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Department of Energy and Climate Change

My Lords, I shall write to my noble friend on some of the details of the European negotiations. I take his general point in relation to the discussions that are taking place. Different countries came to those discussions with a different approach. We will find ways of reporting progress to Parliament in due course. In the Statement, my right honourable friend referred to the risk that some countries will say that because of the current economic uncertainty, we should row back on dealing effectively with climate change and carbon emissions. My view and that of the Government is that it would be a disaster to row back. It has never been more important that we press on. I assure noble Lords that we will make that point time and time again. The fact that we have announced that we are setting ourselves a tough target for 2050 gives us a stronger position from which to argue with our European neighbours.