The UK's cross-party commitment to addressing climate change is evident with the participation of a ten-member MP delegation at COP28 in Dubai. PRASEG have supported this collaboration alongside the Conservative Environment Network, the Labour Climate and Environment Forum, and the Energy and Climate Intelligence

Ever since leading the way internationally with legally-binding targets to cut greenhouse gas emission in 2008, action to tackle climate change in the UK has commanded strong cross-party support. Representing that continued non-partisan commitment to climate action, a cross-party delegation of ten UK Members of Parliament (MPs) will attend this year's UN climate summit, COP28, in Dubai.

Worsening impacts

With humans having already warmed the planet by around 1.2°C, and scientists confidently predicting 2023 will be the hottest on record, this year has seen the strongest evidence yet of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) stark warning that climate impacts are worsening and becoming more dangerous. Extremes of heat, fire and flooding have already hit many parts of the world during the hottest northern hemisphere summer ever experienced by humans. And the return of El Niño this year is only intensifying these as we head into the southern hemisphere’s summer.

Against this backdrop, world leaders meet at COP28 from 30th November to focus on ratcheting up global ambition to cut emissions, adapt to climate impacts, and deliver finance to support poorer climate vulnerable, in continuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C.

Sharing experience

Driven by the cross-party shared commitment to climate policy and decarbonisation that Britain has demonstrated since the Climate Change Act, the UK MPs will join negotiators and civil society in Dubai to feed into discussions around the talks, and learn more about the international process that is so critical to efforts to limit even more dangerous future climate change. They will seek to gain greater insights into the complex negotiations, bringing their understanding back to their colleagues in Parliament - including on the role UK climate leadership has played in achieving the momentum up to and since the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015, not least in hosting COP26.

Working to connect with and support their fellow elected representatives facing more partisan challenges in other countries, where actions to tackle climate change is more contested, the delegation will leverage their collective expertise to share knowledge and experience on the UK’s world-leading emissions cuts to-date, as well as hearing and learning from voices from developing nations in the Global South.

Cross-party consensus

The members of the delegation believe that, by continuing to foster the decade-and-a-half of consensus in UK politics on climate action, politicians can help strengthen discussions to raise climate ambition at home and abroad. The UK has been a leader on tackling climate change for many years, making deep cuts to emissions whilst growing the British economy, and working at the heart of the international climate talks process to ensure the world acts in time to limit temperature rises beyond the dangerous threshold of 1.5°C.

Climate change, and the impacts it causes, know no borders. In a globalised world, tackling worsening impacts anywhere is in the interests of all nations, as crucial supply chains - such as our food system - are ever more global. These MPs - already some of the leading experts on and advocates for climate action and clean energy in Parliament - are there to learn more, to share the UK’s experience, and to bring new resolve back to Parliament to keep the UK at the heart of global leadership on climate.

This collaboration is supported by four organisations working on UK climate and energy policy. They are PRASEG – the all-party parliamentary group on renewable energy, the Conservative Environment Network, the Labour Climate and Environment Forum, and the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit.

Notes to editors:

1. The Members of Parliament in the delegation are:

• Fleur Anderson (Labour) - Vice Chair of the Environment All Party Parliamentary Group
• Rushanara Ali (Labour) - ECIU Advisory Board member
• Greg Clark (Conservative) - Former Energy Secretary
• Dave Doogan (SNP) - Energy and climate spokesperson
• Katherine Fletcher (Conservative) - Former PPS to COP26 President, and former Transport Minister
• Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat) - Energy and climate spokesperson
• Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative) - Former Energy Secretary
• Kerry McCarthy (Labour) - Shadow Climate Minister
• Chi Onwurah (Labour) - Shadow Science Minister
• Tenth member - TBC

2. PRASEG (Parliamentary Renewable and Sustainable Energy Group) is an all-party parliamentary group of Members of Parliament and peers in the UK Parliament that promotes sustainable energy, renewable power, and energy efficiency.

3. The Conservative Environment Network is the independent forum for conservatives in the UK and around the world who support net zero, nature restoration and resource security. It works with a caucus of almost 150 Conservative MPs and peers, and networks of local councillors, grassroots supporters, and centre-right legislators from other countries to promote bold action to protect the environment.

4. The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit is a non-profit organisation that supports informed debate on energy and climate change issues in the UK.

5. Labour Climate and Environment Forum is an independent organisation designed to raise climate and environmental ambition across the whole labour movement, including unions, activists, socialist societies as well as the Labour Party itself.