Madam President,

Congratulations on your appointment as President of this Conference. It is my great pleasure to lead the UK’s delegation this year, and to continue the close partnership between the UK Government and the IAEA.

It is with sadness that I reflect on the passing of former Director General Amano. A committed public servant and friend of the United Kingdom, he led the Agency through significant challenges and leaves a positive legacy for global peace, security and development.

Madam President,

The UK Government is committed to tackling the global challenge of climate change. We recently became the first major economy to set a target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

We believe nuclear energy will play a key role in achieving this, so our landmark Nuclear Sector Deal is bringing industry and Government together to ensure the nuclear sector thrives in the UK.

As work progresses on our new nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point C, we are exploring innovative financing models for new build projects and ways to reduce the costs of decommissioning. We are also exploring the potential of small and advanced modular reactors.

At the same time, our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy will develop new talent and a diverse workforce for the UK.

Mindful of our responsibilities to future generations, we have also launched consent-based processes to identify a location for a Geological Disposal Facility for our higher activity radioactive waste.

Madam President,

Next year’s 50th anniversary of the Non-Proliferation Treaty is an important moment to emphasise the importance of its three Pillars, and celebrate the Agency’s support for its peaceful uses and non-proliferation aspects.

The UK is among the biggest supporters of the Agency’s Technical Cooperation Programme for sustainable development. I am proud to pledge our 2020 contribution of €3.8m to the TC Fund today. I urge all Member States to join us in pledging and paying their full share.

It is right that more countries benefit from peaceful nuclear technologies. But this brings responsibilities to protect people and maintain public acceptance of nuclear energy.

If something goes wrong, whether accidental or deliberate, all States must meet their obligations to openness and transparency with their neighbours.

We strongly support the IAEA’s work to help Member States implement robust nuclear safety and security measures. To ensure our own regulations meet the highest standards, the UK will host an Integrated Regulatory Review Service mission next month. We encourage others to use IAEA advisory services.

Madam President,

The application of IAEA safeguards is indispensable for global peace and security. All States should ratify an Additional Protocol, the gold standard for safeguards agreements. The UK’s own new safeguards arrangements are ready and will ensure we continue to meet our obligations once EURATOM arrangements no longer apply to the UK.

However, some States continue to challenge the global non-proliferation system.

The UK calls on Iran to reverse its suspension of stockpile and enrichment limits and comply with its obligations under the JCPOA. We welcome the Agency’s monitoring of Iranian compliance with the deal, and we remain committed to its full implementation.

North Korea’s recent missile launches and violations of UN resolutions are of great concern. We are clear that sanctions must remain in place until North Korea takes concrete steps towards denuclearisation. Finally, Syria has not met its safeguards obligations since 2011. This issue must remain on the Board’s agenda until Syria returns to full compliance with its obligations.

Madam President,

The UK will continue to give the Secretariat, and the future Director General, our full support in fulfilling the Agency’s unique and important role.

Thank you.

The Environment Agency has begun work to improve existing habitat and to create new areas to increase the amount of good habitat available for ground nesting breeding birds and feeding waders at RSPB Sandwell Valley. The work is part of the Perry Barr and Witton flood scheme.

The work has been designed in partnership with the RSPB who manage the site and who have been monitoring the wildlife using the area. It includes increasing the amount of island edge in the lake by creating areas of shallow water and gradually sloping banks. An area of reedbed along the lake edge is being formed to add further habitat interest for the local wildlife.

The Sandwell Valley work is being done as part of the Perry Barr and Witton flood risk management scheme to deliver better protection to 1,379 properties. The scheme may lead to more frequent fluctuations in lake water levels. To compensate for the disturbance to wildlife the works should provide greater available habitat for the wildlife.

Work at RSPB Sandwell Valley is expected to be complete by the end of this week. The work is being complemented by habitat creation and restoration work elsewhere across the construction site and in adjacent areas. This includes woodland and hedgerow creation and management, grassland management and wetland habitat creation. Species that will benefit from the work include lapwing, little ringed plover and snipe.

Kathryn Edwards, Senior Environmental Project Manager, at the Environment Agency said:

We’re really pleased to be working with the RSPB on this project and hope it will result in many more birds nesting at, and visiting, the site.

