H.E. Mr. Paul Johnston:

Clearly, the overall imperatives remain the same or if they do not, they have evolved in the same way, that is, there is an imperative to move towards decarbonisation for the sake of protecting the planet and an imperative to move towards much greater energy independence given the Russia-Ukraine situation. For geopolitical and climate reasons, it is an urgent priority for us to balance our economy, move away from dependence on fossil fuels and follow the path of decarbonisation. The UK and the EU will clearly do that in different ways with respect to sovereignty and autonomous policymaking but we will be driven by the same impulses. In various areas we will see opportunities for co-operation in different ways. For example, the UK has rejoined the North Seas Energy Co-operation forum. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, played an important part in taking that forward, including when Ireland was chairing the forum. It is not a UK-EU grouping as such. It is the UK with a number of EU countries working together on energy co-operation. In the fields of energy policy, industrial policy and elsewhere, we will see the UK and the EU, formally speaking, charting their own courses, but being aware that we are working on the single challenge that can legitimately be defined as a global challenge, that is, the challenge of stopping excessive temperature rises and climate change.