Speeches by Miliband.

“Sure, and we are looking at the implications of their legislation and any action that we take, but we are really determined to take action on these issues. We recognise their importance; we just need to do so in a way that works.”

“I am very wary of going toe to toe with you on these quite complicated questions, Chair, given your background. I will try to extract what you are saying as much as possible. Forgive me if this is simplistic, but the way I think about this is that the TFFF is essentially a mechanism whereby concessional finance from th…”

“It means reducing other costs in the system to pay for that, so that businesses get reductions in their bills.”

“You are going to see reductions in bills for the most energy-intensive businesses. But let me go to your wider question, because it is important. The second point I would make is that the best thing we can do to help businesses with their energy costs is to drive towards clean power, because that is the way in which we…”

“Let me just finish—”

“Not at all, and I am not sure what the evidence is for that being people’s understanding. Let me say one other thing and then come to your question. On the public understanding point, the reason that I made the statement in the summer, which will be an annual statement, about the state of climate and nature was precise…”

“As you will have heard me say to your Committee on previous occasions, I totally recognise that the way the levies and so on have been set up offsets quite a lot of the greater efficiency of electricity. I have always said that if we can find distributionally fair ways to do this, we want to do more to close that gap. …”

“What you see from the carbon budget and growth delivery plan, which Ryan oversaw, is a cross-Government process where, whether it is DFT, DEFRA or others, they are absolutely engaged in this. Whether it was Steve Reed or, now, Emma Reynolds at DEFRA, or Heidi Alexander at Transport, there is absolute engagement and rec…”

“I am sure that there is more that we can do, and I will be really interested to see the results of your inquiry. I would say that the public do get this, though. I think they see what is happening around them, and indeed around the world. The task for us is of course to explain what the science is telling us—a new chie…”

“There will definitely be a big emphasis on the nature and biodiversity crisis as part of our future ICF.”

“I think you know—I suspect we have had this conversation on previous occasions—that I cannot comment on specific planning decisions.”

“I do not see it that way, because of what happened. It is important to understand the context of this, which is that Russia invaded Ukraine. Fossil fuel prices went through the roof, and that is what businesses are paying for. And the last Government left us exposed. We came in 17 months ago and we could have said, “Le…”

“There are two things I would say to you about what we have done. We have extended help with energy bills to 7,000 businesses through the British industrial competitiveness scheme. This is a really important announcement as part of our industrial strategy. I think it was approximately a few hundred under the last Govern…”

“The context of multilateralism working, which is important, is that after the Copenhagen summit of 2009 the world was heading for 4° of global warming. The world is now heading for 2.3° to 2.5° of global warming. That is really bad, but it does represent progress, and it is really important to register that. The succes…”

“The road map needs to start with the science of what we need to do as a world and why fossil fuel extraction matters. Why do we need this transition away? Because of the role of fossil fuels in relation to the climate crisis. It needs to look at what the transition will mean for different countries at different stages …”

“I will come to your question, Chair, and I will not make an opening statement, but let me just say, because I think it is important context for our discussions today given the focus on COP30, that, as I said in my statement to the House, we do think it is right for Britain to engage in this multilateral process, and Br…”

“There is a contextual point to make to begin with: some people said that when the US decided to pull out of Paris, there would be a domino effect—lots of countries would pull out. That has not happened: 190 countries said, “We continue to have faith in the Paris agreement.” That is significant. I would also say that, d…”

“Yes, indeed. I have Kate Hughes, our director and UK lead climate negotiator, and Ryan McLaughlin, director of net zero strategy. I am sorry that the Chair cannot be here, but it is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship.”

“Sure, but the point is that it is actually less about individual countries—the EU published its target—and more about painting a picture. The why of this is really important. Of course, the why is that people are concerned about the effects of the climate crisis, which are much more apparent than they were, but also th…”

“Let me say something quickly about the mechanism. The mechanism has now been agreed, we think it will be a good way to share best practice from different countries, and the just transition is incredibly important. We have just unveiled our North sea future plan, and it has a big emphasis on the importance of the just t…”