Written question asked by Anne Moffat (Labour) on Monday, 14 May 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 18 May 2007. It was answered by Ian Pearson (Labour) on Thursday, 24 May 2007 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Climate Change: International Cooperation

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what progress he is making in involving (a) G8 countries, (b) EU countries and (c) other major developing countries in talks on tackling the effects of climate change.

Answer: [holding answer 18 May 2007]: We are making progress, but there is still a long way to go. The spring European Council showed significant developments at the European level and real leadership by the EU. The EU committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent. below 1990 levels by 2020 as part of an international agreement and agreed an independent commitment to cut emissions by at least 20 per cent.In the G8, we are continuing to work with the German presidency to achieve our climate change objectives, which we began to set out at Gleneagles in 2005. We are aiming for the Heiligendamm summit in June to send a clear signal to the UN climate change conference in Bali in December on the need to launch negotiations on a global and comprehensive post-2012 agreement, to be completed by 2009.In parallel, we are working, both bilaterally and through the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change (UNFCCC), to engage countries in order to raise the level of global ambition to respond to the threat of global warming, as set out in the recent findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on climate change. For example, we are working with South Africa to explore what a post-2012 agreement could look like.

Secondary information