The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (David Miliband):
Thanks to strong UK leadership during our G8 and EU presidencies, the international framework is now in place to deliver actions such as emissions trading that are needed to combat climate change.

I have already announced the UK’s proposal for the next period of the EU’s emissions trading scheme, delivering additional savings of 8 million tonnes of carbon each year. Emissions trading is here to stay and the Government are committed to making it work and to extending it to new sectors, as well as exporting its benefits to other parts of the world that may be interested. Our actions to date have given us leverage as we press for a new international agreement on stabilising carbon emissions.

Mark Lazarowicz:
It is obviously welcome that some progress was made at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg on issues that were on the agenda, but what are the prospects of getting countries outside the European Union involved in such a scheme? There has been talk about a wider international scheme for some time, and Britain has been taking the lead on the issue, but matters are moving forward fairly slowly—they need to be brought forward much more quickly. I would be grateful if the Minister indicated what progress has been made outside Europe as well as within the European Union.