On 14th February Mr Kwarteng was asked a question by my MP, Caroline Lucas and his opening couple of sentences are something that deserve being promoted by people who like me are sorry that we are leaving the EU. The question went a bit wider than this however. It was “whether he plans to make tackling climate change a priority for a future trade agreement between the EU and the UK.” The response from Kwasi Kwarteng which began with that first paragraph went on to say.

“The UK is committed to delivering our world-leading commitment to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions and end the UK’s contribution to global warming by 2050…. As we prepare to host the crucial 2020 UN climate negotiations, COP26, in Glasgow in November, we will push for ambitious action from all countries to deliver the 2015 Paris Agreement, and showcase the UK’s climate leadership.”

Of course if COP26 will only be used to revisit the 2015 Paris arrangement and to showcase our nations climate leadership, given how this week we are facing more flooding because of a lack of climate safety, then that seems to be a rather poor basis for hosting COP26. Let us hope that our willingness to go further than we have before will be adopted.