK’s levelling up agenda; better understanding and addressing barriers to recruitment, retention and progression in green jobs (including quality of work, pay, conditions, image, etc); ensuring green jobs are open to all; building on the work of the Green Jobs Taskforce to develop a clearer understanding of the green economy and how to define and measure it.
Taken together, and alongside the wider suite of reforms to the skills system being implemented by government in partnership with industry, these measures will help to ensure more people can get the skills they need to enter and progress within green jobs.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish the conditions of the mandate to become net-zero that he plans to impose on UK companies and financial services.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government has set legally binding net zero targets under the Climate Change Act and has committed to making the UK the best place in the world for green finance.
The recently published report: ‘Greening Finance: A Roadmap to Sustainable Investing’ sets out how the Government will achieve this, focusing on the first step: ensuring that every financial decision maker has the information needed to take climate and the environment into account with new world-leading Sustainability Disclosure Requirements.
Detailed, credible transition plans that are integrated with other disclosures and incorporate interim milestones and targets, can support markets in monitoring progress towards a net-zero economy. They are also essential for the effective exercise of market discipline, and investors’ ability to hold investee company boards and management to account.
The government therefore expects to see the publication of transition plans become the norm across the economy and the Chancellor announced at COP26 that the UK will move towards making publication of transition plans mandatory.
To help deliver this, the Government will set up a high-level Transition Planning Taskforce. This will bring together a range of stakeholders to develop a ‘gold standard’ for transition plans, coordinating with international efforts under the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero and others, and reporting by the end of 2022.
As standards for transition plans emerge, the Government and regulators will take steps to incorporate these into the UK’s Sustainability Disclosure Requirements and strengthen regulation to encourage consistency in published plans and increased adoption by 2023.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question
To ask the President of COP26, what steps he is taking to negotiate a global fund to support the transition to net zero in less wealthy countries.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
We must support the poorest and most vulnerable countries to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis, and mobilise finance to enable their net zero transition. The commitment to jointly mobilise $100bn of climate finance a year is critically important; it helps countries raise ambition and supports their transition. The UK Presidency has been very clear that developed countries must meet existing commitments and come forward with ambitious post-2020 climate finance pledges, to achieve and surpass the $100bn a year goal. I have also asked Germany and Canada to lead on the development of a Delivery Plan which sets out how donor countries will meet the goal.
Public finance alone will not be enough to achieve the trillions needed in developing countries. The UK Presidency is working with other donors, Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and the private sector to promote and support a range of targeted initiatives that mobilise finance globally and tackle barriers to and promote investment into developing countries. There are a range of financing mechanisms including the dedicated UN backed climate funds which we support - including the Green Climate Fund, Climate Investment Funds and the Global Environmental Facility. The recently launched Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero will also accelerate global flows into activities that support a net zero and resilient future.
Asked by: Ian Liddell-Grainger (Conservative - Bridgwater and West Somerset)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of UK investor concerns on conditions for investing in or providing financial services to Brazil as a result of the increasing deforestation in the Amazon.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government acknowledges reports of continued high rates of deforestation in the Amazon and understands that this may create concerns for UK investors. Many UK financial services firms are increasingly cognizant of the environmental impact of their activities, and the demand for investment products that avoid environmentally damaging activities such as deforestation is growing. The Government is committed to ensuring that UK investors have the tools, frameworks, and information necessary to make informed decisions about the sustainability of their investments.
In his July 2021 Mansion House speech, the Chancellor announced plans to introduce economy-wide Sustainability Disclosure Requirements for businesses and investment products to report on their impact on climate and the environment – and the risks and opportunities these pose to their business. This builds on and streamlines existing sustainability reporting requirements such as our commitment to fully mandatory economy-wide TCFD reporting, where the UK is already a world-leader. It will also include disclosures made under the UK green taxonomy, which will provide firms and investors a common definition for environmentally sustainable economic activities.
Furthermore, the Government will also work with the Financial Conduct Authority to create a new sustainable investment label so that consumers can clearly compare the environmental impacts of their investments for the first time.
More broadly, the UK is working to promote increased sustainability through the global financial system ahead of COP26 and beyond. For instance, the Government is encouraging global financial firms, including in Brazil, to commit to net zero through membership of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ).
Lastly, the UK continues to encourage other governments to raise capital specifically to finance projects that tackle climate change and other environmental challenges. For instance, Mexico and Chile have issued several green and sustainable on the London Stock Exchange in recent years.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made as to whether voluntary pledges by the UK financial sector will be sufficient to ensure that sector's carbon emissions are reduced in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The UK was the first major economy to commit to Net Zero by 2050, and to achieve that ambition, we want to ensure that every financial decision takes climate change into account. This will require a drastic increase in the quantity, quality and comparability of climate-related disclosures. That is why, in November 2020, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the UK’s intention to make disclosures in line with the recommendations of the Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures mandatory in the UK across the economy, including the financial services sector, by 2025. This commitment is world-leading and significant progress towards achieving our ambition, including new requirements for premium-listed firms to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, has already been made.
We have committed to implementing a green taxonomy that will establish a common definition for ’sustainable economic activities’ and improve understanding around the impact of firms’ activities and investments on the environment. Together, these measures will ensure that firms across the whole economy are disclosing robust and comparable climate and sustainability-related information that is decision-useful for investors. This will help close the sustainability data gap, as well as preventing greenwashing and supporting the greening of the UK economy.
Finance is one of the four over-arching goals of the UK Government’s COP26 Presidency. At the core of the COP26 finance campaign is the creation of a private finance system for net zero. This entails building a virtuous cycle of innovation and investment, making sure that policies, business plans and investment decisions all align with net zero targets. As a result, we are already seeing very positive momentum within the private finance sector. For example, the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero has secured commitments from 160 firms (together responsible for assets in excess of $70tn) across the global financial system to accelerate the transition to net zero emissions. All members must be accredited by the UN Race to Zero campaign and use science-based guidelines to reach net zero emissions, covering all emissions scopes (including a 2030 interim target). Hence, there is already a large push for voluntary setting of net zero targets by financial institutions.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa; and what plans his Department has to continue to support small-scale food producers in that country.
Answered by James Duddridge
The UK's engagement with Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa has primarily focused on strengthening regional food trade and resilience within the continent and collaborating with members of the Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa-led Partnership for Inclusive Agriculture Transformation in Africa. An evaluation is currently in progress of Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa's effectiveness on its broad set of activities. FCDO sits on the steering group for this work.
We continue to ensure smallholder farmers are integrated into food and agriculture value chain related programmes across our Africa country portfolio as well as our regional portfolio for example through the Africa Food Trade and Resilience programme and AgDevCo - a flagship agribusiness impact investor in Africa.