Climate Change (No. 2) Bill: Consideration Stage

Part of Executive Committee Business – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 3:15 pm on 1 February 2022.

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Photo of Steve Aiken Steve Aiken UUP 3:15, 1 February 2022

I assure you that I am definitely the real Ulster Unionist and the real Ulster Unionist Party. One thing that we reflected on was that we would talk to the business community; we would talk to the agribusiness community; we would talk to the farmers. We talked to those people, and they said, time and time again, that they would not be able to get into that position. Yes, I would have liked to have a more ambitious target, but we are a party that listens. Unlike other political parties, we go out and talk to communities to achieve that aim. We listened to what was said clearly by the farming community. We listened to what was said by the agribusiness community. Having been at COP26 and, in my previous existence, having worked with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), I know that it is about realistic goals.

There are other things that we wish to see come through in the Bill. My learned friend our agriculture spokesman will talk about some of the amendments and what our position will be.