The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Dr Thérèse Coffey)

I attended the EU Environment Council in Luxembourg on 17 October along with the Minister for Climate Change and Industry, my hon. Friend the Member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner (Mr Hurd).

Ministers undertook a full round table debate of the Commission’s legislative proposals on the “non-ETS” package—the effort share regulation (ESR) and the land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) regulation, published in July 2016. The Commission strongly welcomed the EU’s ratification of the Paris agreement and supported a focus on implementation via agreement to both the ESR and EU emissions trading system (ETS) directive. Ministers exchanged comments on a number of the technical aspects of the proposals. The UK noted the importance of swift agreement to the proposals in the context of implementation of the Paris agreement and, along with several other member states, supported taking the effort share negotiations in parallel with discussion on the EU ETS.

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