Speeches by White.

“I think that that is an unfair challenge. We have put ourselves right at the heart of the agenda again. Britain, at the end of the last Government was certainly not at the heart of the negotiating table. There has been progress on forests. The Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership is something that we have been worki…”

“As I say, we can always look at how we can go further and faster, and we were looking at that. On forests and the progress we have made, the Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership is a completely separate track. There is a lot of activity going on in forests. It is an area that has been transformed in the last decade …”

“Chair, if I can clarify, the criticism is towards the Government and not towards the UNFCCC process?”

“I will start off, but Matt or Rachel may want to come in as well. Absolutely. I know from your constituency that you are embedded in the nuclear sector, which has had a revival under this Government, which is fantastic. For instance on small modular reactors, we have the deal now with Sweden, which is great, and we are…”

“As you will know, this adaptation at the moment sits within DEFRA, so we will be working across government but DEFRA is the responsible Government Department for that. It is a hefty report that I think you might have with you—”

“I think it is about balancing risk at all times but on each free trade agreement we ensure that we look at what the risks are around any exposure, as you would expect us to do. We are looking and there are different sections that we can write to the Committee about how we have managed on each of them. As I say, it is a…”

“I am Katie White. I am the Climate Minister.”

“I think that you are absolutely right, and Rachel mentioned it. We are not just in the face of a climate crisis, we are in an energy crisis. This energy crisis is as big as the 1970s and Ukraine put together. It is enormous, and you are absolutely right to look at the long tail of that and what the implications are now…”

“The climate emergency declarations were really useful at the time in moving forward and almost raising an alarm that people and communities were concerned and committed to doing that. I think we are now more in a delivery phase, and different councils are doing that in different ways. We want to strike the balance of l…”

“There was a climate change assembly and, forgive me, I cannot remember exactly what year it was. It was probably five or six years ago, 2019, and then we had the people’s assembly on nature as well. I think it was really helpful. It is interesting, I met with the Korean delegation the other day and they have just got a…”

“I think that is a little unfair. Can I put at the heart of this my boss, who, wherever you sit within the House and your position, would see has met this agenda with a huge amount of energy and leadership and determination? Britain has always been a leader on tackling climate change, and I give credit to the last Gover…”

“In terms of—”

“As I say, we can always look at how we can go further and faster, and we were looking at that. On forests and the progress we have made, the Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership is a completely separate track. There is a lot of activity going on in forests. It is an area that has been transformed in the last decade …”

“We are working through that. It is a responsibility of everybody in Government to make sure that we meet the necessary increase in investments in defence. DESNZ had a good settlement at the comprehensive spending review. We are all willing to play our full role in meeting those defence investment plans, and we are work…”

“Let me take this back, because we have played a role in setting up the TFFF, which is what you refer to, which is a key amount. That remains under review. You will understand, like everybody else, that we are not making big investment decisions now, but that remains under review. It is an important part of our ecosyste…”

“I will start off, but Matt or Rachel may want to come in as well. Absolutely. I know from your constituency that you are embedded in the nuclear sector, which has had a revival under this Government, which is fantastic. For instance on small modular reactors, we have the deal now with Sweden, which is great, and we are…”

“Let me take that in three parts, one on the support. I know that in this place—and I have had this conversation with many of you—I do not think that Parliament often reflects what is going on in public. If you look at all of the public polling, the support for tackling climate change is way higher than you would believ…”

“Sorry, I was cantering through, Chair. We had five events that were based around the local net zero hubs. It was about celebrating a lot of the work that is going on within communities and providing a space for those communities, businesses and groups to learn from what they had been doing, what others could learn from…”

“We are exploring options as part of these wider conversations but I do not want to give the Committee the sense that we are at the brink. We are at the beginning of these conversations. For anybody who has had the pleasure of going to the UNFCCC and seen the complication of it, adding the WTO with the UNFCCC is not nec…”

“Thank you. I think we are okay. I agree with you that we need to make more investment in this. Of course I am not going to come here and make a huge commitment about our fiscal investment on this today. You have been around this place for far longer and you that that would be an ill thought through decision. We need to…”