The Perry Barr and Witton flood scheme will bring benefits for people and wildlife.

• A new UK aid programme will fight diseases in 25 of the world’s poorest countries
• Support will target five Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) which cause disability and death
• Baroness Sugg announced the programme at a speech at the Neglected Tropical Disease NGO Network Conference in Liverpool

A new UK aid package will help protect 200 million people worldwide from debilitating diseases, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Baroness Sugg has announced today.

Speaking at the Neglected Tropical Disease NGO Network Conference in Liverpool, Baroness Sugg announced that the £220 million will tackle five of the world’s worst Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), which can cause disability, death and disfigurement and trap victims in a cycle of poverty. These are lymphatic filariasis (also known as elephantiasis); onchocerciasis; schistosomiasis; visceral leishmaniasis and trachoma.

These diseases affect over a billion people worldwide, stopping adults from working and children from going to school, and are estimated to cost developing economies billions of pounds every year in lost productivity.

Today’s Department for International Development (DFID) package will deliver 600 million treatments to prevent NTDs as a vital step towards their elimination. It will aim to eliminate visceral leishmaniasis from Asia by 2022. The programme will also help national governments to tackle these diseases themselves in future.

International Development Minister Baroness Sugg said:

These debilitating – but preventable – diseases stop sufferers from working, studying and leading prosperous, healthy lives.

This new UK aid support will stop hundreds of millions of people suffering unnecessarily from treatable conditions. It shows how the UK is helping to lead the way in tackling deadly global diseases more generally, including polio and malaria.

Last year, UK aid provided treatment or care to over 140 million people suffering from Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Sightsavers’ Director of Neglected Tropical Diseases Simon Bush said:

More than a billion people are at risk of neglected tropical diseases – a group of conditions which are completely preventable and easy to treat, yet cause agony, disability and often trap people in a cycle of poverty.

Thanks to DFID’s new flagship programme announced today we will be able to treat, control and even eliminate more of them than we have ever before. It is an unprecedented programme working on a scale and scope I have never seen, tackling five diseases in 25 countries and making a long-lasting impact on global health.

Crown Agents’ Chief Executive Officer, Fergus Drake said:

We are delighted to have the opportunity to take forward the UK Department for International Development’s flagship health programme to accelerate the control and elimination of neglected tropical diseases across southern and eastern Africa, and south Asia.

The programme is committed to leaving no one behind and will help to transform the lives of millions of individuals suffering from these debilitating diseases – enabling them to participate in economic and domestic activities once more.

In the long term the programme will contribute to improving health systems and building greater capacity in governments for sustainable response to these diseases.

Notes to editors

• Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are a significant cause of poverty, causing suffers to lose their livelihoods and face stigma.

• In 2017, the UK announced new funding of £360 million over five years to control and eliminate NTDs. The £220 million funding announced today is an allocation from DFID’s flagship NTD programme, which comes from this £360 million support.

• Sightsavers and Crown Agents will implement the programme working with partners including the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

• The programme will also provide £6.5 million of funding to the World Health Organisation to tackle NTDs.

Case Study – the stigma of NTDs

Muhammed Abubakar, a tailor from the Kebbi region of Nigeria, has lived with lymphedema for over 10 years. The parasitic disease, spread by mosquito bite, caused his legs and feet to swell to more than double their normal size. It became so painful he found it difficult to push the foot peddle on his sewing machine.

Muhammed faced much stigma and he lost customers, who feared they could catch his condition if he handled their clothes.

The tailor visited hospitals and traditional doctors but received no diagnosis or help until 2017 when he was treated under a UK Aid Match funded programme tackling lymphatic filariasis. He was given a basic care package containing antibacterial and antifungal cream, soap, a washing bowl and a towel, and taught how to treat it himself.

In just four weeks the swelling began to subside. Muhammed’s feet were once around 22 cm in circumference, but have now returned to a more normal size of 13 cm. He is able to spend more time doing his job and his income has gone up. He can also socialise and play football again.

Environment Agency state aid exemption from the European Commission relating to a grant for remediation of a West Midlands contaminated site.