Separately in December 2020, following a request for advice from the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Alok Sharma, the CCC recommended that the government adopt a commitment to reduce UK territorial carbon emissions by at least 68% from 1990 to 2030, as part of the UK’s nationally determined contribution (NDC) to the UN process as specified in the Paris Agreement. Under the Paris agreement signatory countries have discretion to set their own NDCs, and some environmental activist groups had previously called for a UK NDC of a 75% reduction, whilst former CCC chair Lord Stern (speaking in an academic capacity as chair of the Grantham Institute at the London School of Economics) had suggested 70%. The Prime Minister Boris Johnson made the 69% commitment the same day as the CCC published its recommendation (3 December) and stated "We have proven we can reduce our emissions and create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process. We are taking the lead with an ambitious new target to reduce our emissions by 2030, faster than any major economy … The UK is urging world leaders to bring forward their own ambitious plans to cut emissions and set net zero targets."