COP 29: United Kingdom Delegation

Question

11:40:00

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government how many people were in the United Kingdom delegation to COP 29 in Baku, what work they did, and what was the total cost of attendance including air fares.

My Lords, the UK’s COP 29 delegation is smaller than that for COP 28, but our delegation is planned to ensure a productive summit that will progress UK strategic outcomes. The carbon footprint of this travel is outstripped by the benefits of delivering this agenda. As well as Ministers, diplomats, thematic experts and negotiators, overall UK attendance at COP includes businesses, arm’s-length bodies, devolved Administrations, those from Crown dependencies and overseas territories, parliamentarians and external event speakers from businesses and civil society. Because COP 29 is still ongoing, it is not possible to provide a final number of participants or a cost of attendance.

I thank the Minister for her Answer, although it did not really increase the sum total of human knowledge. My understanding is that the delegation was 470 strong, which is over four times the size of the French delegation and larger than the American delegation—the size of a small army battalion, actually. Can the Minister now confirm whether that is the number? What were they doing? What did they achieve? How much did it cost? She says that she cannot tell us, but she can give us a guess. And what was the carbon footprint?

The noble Lord, with respect, might wish to retable this in a couple of weeks when COP has actually concluded. At the moment, although we know how many people we have accredited, we do not know how many of those attended, how many attended in person or for how long they attended. We will obviously be able to provide full information, which I am sure he will enjoy reading, once COP concludes, but we are not in a position to do that today.

My Lords, does the Minister agree that the noble Lord, Lord Robathan, has scored an own goal with his Question? Although the Labour Government sent fewer to COP 29 than the Tory Government sent to COP 28—

That was in Glasgow.

No, it was not in Glasgow; it was in Dubai. That is two own goals—that is better than England. The fact that our delegation was led by the Prime Minister, unlike under the previous Government, shows the real importance that we give to climate change.

I agree with my noble friend. We need to be serious about this, because the threat of climate change is real and it is driving a loss of resource and of water, it is driving competition for land, it is causing the displacement of people and it is incredibly expensive to deal with. There is a massive opportunity for growth based on climate investment for the UK, which is an opportunity that, as my noble friend said, I am proud is being led by the Prime Minister. I reflect today, on the day that we have learned of the sad death of our friend Lord Prescott, on the work that he did, before many people caught up with him, to lead on this issue. I am proud of what he did, and I am glad that we are able to follow and honour his legacy.

My Lords, if the Minister cannot estimate the cost of the trip to Baku, can she perhaps give us an estimate of the CO₂ emissions that emerged from all the aircraft flights to Baku and back again?

My Lords, these matters are hugely significant for the future of the world. Yes, it would be wonderful if we could reach agreement on really difficult issues—where the UK, I am proud to say, plays a leading role—by circulating an email or on WhatsApp. Sadly, we cannot do that; we need to meet face to face and we need to hammer these things out. The cost of this and the CO₂ that may be included in gathering together to make these decisions and to provide that leadership pales into insignificance compared with the benefits to the climate of being able to reach agreements together. I just encourage noble Lords to perhaps raise their sights ever so slightly to look to the longer term.

My Lords, the vital issue of loss and damage for developing states, which are at the front line of the climate emergency, was not mentioned at all in the Prime Minister’s speech in Baku. I met a delegation of MPs from Barbados on Tuesday and they, alongside the SIDS community, told me—quite alarmingly—that they see little support from the UK for climate mitigation efforts. First, can the Minister assure me that UK support for loss and damage is ring-fenced against the development cuts that were announced in the Budget? Secondly, does she agree with me that—as the Barbadians told me—when the UK does not offer support, China does? It offers support with conditional lending. Surely, within the Commonwealth, the UK should be doing more and not creating gaps that China fills.

What the noble Lord highlights is the importance to many of our global partners of action on the climate, whether that is prevention of climate change through the work that we do, not just here in the UK but internationally, on reducing carbon, or whether it is on loss and damage mitigation or resilience against extreme weather events. Many of the countries that the noble Lord refers to are very low emitters but are on the front line of this. That is why I am proud of the leadership that this country takes on this issue.

My Lords, in welcoming the presence of the Prime Minister in Baku, does the Minister recall that, in 2023, 120,000 Armenians were driven out of Nagorno-Karabakh in ethnic cleansing, when Azerbaijan cut off electricity, medicine and food? During this conference, even on its margins, did the Prime Minister have the opportunity to raise with President Aliyev the continuing failure to create a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia and provide for the return of prisoners?

The UK has been consistent in seeking a peaceful resolution. We take every opportunity that we can to move that forward.

My Lords, earlier this morning, I chaired a meeting of indigenous peoples from Colombia, Peru and Indonesia. They welcomed the fact that the UK Prime Minister was in Baku, because there is an urgent need to discuss climate change mitigation and how to deal with corporates—many of them from the UK and other large countries—that undertake enormous amounts of wood felling to pursue their particular business, at the expense of indigenous people. Therefore, in the interests of climate change mitigation internationally, would my noble friend meet me and those groups and campaigners who are directly involved on this issue in the UK?

We are not going to get any improvement in stemming the loss of biodiversity or deforestation without working with indigenous communities. I was very pleased to meet Domingo Peas, the head of Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance, on a recent visit to Ecuador, looking at just this topic. I would be very happy to meet representatives alongside my noble friend.

My Lords, the Minister, in her initial Answer to my noble friend, talked about outcomes from COP 29 in Baku. Can she outline how these outcomes align with our broader environmental and economic goals?

Our economic goal is around achieving growth for the UK, and our environmental ambition is to reduce the amount of climate change. We are aiming, still, for 1.5 degrees. How close the precise negotiations at this COP will get to delivering on those ambitions remains to be seen because, as I have already said, COP is still ongoing and there is another round of ministerial talks to take place. Really, the thorny issues have yet to be considered. Perhaps we can return to this topic when COP is completed, when we might have a better chance of assessing how successful it has been.

My Lords, last year I took a group of leaders from different faiths in Greater Manchester, along with civic leaders, to meet Pope Francis in Rome to discuss his work on climate change, which makes me think: will the Government commit to working with faith leaders, in this country and overseas, as we seek to mitigate the climate emergency?

I welcome contributions from any leaders who have influence anywhere. It is important that this task is not just left to the politicians and that community leaders and faith leaders from across the world step up and use whatever power they have to help.

My Lords, I declare my interests as set out in the register. One of the most memorable experiences of my first few months in government in 1997 was repeating the Statement on the Kyoto conference in this House that the Deputy Prime Minister had given elsewhere. He was an extraordinarily committed environmentalist before many other people, as the noble Baroness said, and he will be missed on that account and on many others. After Kyoto, we had Paris and the 1.5 degree target, to which the noble Baroness has referred. That is in danger of being breached as we speak. Does she agree that the real issue about COP and that process is how we turn an international agreement into delivery locally?

Absolutely I would, and if there was anyone who took a pragmatic lens to these issues, it would be our friend John Prescott. Perhaps we could think to ourselves “What would John say?” when we reach these agreements. I hope that we do reach some meaningful agreements but, as the noble Baroness implies and as he would no doubt have said, “It’s about getting it done, love, isn’t it?”.