§ Mr. Alan SimpsonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how the Government plan to ensure that the matter of global warming is addressed by the(a) WTO, (b) IMF, (c) G7 and (d) OECD. [25480]
§ Mr. MeacherGlobal warming, or climate change, is already discussed at Ministerial and official meetings of the OECD, and was a feature of the G7 discussions in Denver last year. The Government are committed to taking forward further discussions regarding action arising from the Kyoto Protocol in these fora.
The WTO Committee on Trade and Environment held useful and informative discussions with the secretariats of a number of multilateral environmental agreements last summer, and intends to repeat the exercise this year; we hope very much that the secretariat to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change will be able to participate.
The IMF aims for sustainable development for all of its members. It does not, however, have a specific mandate to deal with global warming.
§ Mr. StunellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what assessment he has made of the contribution of the draft European Union Energy Products Directive to the United Kingdom climate change strategy; and if he will make a statement. [25757]
§ Angela EagleThe Energy Products Directive is still under discussion within Europe, and its final form, if agreed, is unlikely to be identical to the draft. It is, however, clear that the measures in the directive would make a small but significant contribution towards delivering the UK's climate change objectives.