Welcome to Green Alliance's podcast. We are the charity and think tank that's all about achieving ambitious leadership for the environment.

In this episode, we bring you the highlights of our recent event exploring whether the UK can continue to work on climate diplomacy with the EU after Brexit.

We ask how Norway and Switzerland collaborate with the EU after Brexit.

We ask how Norway and Switzerland collaborate with the EU on ambitious global climate action today.

For the discussion, we were joined by Norway's former climate minister,

Fidharthelgesen, the Swiss Energy Ambassador Jean-Christop Fouig, and the UK's negotiator at the 2015 Paris climate conference, Pete Betts.

Our host was Polly Billington.

First, I'd like to introduce Pete to start the conversation.

Okay, thank you very much, Polly.

So this is my first engagement as a private citizen.

I left the government last Tuesday.

I have half the members of my team scattered around the audience smirking at me.

What I'm basically going to argue very briefly is I think there is a strong case for very close integration between the EU and the UK, you know,

whether, in whatever form of Brexit that is, there's a, the case, the substantive case is strong.

Unless we get sort of extreme scenarios of Brexit doesn't happen or there's a hard, hard Brexit,

then I think we are going to have to think creatively

about what a bespoke solution could look like for the UK, and we shouldn't just look at

existing models. So will Brexit weaken UK climate ambition was the first question. I think the

chances of that are slimmer than,

or sort of violent change than in other areas. We have a very strong statutory framework.

We have some of the most ambitious targets in the world. I think it would take a, it would be

very hard in the, you know, you need primary legislation to change that statutory framework.

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