The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee has launched a call for evidence for its inquiry to follow up on the proposals of Climate Assembly UK, published in September 2020.
This focuses on how far the Government, and other stakeholders, have engaged on the findings of the assembly and how far Ministers have made progress in developing the policies and measures which implement the Assembly’s proposals.
The call for evidence was made ahead of a public evidence hearing with stakeholders and a Government Minister, to take place in the coming months.
Darren Jones, Chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, commented on the announcement: “Climate Assembly UK produced a ground-breaking report with a clear steer on the path we all need to take to achieve net zero.
“The Climate Assembly put forward a series of pragmatic principles to inform the decisions we will take, as citizens and as a society, on questions about how we eat and what we buy, to the heating of our homes, and how we conduct business and travel.
“The Climate Assembly’s report is a unique body of evidence which highlights a degree of consensus on the journey the UK will need to follow to reduce our carbon emissions.
“The Government needs to take this action forward and map out a just transition that meets the scale of the challenge and seeks the popular consent of the people.
“On the BEIS Committee, we are keen to examine how far the Government, and stakeholders, across business, energy, and the environmental sectors and beyond, have engaged with the Climate Assembly report.
“The Climate Assembly was a call for the Government to lead – in our inquiry, we want to review the progress the Government has made in implementing the Climate Assembly’s proposals.”
In addition to this inquiry, the BEIS Committee is undertaking scrutiny of the Climate Assembly proposals within the context of separate inquiries on decarbonising heat in homes and on net-zero and the COP26 UN climate conference.
The Committee is also reportedly likely to consider Climate Assembly proposals in its future work relating to net zero and the green recovery and during the course of the post-pandemic economic growth inquiry.
Climate Assembly UK was commissioned jointly by six select committees, including the BEIS Committee, in the 2017-19 Parliament to inform the House and Government on potential pathways to achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
The Committee welcomes evidence on the following questions:
- Has Climate Assembly UK (both its process and recommendations) been helpful to your work (or the work of your organisation), and if so, how?
- What impact has Climate Assembly UK had across your sector, and more widely?
- How do you perceive Climate Assembly UK to have affected the work of Government since the Assembly’s report was published (10 September 2020)? To what extent do the Government’s actions since then reflect Climate Assembly UK’s recommendations?
- What would a good response to Climate Assembly UK from the Government look like? What would a good response from Parliament look like?
The closing date for submissions is 10 May 2021.
More information about this inquiry and how to take part is available on the UK Parliament website.
