Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat)

The annual conference of the parties (COP) to the United Nations framework convention on climate change took place in Lima, Peru, from 1-14 December. The United Kingdom was represented by the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.

All countries in the United Nations framework convention on climate change committed at the COP in Durban in 2011 to negotiate, by 2015, a new global, legally binding agreement, applicable to all nations, to come into force by 2020. In Warsaw, last year, all agreed to bring forward their intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) to that agreement well in advance of Paris, and by the first quarter of 2015 for those that are ready to do so.

We also reached a balanced decision on finance, which I brokered alongside the South African Environment Minister. The decision sees countries welcome the capitalisation of the green climate fund—more than $10 billion committed in the initial capitalisation round—as well as other initiatives, and calls for increased transparency and predictability of climate finance.

Overall, the Lima outcome was broadly positive. We secured the basis for everything the Government want to see in the final agreement, which was outlined in Government’s vision for the new agreement—“Paris 2015: Securing our prosperity through a global climate change agreement”—that I published on 9 September 2015. We achieved a good result on climate finance by demonstrating again the UK’s leadership in this area, which helps enhance our reputation and credibility internationally. The UK continued its strong record of leading on climate change action: demonstrating our ambition at home, our support to developing countries and our leading influence in the EU and with international partners.

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