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Minister questioned on UK progress on reducing F-Gas emissions

12 December 2017

The Environmental Audit Committee continues its inquiry on UK progress on reducing F-Gas emissions. This session hears from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, the Environment Agency, the NHS and pharmaceutical companies.

Witnesses

Tuesday 12 December, Grimond Room, Portcullis House

At 10.15am

  • Dr Thérèse Coffey MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
  • Liz Parkes, Deputy Director for Climate Change and Business Services, Environment Agency

At 11.30am

  • Jerome Baddley, Head of NHS Sustainable Development Unit
  • Richard Lomax, Sustainability Projects Analyst & Programme Manager, NHS Sustainable Development Unit
  • Neil Barnes, Global Franchise Medical Head, Respiratory Franchise, GlaxoSmithKline
  • Stuart Corr, Mexichem UK Ltd, Techno-Commercial Director
  • Dr Noel Baxter, Clinical Director for Quality and Service Improvement, NHS Southwark Clinical Commissioning Group

Purpose of the session

This session will focus on UK progress to date in reducing F-gas emissions and issues associated with enforcing relevant regulations.  It will examine the options facing the UK after it leaves the EU, in terms of maintaining or going further than existing targets and what it will mean in terms of devolution.

It will also look at the impact that leaving the EU will have on the UK's international agreements, such as the Montreal Protocol and the Kigali Amendment, which seek to combat F-gas emissions

The second panel will concentrate on the issues surrounding a move from Metered Dose Inhalers (MDIs), which contain F-gases with a high global warming potential (GWP), to lower GWP alternatives.

Millions of MDIs are prescribed each year for a range of respiratory conditions and have been identified by the NHS as representing a carbon ‘hot spot'. The Committee is interested in this as a good example of an area where progress on reducing F-gas emissions can be made.

Further information

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