Speeches by Gardiner.

“Thank you for that presentation, and I want to particularly acknowledge the presence of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah’s mother in the audience, and thank her for the campaign that she has mounted on this in memory of her daughter. You spoke about the impacts on children, and you spoke about the impacts on communities, but oft…”

“You mentioned nitrogen dioxide there. Am I right in thinking that nitrogen dioxide is not included in the environmental improvement plan? You rightly alluded to the fact that they brought forward the target for reduced PM2.5 to 2030—and we are already meeting that in 99% of the areas in the UK—but there would be no req…”

“I am in awe. As a west London MP, I would love you to give this presentation to the west London business community. On top of that, what is there for this Committee to do that you have not already done? What is there for this Committee to recommend that you have not just recommended?”

“You are outlining that there could be a multiplicity of such different scenarios and therefore preparation for any one of them crystallising would be extensive and costly. How would you counter the argument that it is more important that we are now taking steps to mitigate, to reduce the environmental damage, to sort w…”

“As we have done on pesticides?”

“Full disclosure: I would love to rejoin the European Environment Agency, and I would love to have full alignment. I suppose the real question to you is: is this a political push against the expressed views of the public in the Brexit referendum? I voted to remain, but I recognise that the public did not. How much of a …”

“What are the recommendations that this Committee could make in an inquiry? What you have just said is contained there in our adaptation strategy already. That is a very good example, but it is one they have already crystallised and expanded.”

“Could you maybe comment on the difference in biodiversity between a monoculture Sitka spruce forest plantation and an ancient woodland?”

“Can you quantify the amount of biodiversity that one finds in ancient woodlands and the different ways in which ancient woodlands can and should be managed? I am thinking of the work of Oliver Rackham and people who have spent years looking at this.”

“My hon. Friend the Member for Bradford East (Imran Hussain) spoke with great passion, but it is a passion that I fear clouded his recollection of some of the history. Under the Indian Independence Act 1947, the rulers of each of the princely states had the responsibility to choose between the two emergent nations, and …”

“Will my hon. Friend give way?”

“I am very grateful to the Minister for taking all these interventions. Does he agree that the cross-border terrorism—most of the terrorist camps are based in Azad Kashmir—is specifically designed to engender a crackdown on human rights in Jammu and Kashmir and to foment tension? Therefore, one of the things that his Go…”

“Do you want me to leave it there, Chair? I know we are pressed for time.”

“Thank you. Dr Hughes, similarly, shipping is partly covered by the UK ETS, but the IMO has its own scheme under development—you alluded earlier to the premature end that came to that in October. How are those different regimes going to shape the fuel choices, competitiveness between ports and the alignment of design ch…”

“Yes, but we are talking about greenhouse gas removals. Who is going to pay for that? Is it you or is it the general taxpayer?”

“We are talking about coping with the shortfall in your emissions. Alan Whitehead’s review said that you should be paying for the greenhouse gas removals that make up that shortfall. Are you happy as an industry to do that?”

“No, you said that all the subsidy was being removed, so in terms of—”

“They are overlapping regimes. How do they affect the investment in cleaner fuels and efficiency? What changes to either system would give airlines clearer long-term signals about decarbonisation?”

“Give us a timeline, then, because this is verbiage that we have heard for years. Give me a timeline for when you think there will be active sequestering to a certain extent—this many tonnes sequestered—by a certain date. We can then have some confidence and hold people to account. Without that it is meaningless, isn’t …”

“So the impact from the increase in SAF will feed directly into demand management?”