Speaking at a statement on the Copenhagen Summit by Ed Milliband, the Secretary of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change, Adrian Bailey MP again stated industrial needs of certainty in international negotiations.

The MP for West Bromwich West asked: Although I recognise that it may have been overly ambitious ever to expect a legally binding agreement from Copenhagen, the fact remains that manufacturing industry needs certainty, as my right hon. Friend said in his statement, and international uniformity if we are not to lose manufacturing to non-compliant areas. Will he undertake to have a close dialogue with manufacturing industry in the UK in order to do our best to ensure that our manufacturers do not lose out as a result of the failure to get a legally binding agreement in Copenhagen?

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Edward Miliband (Secretary of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change; Doncaster North, Labour)

My hon. Friend is right. There is the protection that we need to give to higher carbon manufacturers, which is partly to do with the provisions under the new emissions trading scheme for free allowances, for example. With reference to the comments of Mr. Gummer and others in the House, there is also the assurance that we need to give to the low carbon manufacturers of the future that a clear signal has been sent by the world on low carbon, and we want to strengthen that signal. Both of those are important, and I absolutely undertake to do what my hon. Friend asks.