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Chris Bryant's Speeches In Parliament Related to Climate

We've found 32 Parliamentary debates in which Chris Bryant has spoken about climate-related matters.

Here are the relevant sections of their speeches.

• 14 Jul 2026: UK-Switzerland Enhanced Free Trade Agreement

  13:25

  The agreement establishes an innovation working group to bring together business, academia and the Government, with the goal of finding the biggest opportunities and challenges facing our generation. The group is designed to keep pace with emerging technologies and global conditions, which keeps our agreement focused on the future and helps both the UK and Switzerland to stay on the front foot in an ever-changing world. To that end, the agreement also strengthens our co-operation on climate change, development and gender equality.

  [Source]

  13:40

  I am very grateful to the Chair of the Select Committee; I look forward to seeing my right hon. Friend later today and then again tomorrow, in two different sessions. He is absolutely right that this is a very important deal. Of course, it is not just done by the politicians involved. The teams in our embassy in Switzerland and in our respective Departments—I include other Departments such as the Home Office, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and so on—are all part of the team that get a deal over the line.

  [Source]

• 13 Jul 2026: Trade Negotiations

  Finally, the agreement establishes a dedicated innovation working group, bringing together business, academia and Government to identify future opportunities and address emerging challenges. It is designed to evolve alongside new technologies, including artificial intelligence, and changing global conditions, ensuring the bilateral relationship remains future-focused. Alongside its commercial benefits, the agreement strengthens co-operation on climate change, development and gender equality, reflecting our shared commitment to a modern and inclusive partnership.

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• 20 May 2026: Processed Russian Oil Products: Sanctions

  12:49

  My hon. Friend makes an immensely important point on energy security, which is one reason why we are passionately committed to trying to make sure we are not reliant on oil or oil products from anywhere else in the world, and that we are able to not only meet our net zero targets, but be energy resilient for ourselves. She is also right that we need to work alongside our allies, not only—I would argue—on energy security but in relation to imposing sanctions. We must co-operate with other countries. As I say, our set of processes is remarkably similar to those of Australia, Canada—I think—and several other countries. We need to move forward together if we are to defeat Putin and to ensure we have energy security for our own households and our own businesses.

  [Source]

  13:46

  My hon. Friend is right that we need to ensure that these sanctions are not only implemented but effective. We need—I think the previous Government felt this as well—a constant ratchet or a whack-a-mole approach to tackling any new diversion there might be that Putin might take advantage of. He talked about jet fuel, and I am feeling a bit guilty because unfortunately last night I had to fly back from Strasbourg—that was just as well, because otherwise I would not have been able to answer the UQ. He made a good point, and we also need to ensure that the aviation industry in its totality is more cognisant of where it needs to get to on net zero.

  [Source]

• 2 Feb 2026: Enhanced Free Trade Agreement with Switzerland: Round 9 Negotiations

  Negotiators provisionally closed the trade and sustainable development chapter, which demonstrates the UK and Switzerland’s joint commitment to maintaining high standards of environmental and labour protection including through multilateral environmental agreements such as the UNFCCC and the Paris agreement.

  [Source]

• 15 Dec 2025: Upgraded Free Trade Agreement with the Republic of Korea

  The FTA will also deepen the strategic relationship between our two nations, building on the Republic of Korea’s recent and significant inward investment into the UK. To support this, the deal introduces new co-operation pathways in critical areas such as innovation, gender equality and supply chains—the UK’s first dedicated chapter of its kind—to reinforce our shared commitment to future-facing collaboration. We have also embedded values on fairness and sustainability through collaboration on workers’ rights, through measures that address bribery and anti-corruption and through upgraded commitments in support of our ambitious environmental and climate goals.

  [Source]

• 11 Dec 2025: Small and Medium-sized Businesses

  I congratulate my hon. Friend on being a great defender of the businesses in her constituency. We are delivering targeted catalytic public investment in our clean energy industries. Some people see climate change as an economic challenge for us, but we see it as an economic opportunity in this country, because it is about future jobs. That is why we are so different from the political parties on the other side of the Chamber.

  [Source]

• 11 Dec 2025: Fairtrade Certification

  14:34

  Fair trade is not just about the issues I have mentioned. The International Labour Organisation says that, around the world, 28 million people are in situations of forced labour. I am sure that any of us could cite some of the places where that might be true. Similarly, every minute we are losing forest area equivalent to 11 football pitches, which is a challenge to all our climate change ambitions.

