A service from mySociety A service from mySociety

TheyWorkForYou

Menu

Climate Change: Copenhagen Conference

House of Lords written question – answered at on 14 January 2010.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Lord Browne of Madingley Lord Browne of Madingley Crossbench

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether further countries will sign the Copenhagen Accord; and whether they have taken steps to encourage other nations to sign up before the 31 January deadline for submission of emission-reduction plans.

Photo of Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Deputy Leader of the House of Lords, House of Lords, Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change, Minister of State (Department of Energy and Climate Change), Deputy Leader of the House of Lords

On 11 January the UN Secretary-General held a meeting in New York to discuss climate change priorities following the Copenhagen conference. The Majority of interventions at that meeting either welcomed the Copenhagen Accord or recognised it as a building block to a future legally binding treaty.

The UK wholeheartedly associates itself with the Copenhagen Accord and will be writing to the UN to this effect. We believe this represents a real step change in global action to combat dangerous climate change.

We will be encouraging others to show the same level of support and urging all parties, including the EU, to show maximum ambition in their submissions to the appendices to the accord by 31 January.

Does this answer the above question?

Yes1 person thinks so

No1 person thinks not

Would you like to ask a question like this yourself? Use our Freedom of Information site.

House of Lords

The house of Lords is the upper chamber of the Houses of Parliament. It is filled with Lords (I.E. Lords, Dukes, Baron/esses, Earls, Marquis/esses, Viscounts, Count/esses, etc.) The Lords consider proposals from the EU or from the commons. They can then reject a bill, accept it, or make amendments. If a bill is rejected, the commons can send it back to the lords for re-discussion. The Lords cannot stop a bill for longer than one parliamentary session. If a bill is accepted, it is forwarded to the Queen, who will then sign it and make it law. If a bill is amended, the amended bill is sent back to the House of Commons for discussion.

The Lords are not elected; they are appointed. Lords can take a "whip", that is to say, they can choose a party to represent. Currently, most Peers are Conservative.

majority

The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.