Multiple House of Lords committees launch climate change inquiries

Five House of Lords committees will quiz government representatives and external climate experts on topics ranging from internal carbon markets to climate impacts on migration, in a bid to strengthen preparations for the COP 26 climate summit.


Multiple House of Lords committees launch climate change inquiries

New COP President Alok Sharma will also be quizzed next week

EU Sub-Committees from Home Affairs, Energy and Environment, Internal Markets, External Affairs and Financial Affairs will all focus on how climate change will impact select policy areas and what the Government response should be.

The sessions will take place next week and suggest that the Government is trying to embed climate policy across different departments as part of a joined-up thinking approach.

The EU Home Affairs Sub-Committee will hear from climate experts from the International Organisation for Migration, Chatham House, the Climate Change and Migration Coalition and the University of Exeter on the impact of climate change on human migration.

The EU Energy and Environment Sub-Committee will hear from representatives from Carbon Market Watch, Squire Patton Boggs LLP and Chatham House about international carbon markets, what went wrong at COP25 and what the Government needs to do to secure a more ambitious agreement later this year.

The EU Financial Affairs Sub-Committee will hear from Mark Carney, the UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance about his priorities for the new role and what the main issues facing finance, including greenwashing.

Elsewhere, the EU External Affairs Sub-Committee will ask climate change experts about the challenges climate change poses to developing countries and the EU Internal Market Sub-Committee will discuss how new UK state aid rules could help the UK meet its climate targets.

Lord Teverson, Chair of the EU Energy and Environment Sub-Committee, said: “Climate change is an emergency. The repeated serious flooding here in the UK is just one of the many ways global warming is already taking its toll. That’s why five House of Lords committees have uniquely come together to examine this emergency.

“These sessions will shed light on a number of those diverse climate change challenges that now confront us. Our follow up will be pressing ministers on how the Government intends to move forward.  With COP26 only months away, clear and focused responses from minsters will be essential.”

Members from each Committee will be joined by the chair of the International Relations and Defence Committee, Baroness Anelay, to ask new COP President Alok Sharma about current preparations for the COP26 summit, which is taking place in Glasgow at the end of the year.

Matt Mace

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