14:13 Karen Bradley (Conservative)

I was thinking about what I could do usefully to assist the Government in dealing with carbon, because it is very easy for businesses to offshore carbon. I am not suggesting that UK businesses do that or choose to have products manufactured in high carbon-emitting countries to avoid carbon emission restrictions in the UK. It is absolutely right that this country was the first to legislate for net zero by 2050. That is fantastic, and this country should be incredibly proud of it. We are also hosting COP 26, which again gives the UK an opportunity to show global leadership. The Prime Minister, in his recent address to the United Nations, said:

As it is 2.21 pm on a Friday afternoon, I recognise that it is perhaps unlikely that this Bill will be granted its Second Reading. I know that a great deal of work is under way in the Department to look at what measures can be introduced. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is not short of new ways to assist businesses in reducing their carbon emissions and contributing towards reaching net zero by 2050, but I offer this Bill to the Minister as another weapon in his arsenal—another thing that he can use to assist us to reach net zero not just in the UK but across the whole world. If we can lead in that way with a simple measure that will enable consumers and possibly employees to see what businesses are doing to eliminate carbon, that would assist him and the Government in reaching the target.

The thing that we should look to is what we did on modern slavery. There are other countries that do this. California was the first place to have a transparency in supply chains measure. We would be world leaders, though, in transparency in supply chains on carbon, and that would give us a real edge with COP 26 coming up.

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14:24 The Minister for Business, Energy and Clean Growth (Kwasi Kwarteng)

More broadly, the House will recognise that the UK has long been a leader in the fight against climate change. We have managed to do that while achieving impressive rates of economic growth. Between 1990 and 2018, the UK managed to reduce carbon emissions by 43% while growing the economy by 75%. As that has happened, the UK has decarbonised its economy at the fastest rate of all G20 countries since 2000. Our carbon emissions today are at their lowest level since the 19th century. Once again, I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead. It was under her Administration that we passed the net zero carbon legislation last year that essentially made us world leaders, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Staffordshire Moorlands suggested.

My right hon. Friend the Member for Staffordshire Moorlands mentioned COP 26 in Glasgow next year, where we will be taking centre stage and a leadership position not only in driving our climate ambitions but in encouraging others on a global platform, our friends and allies across the world, to take up the fight against climate change and, we hope, pursue highly ambitious nationally determined contributions. During these difficult times, our commitment to COP 26 and urgent climate action has not wavered. Businesses and people are at the heart of our strategy for tackling climate change. We know we can only get there with a strong green recovery.

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