§ Mr. QuinnTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on his objectives for the forthcoming climate change negotiations in The Hague. [138611]
§ Mr. PrescottThe Sixth Conference of the Parties (COP 6) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change will aim to agree a detailed framework for the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol.
The Government want to negotiate an agreement which can be endorsed by all countries; pave the way to ratification by sufficient numbers of countries for the Protocol to enter into force by 2002; and will lead to action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by developed countries which are currently responsible for 60 per cent. of the world's emissions. We will work for an agreement that safeguards the environmental integrity of the Protocol, taking into accounts its economic impacts and providing certainty for business.