16:46 Chris Bryant (Labour)

We should remember that Mongolia is not a wealthy country. It is the 19th largest country in terms of its geography, but the most sparsely populated. As a result it faces particular difficulties. My hon. Friend referred to the problems that Mongolia has had over the past two years—the drought and then the zud, which is the Mongol name for the very harsh winter that the country has suffered this year. I was in Moscow last week, and it felt cold enough at minus 10° C. The temperature in 90 per cent. of Mongolia is between minus 35° C and minus 40° C. That is very rough. As we heard, more than 1 million animals have died, which represents about 2 per cent. of the country’s livestock, 73 people have been transferred to hospital for frostbite and a couple of people have died. Such events are not new to Mongolia; they occur regularly, as do the problems in relation to drought. When we talk about the effects of climate change, we tend to focus on the bits of the world that we know best, but we also need to consider areas such as Mongolia. People tend to think that the warming of the world will be a good thing, but there is a real danger that Mongolia will suffer from further levels of drought, and that the intensity of the winters will get worse rather than better. Yet again, we have another reason why we need to tackle the important world issue of climate change.

We have had a large number of high-level visits recently. The Minister for Minerals and Energy visited in December and saw the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, my hon. Friend the Member for Bury, South (Mr. Lewis), who would normally be here to lead this debate, but is abroad. He also met Ministers in the Departments for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, of Energy and Climate Change, and for Business, Innovation and Skills to discuss climate change and business developments. Last February, the Minister for Education, Culture and Science also visited the UK and, as I understand it, had particularly interesting discussions with colleagues in Cambridge. In January, the Duke of York had a bilateral meeting with the President of Mongolia at Davos where he was awarded an honour for his continued service to Mongolia. I am absolutely certain that if Mongolia was to give out any more awards, the next one would go to my hon. Friend the Member for Selby.

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