SNP urges UK Government to ratify Paris climate deal

Roseanna Cunningham has urged the UK Government to ratify the Paris climate change agreement, with the Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform warning that “any unnecessary delay in the UK ratification will diminish its position as a world leader in tackling global climate change”.

The US and China have both ratified the deal, which is aimed at limiting emissions in order to keep global warming to less than 1.5 degrees above pre industrial temperatures.

Cunningham has written to Greg Clark, UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Policy, calling for the UK to ratify the treaty, agreed last year.

RELATED CONTENT

Q&A with Roseanna Cunningham, Cabinet Secretary for the Environment

Energy and Climate Change Committee warns UK set to miss 2020 renewable targets

The move follows a motion from Labour MP Barry Gardiner earlier this week, urging the Government “to publish by the end of next week a Command Paper on domestic ratification and to set out in a statement to this House the timetable to complete the ratification process by the end of 2016”.

Cunningham said: “It’s essential that the momentum and consensus for global efforts to tackle climate change that was so hard won in Paris is not lost by a slow pace of implementation. That is why I welcome the ratification by the United States and China.

“There is growing concern that any unnecessary delay in the UK ratification will diminish its position as a world leader in tackling global climate change. It also risks sending the wrong signal to the low carbon sector and the investment community at a time when confidence is already low on the back of policy changes at UK level.”

UN member states will meet in November to discuss the implementation process.