Speeches by Gibson.

“I am a member of the APPG.”

“We do. It was the Bristol Tramways Company. Just looking back at carbon budgets 4 and 6, what lessons can we draw about how households and businesses respond to policies aimed at cutting emissions? What kinds of approaches work to encourage low-carbon technology uptake? Where has the public engagement been weaker?”

“Professor Grubb, what can Government and industry do to support these households and businesses in adopting low-carbon technologies? We have talked about heat pumps and EV, but you are absolutely right in terms of the active travel side of it. I represent a constituency where the biggest form of deprivation is, in fact…”

“Thank you, Mr Evans. You have answered my next question, which was whether you thought the UK should join exactly that premium flyer levy. Moving on, what leadership role should UK and international civil society, businesses and investors take at COP?”

“Thank you all very much for being here. First, I have a generic question, which I will let you all answer in whichever order you think is most appropriate. What should the UK’s focus be while it is at COP30? Where can the UK demonstrate a leadership role, and where should it focus?”

“My constituent’s sister was stillborn many years ago, in a situation in which my constituent’s mother was simply told, “Don’t worry, dear, you’ll have another one next year.” There was no bereavement counselling and, more importantly, no marked grave. My constituent found out some years later—quite recently—that his si…”

“Yes, more clarity of the information, so that they know what their obligations are, or what their position is. What effect did the new national flood risk assessment have on your assessment of the flood-related outcomes? Did you amend your approach, given the new dataset and the considerable increase in the number of p…”

“Yes.”

“I have a background in the construction industry, so forgive me. There is an interesting point that has come up quite often: a lot of the volume house builders have been talking about the fact that heat pumps take up quite a lot of space. You said semi-detached is perfect. Certainly in their most economy houses, for ex…”

“There is an advantage in that the air-to-air heat pump system install is considerably less expensive than the water system, especially in small spaces where that works quite successfully. I am really pleased that you think it is worth including. Does your analysis of the emissions of residential buildings take into acc…”

“To move on to the slightly different subject of residential buildings, the Government are thought to be considering energy bill discounts of £200 a year for households installing heat pumps, and I wondered whether you would welcome that. Or does that possibly risk being a benefit only for the middle classes who take ad…”

“On this new dataset, there are properties recorded as at risk of flooding that would not have been on the previous information, are there not?”

“That makes perfect sense. On a slightly different point: what evidence did you find to assess whether the emergency services have sufficient plans and resilience measures in place to manage cascading risk triggered by extreme heat?”

“You almost need more post-occupancy assessment, a little like when we do the census. We could have a section on how is your home, as well as all the other things we ask.”

“That is lacking?”

“Highways?”

“Did the committee feel confident in assessing the Environment Agency’s national river and coastal strategy in a consistent way with all the lead local authorities’ surface water flooding strategies? Did you feel confident that you were assessing it, given all these anomalies and different lead authorities’ abilities to…”

“In a way, would you say that your assessment already included that surface water flooding, even though you did not have the data for it before, because you sort of knew it was there?”

“The report recommends the use of resilience standards in some contexts, especially with infrastructure, as you just mentioned, but not for people’s homes in relation to flood risk. What is the Committee’s perspective on the value of using resilience standards as an approach for flood risk management?”

“I think it is, yes—“Sarah, we recognise you as a geek”, so yes, thank you.”