Cop26 unit cut amid work on progress
The number of officials working on the Cop26 climate change agenda will be cut by around a third despite important work being carried out to secure the commitments made at the Glasgow summit, Alok Sharma said.
The Cop26 president said around 220 people had been working in the team within the Cabinet Office, but that would be cut to around 140-150.
The UK'S presidency of Cop - the United Nations Conference of the Parties - continues until the next summit in Egypt in November, and Mr Sharma said he would be working to make sure the plans made at Glasgow last year come to fruition.
Mr Sharma told the Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee that in "steady state" around 220 people had been working in the Cop unit within the Cabinet Office, supported by officials across Government departments and the diplomatic network.
Setting out the reduction in staffing, he told the peers: "Obviously what we don't have to do this year is organise a big conference.
"And so our view is that we are looking at 140-150 people during this year again, a good number of people - but I think that if we want to deliver and work with countries to deliver on all of these commitments we are going to need that level of commitment within the Cop unit itself."
Mr Sharma said he would be travelling to Egypt this week to discuss the progress towards the Sharm El-sheikh summit in November.
He said the Glasgow Climate Pact had kept alive the goal of limiting climate change to below 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.