  Of course, the impact of climate change will be felt most intensely among the poorest peoples on Earth. To see that, we only have to look at places such as the Carteret Islands, off Bougainville in Papua New Guinea, or the outlying poorer lands of Thailand, where some of the very poorest people are in danger of losing their homes, their livelihoods and their access to clean drinking water. Similarly, a million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction, which is a threat to biodiversity, and whether biodiversity loss happens in our country or in any other country, it is a threat to us all.

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• 2 Jul 2025: Space Weather

  16:16

  The hon. Gentleman also asked about armed forces preparedness, which I assure him we take very seriously. One of our recent innovations is to gather all the Ministers with responsibility for space-related issues in different Departments—the MOD, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department for Transport, the Foreign Office, other parts of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero—because we need to make sure that we act as a whole Government in this area. The next meeting is next Monday. I am very hopeful that we can spot areas where we can secure efficiencies because we are working as a whole Government. We can also make sure that none of the issues that the hon. Gentleman raised are forgotten.

  [Source]

• 8 Oct 2024: Edinburgh Festivals: Cultural and Economic Contribution

  17:36

  My hon. Friend made an important point about crisis support. I am worried about the situation that arose, in particular, for the book festival and Baillie Gifford. He makes a fair point about whether that is the right way to go about making important points about climate change. One of the things we need to do as a Department is look at the whole package of the whole funding of all the arts and creative industries, which used to come from five or six different segments, including local government, which was prominent in that when we were in power before 2010. Most of that funding has completely gone, and philanthropy is struggling outside London and the south-east. We need to look at this in the round.

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• 12 Sep 2024: Data and Digital Infrastructure: Security and Resilience

  Data infrastructure underpins essential services that are critical to the UK economy and our way of life and will only become more vital as technologies like AI require greater data centre and cloud capacity. The data it contains is highly valuable, and as such attracts security threats from cyber and physical attacks. Data centres are also vulnerable to the effects of climate change, which is increasing the risk of environmental hazards like flooding, heatwaves, and other extreme weather that can disrupt operations and result in a compromise or loss of crucial services.

  [Source]

• 29 Nov 2023: Data Protection and Digital Information Bill

  14:17

  Furthermore, the FCA does not think that a big bang approach to open finance is feasible or desirable. Nevertheless, many of the Government amendments to the suite of smart data provisions are technical, and indicate a move in the right direction. In particular, we hope that, with smart data enabling greater access by consumers to information about green options and net zero, we will be able to help the whole of the UK to move towards net zero.

  [Source]

• 9 Nov 2022: COP27

  13:09

  Let me ask the Prime Minister whether he would like to visit the Rhondda to see the problems that climate change is already bringing to one of the poorer constituencies in the land: flooding, run-off from the mountains, housing stock that is very elderly and difficult to insulate, and a local authority that already has £12 million of extra budget next year just to keep the lights on and the schools and leisure facilities running. Will he visit the Rhondda, and try to sort out some of those problems?

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• 3 Nov 2021: G20 and COP26 World Leaders Summit

  One of the terrible effects of climate change is felt in south Wales valleys seats, where extreme weather conditions and heavy rain have destabilised some of the disused coal tips. People live in terror of another Aberfan, and I know the Prime Minister shares that fear. The majority of the dangerous tips are in my local authority area. I just wonder whether he would be prepared to meet me, the leader of the local council and the other Members from Rhondda Cynon Taf, specifically to discuss how we can make sure that all those tips are safe. I really do ask him for that meeting.

  [Source]

• 12 Nov 2020: Business of the House

  On disused coal tips, the Leader of the House knows well that a large part of the Tylorstown tip fell into the river at the beginning of the year, after Storm Dennis. I understand that the Coal Authority, a UK Government agency, has done some investigation of all the disused coal tips in the country. There are some 2,000 in Wales alone, but there is no full list of coal tips in every part of the country. Could we have a debate on this subject as a matter of urgency? I have a terrible fear that with further climate change problems, we will see more coal tip landslides. Of course, we want to make sure that people’s houses and livelihoods are safe, but if we do not even know the nature of the problem, we cannot work out how much money there is for it. I have written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer; could the Leader of the House encourage him to see me before the spending review is compete?

