International Agreements Committee

15 September 2026

Contents updated on 15 Sept 2026

The committee sets out its scrutiny role on possible UK re‑accession to UNIDO, probes what has changed since withdrawal, and examines UNIDO’s internal reforms, funding situation and contribution to energy access, UN reform and digital innovation for industrial development and climate resilience.

Committee Tue, 15 Sept 2026 Actual start 13:45 House of Lords

18:22 - 19:40

Speaker 1

Well, thank you very much. We're extremely pleased to welcome the three of you today to talk about UNIDO and our rejoining of that organisation, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation. And for the benefit of my colleagues, we have presenting evidence today Manuel Mattiat, who is a Director and Chef de Cabinet of the Office of the Chef de Cabinet of UNIDO.

So thank you very much indeed for coming and presenting to us. Rana Ghoneim, who's Director, Division of Energy and Climate Action, UNIDO, and Jason Slater, who is the Director, Division of Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence at the UNIDO. Thank you very much indeed for spending some time with us today. We have a variety of different questions. The purpose of this committee is to make effective recommendations and scrutinise all treaties and agreements that the British government, UK government, enters into.

So this is a very interesting opportunity for us to hear from you the background as to why we are re-entering this organisation, and some of your peripheral comments around that will be very helpful since it will enable us to come to a good conclusion in the report that we will write and potentially a debate we may hold on the matter as well.

If I may ask Lord German to begin and ask the first question.

The rest of the transcript is for Pro customers

Unlock the full transcript, chat, and every analysis feature with Polyfact Pro.

Ask anything about this video — I analyse its transcript to answer.