Speeches by Miliband.

“I will come back to you shortly on the timescale, but it will happen.”

“I will come back to you on the timescale but I can absolutely assure you that it will happen.”

“Sure. It will not be missing in action for long.”

“This has recently been drawn to my attention. I want to give you an absolutely categorical assurance that all of the discussions and the basis on which we operate as a Government are to include aviation within carbon budgets. It is also right to say that the carbon budget delivery plan that the last Government publishe…”

“Indeed.”

“I want to be very clear about this. In our carbon budgets we include international aviation and domestic aviation. That is the way that we think about our carbon budgets and our targets. The only reason the NDC was submitted on a different basis was because that is the basis for the UN submission. That is not Governmen…”

“It has been a big part of what I have tried to do in the last six months. The Prime Minister has led on this. We have a very different approach to devolved Administrations but we can learn masses from each other. There are lots and lots of issues that cross Governments. We have not only had the formal meetings but also…”

“It is absolutely crucial to us that biodiversity and nature is aligned with this. In fact, nature-positive solutions are a crucial part of meeting our carbon budgets. Perhaps we will come on to this. Peatland restoration, tree planting and sustainable forestry, all of those things—this is an important point about natur…”

“It will be the case, good. On the first question, what is interesting about this is some cross-party consensus, which might be a bit unexpected. I will say Boris Johnson for a second. He legislated in 2021 for the carbon budget 6 for 2035. It was a pretty ambitious target. Therefore, lots of the groundwork for what the…”

“On the latter, I am sure. Maybe Lee would like to say something about that, but I am sure that that will be the case.”

“Yes, 100% definitely. The passes are on their way to you now.”

“There are two things. First, it is important not to forget that this is the year when countries will submit their nationally determined contributions for 2035. This will tell us how far off track from 1.5o we are going into the future. I am going to India next month and I am already in touch with the new Brazilian pres…”

“There is a separate discussion, separate from the COP process, about how we can work with the European Union for our economic benefit, including in these areas on energy. However, the reality of the negotiations is that it is crucial that we work incredibly closely with the EU.”

“It is a good point. Wopke Hoekstra, the EU representative at the talks, and I worked closely, along with John Podesta, the US envoy, and Brazil, the future hosts of COP30. Where these talks have succeeded best is when you have developed countries that want ambition, or blocs of countries, working with the vulnerable an…”

“The truth about this on China is that there is no solution to the climate crisis without China, because it represents such a huge level of global emissions now. This is the point that my US friends, Democrats and Republicans, make. Therefore, of course part of what we have to do as a UK Government is work with China, a…”

“My position is that we want as many countries as possible in the Paris agreement. It is important to say something, though, about the atmosphere at COP29. I know that some members of the Committee will have been there. This is an unstoppable transition. This is genuinely an unstoppable transition because countries reco…”

“Chair, this is genuinely a non-issue. People around the world recognise that the UK is going into this with a very ambitious agenda, including on fossil fuels.”

“We will write to you about it.”

“That is not what we do, that is not what we go into the negotiations to do. Let me say in this context that we are a Government that committed in our manifesto to new licences to explore new fields. This is a world-leading position. I don't think that there is any doubt about UK leadership on this question.”

“I do not know. I can write to the Committee about that. I am not aware of that. I would be very surprised if we were doing that, very surprised.”