§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what proposals were put forward by the United Kingdom and what decisions taken at the meeting of G7 Environment Ministers in Hamilton from 29 April to 1 May; and if he will place in the Library a copy of the communiqué from the meeting. [22927]
§ Mr. GummerThe meeting of G7 Environment Ministers was concerned to prepare the response of the most prosperous world economies to the major environmental challenges we face.
We stressed the need to maximise our efforts to implement the biodiversity and climate change conventions. On climate change, we emphasised the importance not only of meeting our targets for the year 2000 but of taking forward the mandate negotiated at the Berlin conference of the parties to consider the position beyond 2000. The UK was able to take the lead in these discussions, and our firm proposition of the need to cut developed country greenhouse gas emissions by the between 5 and 10 per cent. from 1990 levels by the year 2010 is becoming an increasingly important signal as to the direction of the climate change debate.
We discussed the role of international environment institutions, on which we broadly endorsed the conclusions reached at the informal meeting of Environment Ministers, which I hosted at Brocket hall in February. We looked forward to the governing council of the United Nations environment programme in Nairobi next month as an opportunity to confirm the mandate of UNEP as the world's environment voice.
These and other results of the meeting were reported in the form of chairman's highlights, a copy of which I have placed in the Library. I will be reporting the outcome of the meeting to the Prime Minister, as will my G7 colleagues to their Heads of Government. The results will thus feed into the discussions by Heads of Government at the Halifax summit in July.