17. To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the contribution of the EU to securing international agreement at Bali on action to tackle climate change. (175908)

At Bali we reached an historic agreement. For the first time all countries agreed to start negotiations to achieve a global climate deal by 2009.

EU leadership was central. Last March EU leaders committed Europe to becoming the first low carbon major economy by setting ambitious targets for reducing EU greenhouse gas emissions; and they set out the key elements of the future framework, reflected in the Bali action plan.