  [Source]

• 3 Mar 2020: Energy-Intensive Industries: Decarbonisation

  11:55

  Will the Government help to decarbonise the Rhondda? I ask because following the flooding we have seen significant landslides on former coal sites. I do not want to overstate this, but there is some anxiety about what that might mean for the future and stability of some of these tips. Will the Minister make sure that the Secretary of State meets me and other MPs in affected areas to make sure that the Coal Authority is doing everything in its power to make sure everybody is safe?

  [Source]

• 1 May 2019: Environment and Climate Change

  14:08

  Does my right hon. Friend agree that one of the most disturbing aspects of this climate emergency is that some of the poorest people in the world live on the land that is closest to the rising sea levels? Anyone who is concerned about mass migration today should be truly worried about this crisis, because millions of those people are going to be travelling many miles to try to find a safe place with clean drinking water where they can make a home for themselves.

  [Source]

• 9 Jun 2016: Business of the House

  10:06

  Our Opposition day debate, as the Leader of the House announced, will be on the economic benefits of the UK’s membership of the European Union, because the last thing our very fragile economic recovery needs is the prolonged bout of uncertainty and the self-inflicted recession that Brexit would undoubtedly bring. We always achieve far more by our common endeavour than by going it alone. John Donne was right that no man is an island, and these islands are not a hermetically sealed unit. If we want to tackle climate change, environmental degradation, international crime and terrorism; if we want a seat at the table when the major decisions affecting our continent are made; if we want to shape Europe and fashion our own destiny: we have to lead Europe, not leave it.

  [Source]

• 6 Sep 2012: Immigration

  15:30

  We could encourage more people to leave the country and make them emigrate by increasing the threshold for settlement to more than £35,000, but that would touch only some 3,000 people at best. We could curtail non-EU migration, but not without cutting demand. According to many employers, the danger is that they would simply seek to employ more EU migrants. The key point is that we have to deal with demand for migrant labour in the UK. For instance, we need to deal with pay and conditions in many parts of the country, so that it makes sense for British people to work. We need to ensure that people have the skills to be able to take the jobs in key industries such as construction and hospitality that are currently being taken by migrants. We also have to tackle the vectors of mass migration around the world, particularly war, famine, poverty and climate change. On that basis, I do not think it would be right to support the motion.

  [Source]

• 21 Feb 2012: Remuneration of EU Staff

  I think that his tie and mine are from the same shop. In fact, I know they are. The hon. Gentleman read out a long list of places where he thought there should be either no representation or minimal representation, including Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea has a high level of representation because it has the second largest rain forest in the world, and it is essential to climate change work. If the EU is to perform its work effectively, it needs representation there, and I hope that the Minister will not succumb to easy attacks.

  [Source]

• 12 Dec 2011: Immigration

  19:18

  One other potential vector, which other hon. Members have addressed on other occasions, is climate change. If the seas of the world rise because of climate change, there is a strong likelihood that some of the poorest people in the world will not only want to move but have no choice but to do so, because many of their homes are in the most exposed areas.

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• 3 Jun 2010: European Affairs

  The hon. Member for Bermondsey and Old Southwark said that the Liberal Democrats had never argued for the euro. Perhaps the party did not all the time, but the new Chief Secretary, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change did. It is good to see them on the road to Damascus, but it would sometimes be nice to hear a little less sanctimony from them.

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• 6 Apr 2010: Argentina

  We have a very close and productive relationship with Argentina on a range of issues, including in the G20, on climate change, sustainable development and counter-proliferation. We have absolutely no doubts whatever about our sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, nor over the islanders’ right to develop a hydrocarbon industry within Falkland waters.

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• 30 Mar 2010: General Affairs and Foreign Affairs Councils

  The Foreign Secretary set out the UK’s support for the EAS as a shared project and a great opportunity. The EAS needed to have the capacity to add value and this should include having a complementary role on cross-cutting policy issues such as climate change and migration. He stressed the need for merit based appointments.

  The Presidency (Mr. Moratinos) invited comments on the draft European Council conclusions covering Europe 2020 and climate change.

  Climate Change

  On climate change, the Foreign Secretary led a number of member states in stressing the need to maintain ambition, implement the Copenhagen accord and move forward on fast start financing and mitigation/adaptation.

  [Source]

• 22 Mar 2010: General Affairs Council and Foreign Affairs Council (22 March)

  The GAC will present and discuss the draft Council conclusions for the spring European Council on the 25 and 26 March including points on EU2020 and climate change. On EU2020, we will seek to make progress on the agreement of a comprehensive European economic strategy that delivers strong, sustainable and balanced growth. On climate change, we will seek to ensure continued international focus on the goal of a legally binding treaty.

