Barry Gardiner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2015-10-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what plans he has to remove the climate diplomacy function of his Department in response to the UNFCCC Paris COP 21.

James Duddridge

The Government takes the risk posed by climate change very seriously, and the UK remains a global leader on climate change action. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Paris COP21 will aim to keep the goal of limiting global temperature rise to below 2 degrees within reach, but is not the end game. Whatever the outcome of COP21, the Government will continue to engage with international partners on climate policy issues, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office will work closely with Department of Energy and Climate Change, Department for International Development and other relevant departments to this end.

Demonstrating the UK’s commitment to climate action, the Prime Minister announced at the UN General Assembly on 27 September that the government will provide a further £5.8 billion from the existing 0.7% official development assistance (ODA) budget to the UK’s International Climate Fund in the next spending round, between April 2016 and March 2021.