Speeches by Miliband.

“I will not get ahead of any announcements that might or might not be made, but I want to give you very strong reassurance that the Government’s position is very clear. It goes back to the conversation that we had earlier. Aviation expansion, if it happens, where it happens, must be justified by reference to carbon budg…”

“That is a specific question about the pathway of aviation emissions and that depends on a whole range of factors, as you will know, including the use of sustainable aviation fuel, airport efficiency and what other decisions are made. However, I want to provide reassurance, because you made an important point. Carbon bu…”

“We have a range of mechanisms to make sure that any aviation expansion is consistent with our carbon budgets. I think that we agree about this; it may not look like it. Any aviation expansion must be justified within the framework of carbon budgets. I can absolutely assure you that that is the position of the Governmen…”

“The Climate Change Committee’s progress report said that no airport expansion should take place without a UK-wide capacity management framework. I agree with the CCC, and I want to be absolutely clear about this, that any aviation expansion must be accounted for as part of carbon budgets. On its balanced pathway was a …”

“Let me answer this carefully, because it is important, and I will go into a bit of detail on this if I may. This is the heart of the matter on one of the most important issues on aviation. The way that I have always thought about this is that our goal is neither on the one hand to stop people going on holiday or stop t…”

“Yes, but let’s get to the truth here, which is that the last Government set the targets and then did not do the work. We have come to office—and I am glad that we have got on to this—with only one-third of the reductions necessary covered by credible plans, according to the CCC. I will be honest with you that we face a…”

“I think that there should definitely be a debate in the House. To give a bit of clarity, my understanding about this last time is that the Government put down an SI proposing carbon budget 6 and we supported it and it went through. The last Government got themselves into a slightly odd position in that they blamed the …”

“Let me come back to the Committee on the precise chronologies, but I definitely commit to coming back before this Committee to discuss our proposals.”

“Sorry, just explain what you mean by before laying it. Before laying what?”

“Probably not in time for your birthday.”

“The Climate Change Act envisages publication after the delivery of the carbon budget delivery plan, after the setting of the budget. We can get hung up on the terms here. I think that Parliament needs enough information from what we say to make an informed judgment about whether what we recommend, following the CCC’s r…”

“My instincts are that we will need a bit longer than that. We have our carbon budget delivery plan that will come out later on this year. I think that we will need a proper process of cross-government scrutiny of these recommendations.”

“Parliament will have a proper chance of scrutiny sufficiently in advance of the June 2026 deadline. I will not put a date on it today but it is fair to say that the Government need to have a thorough examination of the proposals that come out from the Climate Change Committee. I envisage that taking some time because t…”

“The Climate Change Committee will be coming out with its recommendations very shortly. The Government will then undertake a quite complex cross-government process in advance of the deadline of June 2026 to set out their response. However, in the meantime I would welcome your role in scrutinising the recommendations of …”

“We endorse the commitment to proper information for Parliament to debate these issues. We want it to happen and will make sure it happens.”

“I absolutely think that this Committee has a central role when it comes to carbon budget 7. As you know, Chair, the recommendations from the Climate Change Committee will be coming out next month. I want to put on record that I am determined and completely aligned on the idea that we need a process, that this Committee…”

“A lot of this sits in DEFRA. This is not directly part of the carbon budget process, but I talk to my colleague Steve Reed about it and we are determined to work on it together.”

“Yes, and it is something that we are working on across Government. As you know, it sits in DEFRA but we work closely with it on that. We are very much looking at this and it will be a big focus of what we look at in the spending review.”

“This is about domestic adaptation?”

“It is a very important question and goes to what I said to Barry earlier. Part of the challenge here is that adaptation finance has tended to be underfunded compared to mitigation finance. That has been a big source of understandable anger. There were important commitments made as part of COP29 about making sure that w…”