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• 2 Mar 2010: EU General and Foreign Affairs Councils

  The European Council agenda will consist of the Europe 2020 strategy for jobs and growth and climate change. The Government welcome the presidency’s choice of topics. The UK agreed that leaders needed continuously to pay attention to economic policy—but in order to make sure that a strategic view and assessment of progress could be made, a dedicated annual economic summit was needed; otherwise, the risk was that strategic consideration of economic policy would be derailed by events. The presidency expressed the need for progress on Europe 2020 at the spring European Council, to show that the EU could deliver for its citizens.

  Climate change

  The discussion covered the 11 February informal European Council and preparations for the spring European Council. President van Rompuy expressed satisfaction with the 11 February summit, although the dominance of economic issues had left work unfinished on climate change and Haiti, which the GAC and European Council would need to follow up.

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• 2 Mar 2010: UK-Argentina Relations

  We have a productive relationship on a range of issues, including in the G20, such as climate change, sustainable development and counter-proliferation. We hope that current tensions over the Falklands will not escalate and undermine our co-operation on other issues.

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• 24 Feb 2010: Mongolia (UK Relations)

  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.

  [Source]

• 2 Feb 2010: General Affairs Council and Foreign Affairs Council

  Spain (Moratinos) presented the priorities for their presidency, including economic recovery and sustainable growth, the post-Lisbon 2020 strategy, and climate change. We welcome the Spanish presidency’s choice of priorities, in particular the focus on economic recovery with a low carbon, social agenda at its core.

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• 29 Jan 2010: European Union in 2010

  At the heart of any sustainable recovery must be measures to assist transition to a low-carbon economy. It is essential that the political agreement on emissions reductions and climate financing reached at the Copenhagen climate conference in December 2009 is now transformed effectively into a binding legal treaty. The Spanish presidency must be at the heart of EU work on this; the UK will support the presidency in ensuring agreements are turned into action.

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• 21 Jan 2010: General Affairs Council and Foreign Affairs Council

  The Spanish presidency will present its programme and priorities. Supporting Europe’s economic recovery, in particular through developing the new EU strategy for jobs and growth (EU 2020), will be a high priority for Spain. The presidency will also focus on the international stage, with a number of full EU summits, and preparation for the UN millennium development goals summit in September. We look to Spain to provide continued EU leadership on climate change and implementing the Copenhagen accord. Finally, Spain will focus on the rights of EU citizens by implementing the Stockholm programme on Justice and Home Affairs and continue work on implementing the Lisbon treaty.

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• 19 Jan 2010: Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

  The amendments show not just a fatal inability to draft decent legislation, but an Opposition who have a wholly dangerous degree of Euro-fundamentalism at their heart. Why have the Opposition insisted on only European treaties being subject to a referendum? Why have they not included any treaty that limits—albeit voluntarily—the UK’s power to act? Why not, for instance, include a referendum on the UK-US extradition treaty? Why not include treaties on reform of the International Monetary Fund or the United Nations? Why not include a referendum on any climate change treaty that comes about later this year? The trouble is that there is no principle to the Conservatives’ position; if there is, it is one of swivel-eyed, obsessive Pavlovian, dogmatic and fundamentalist objection to anything that even mentions the European Union.

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• 13 Jan 2010: China

  The hon. Member for Banbury started by referring to Copenhagen. Several hon. Members, including my hon. Friend the Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey (Derek Wyatt), suggested that there might have been a complete failure on the British part and that we somehow did not know what the Chinese were thinking. We certainly did. On many occasions last year, Ministers here expressed our profound concern about the direction in which China was moving in relation to climate change. Many of us tried to put the argument to China that the threat to it from climate change is significant in terms of internal migration and migration from low-lying areas around the world, and that it is in China’s interest to get it right.

  The hon. Member for Mid-Norfolk said that ambassadors sometimes do not have much wriggle room; that is also true of Chinese delegations. Perhaps if there had been more wriggle room in Copenhagen, we would have got closer to a better and stronger set of agreements. I know that many more vulnerable nations were upset that the equity argument about climate change—namely, that the poorest people in the world will be most dramatically affected by it, whether in Bangladesh or on islands in the Pacific that are likely to disappear under the ocean—did not carry as much weight with China as it perhaps should have done, especially in light of the argument that China wants a harmonious world according to its own understanding.

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See all Parliamentary Speeches Mentioning Climate