Speeches by Gardiner.

“I want to be clear that I understand you, because it seems to me that this is framing up into a recommendation the Committee might make. At the moment, you have a problem. The problem is heat and you need to cool things down, so you are spending money and resources dealing with that problem, that heat. Why would it not…”

“I always like the advice that says, “Well, I wouldn’t be starting off from here,” but it doesn’t help us go forward. What can the Government do to actually incentivise you guys—I am saying “you guys” but I mean the guys in the first panel, the data centre guys—to be co-developers, because that would solve a problem for…”

“How can we take this thing that we are all talking about as if it is a problem with data centres and turn it into a resource and an advantage through district heat networks and so on?”

“Thank you. Should heat reuse for data centres be mandatory?”

“Well, maybe not the top of the queue—[Interruption.] A points system, yes.”

“Now, I have a problem, haven’t I? We have just seen the weather forecast that the Met Office did for 2056. You may remember that last Monday the Met Office held a big event where it said the peak summer temperature in 2056 is going to be 45 degrees, and the lowest temperature anywhere in the UK is going to be 30 degree…”

“But if the figures that I gave you are correct, do you not think that that presents certain problems for the way in which the Government goes about managing the sector?”

“Mr Chanda, if we were playing basketball, I would say, “Slam dunk.” Thank you very much.”

“Just carrying out orders, okay.”

“Mr Chanda, you wanted to come in.”

“Good—give me the caveats.”

“Could the Minister just remind us to which party the Chief Secretary to the Treasury between 2010 and 2015 belonged?”

“My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. Does she agree that, as part of that consultation, many of us would like the Government to consider that this should not just be a matter of legality, but of actual deforestation? She will know of cases where other countries have passed similar legislation; in Brazil, its then P…”

“If the hon. Member wants to know the specifics of how to do that, they get a jar of liquid honey and squeeze it up the tree. You then have to follow it up with your tongue. I do not recommend that for anywhere near the Whips Office.”

“This is an essential point. My hon. Friend will remember the words of Pak Ja Martin, who was in charge of the project that we went to see. He said, “You can’t talk conservation to people who are hungry.” Therefore, local indigenous people, who for centuries have protected and conserved their environment, must be involv…”

“My hon. Friend speaks knowledgeably about the threats to biodiversity in Sumatra in particular. It is not just the sixth largest island in the world; it also has 1,300 different tree species. Sumatra’s forest cover has been staggeringly depleted, with about 20% of its lowland forest remaining. My hon. Friend is right t…”

“My hon. Friend has been very generous in taking interventions. On the animals that had diseases—she is right, it was an affecting sight that depressed us all; it is great that the islands are being built—is she aware that at a recent lecture, Nadine, who we met in Oxford, confirmed that when orangutans are captured for…”

“My hon. Friend is talking about peatlands; she will know that Indonesia had a huge, deep burn of its peatlands in 2019, with 31,000 sq km of land burned. In the UK, when we had a terrible peatland fire on Saddleworth moor in 2018, just the year before, an estimated 4.5 million people suffered from the particulate matte…”

“The evidence that the Forestry Commission has submitted to us says that there are no legal responsibilities for wildfire in terms of forestry. Some land managers have said that mandatory clearance of brash after felling would be a good idea. First, is that something you would support? Secondly, what are the implication…”

“Thank you very much. That is really helpful.”