Climate Change: Conferences

Mr. Redwood
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many UK Ministers and officials attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan on 13 December 2008; and what method of transportation each used.

Joan Ruddock
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference in Poznan in December 2009, known as the 14th Conference of the Parties (or COP14) was attended by two Ministers and 45 officials. Delegates attended from different Departments across Whitehall to ensure the full range of issues could be addressed by UK experts. Of the total, 33 delegates attended from the Department of Energy and Climate Change

The Ministers in attendance were Secretary of State Ed Miliband, and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Joan Ruddock.

The 47 delegates travelled to and from Poznan in the following proportions:

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|                                                             |Number|
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|By air to Warsaw and rail to Poznan                          |16    |
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|By air to Poznan, including both Ed Miliband and Joan Ruddock|30    |
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|By rail from the British embassy in Warsaw                   |1     |
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All emissions resulting from DECC's international commitments are offset. In April 2006 the UK developed a Government Carbon Offsetting Fund (GCOF) as part of the wider UK Sustainable Development Strategy to meet the commitment to offset emissions arising from official and ministerial air travel.