International Mother Earth Day

Baroness Blackstone Excerpts

Monday 22nd April 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

Protecting natural resources in sub-Saharan Africa continues to be a focus for the United Kingdom. Our support includes the Investments in Forest and Sustainable Land Use program. This is mobilising private investment into forest protection, restoration and sustainable land use. Its highly successful first phase, which ran from 2017 to 2024, operated in eastern, west and central Africa. Our Biodiverse Landscapes Fund aims to reduce poverty and protect and restore biodiversity in environmentally critical landscapes, including the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area and areas in Madagascar and the western Congo Basin. There are many other examples but those are two, to answer my noble friend’s point.

[Baroness Blackstone (Lab)]

My Lords, given the importance of deforestation as far as climate is concerned, can the Minister celebrate Earth Day by publishing this week the Schedule 17 forest risk due diligence regulations? He assured the House before Easter that they would be published shortly, so why not this week?

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

This forest risk commodities regulation is a good news story and the UK has been pushing for it. The publication of the statutory instrument is imminent and the House will be able to debate it. The UK will be one of the countries at the forefront of introducing sensible, well consulted regulations that will protect forests by making sure that supply chains are rigorously enforced.

UK-African Investment Summit

Baroness Blackstone Excerpts

Thursday 18th April 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

Sorry, into prosperity—I got that wrong. In co-ordination with our ODA programme, we are seeing the UK as a major influence in that continent, and we want to see that continue.

[Baroness Blackstone (Lab)]

The Minister mentioned earlier the high proportion of the population of African countries under the age of 25, and that is particularly true of poorer countries. In many of those countries there are high levels of unemployment among young people, which is extremely destabilising. The cancellation of this conference will hardly help in promoting economic growth through partnerships between the UK and sub-Saharan Africa. Could he at least tell us what the Government will do to try to support countries to reduce this very high level of population growth, which is potentially so damaging?

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

We have a range of tools in that respect, but it is mostly done through our ODA money. There is a lot of support particularly for women and girls. I refer the noble Baroness to the White Paper that was published towards the end of last year, which addresses precisely the point of trying to increase female empowerment and supporting women and girls; if you are doing the right thing for them, you are usually doing the right thing for everyone. The most important aspect of raising Africa out of poverty is to see more stability in the region. There are some horrendous conflicts going on, and we are active in trying to resolve them.

Israel and Gaza

Baroness Blackstone Excerpts

Thursday 21st March 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

I totally agree with my noble friend, and that is why we have impressed, and my noble friend the Foreign Secretary has made clear, that a key component of the key deliverables for a sustainable peace is a political horizon towards the two-state solution, which includes—as the Saudi Foreign Minister rightly said—irreversible steps to that solution. There is a real willingness and recognition of the need—I know that many in your Lordships’ House who know the Palestinians and Israelis would agree—to ensure security, stability and peace between both peoples, and that can be delivered only through a viable two-state solution.

[Baroness Blackstone (Lab)]

My Lords, I return to the funding of UNRWA. I found the Minister’s response to my noble friend Lord Collins a little disappointing, given the concern that he and the Foreign Secretary have justifiably expressed about the urgency of getting humanitarian aid into Gaza and distributing it. Is he aware of just how much experience and expertise UNRWA has in this—far greater than any other group he could name? There are UNRWA people on the ground who can do the distribution. Is he also aware that our allies, Canada, Spain and others, who suspended funding to UNRWA have now restored it? What is preventing the UK Government restoring it and consistently pushing policies that will do something about the humanitarian disaster in Gaza?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

My Lords, I assure the noble Baroness that we are fully seized of our engagement with UNRWA. I have spoken several times to Philippe Lazzarini, the director of UNRWA, as has the Development Minister, and we will continue to engage directly on the importance of mitigations, as I outlined to the noble Lord, Lord Collins. I fully agree with the noble Baroness—I said it again today—about the important role that UNRWA has played; I have said from the Dispatch Box that it has been the backbone of the humanitarian operation in Gaza and continues to provide important support.

I will make two points, though. We have not suspended humanitarian support in Gaza: additional money, now more than £100 million, continues to flow in. We have delivered over land, and the noble Baroness will know that we have also delivered through air and maritime routes. But we have been pressing the Israeli Government, with a degree of success and through working with the World Food Programme, for example, to ensure that aid is delivered, and we are working with other key partners on that. The important thing, as the UN and the Secretary-General recognise, is that those concerns, raised by the United Kingdom and others, allow UNRWA to move forward in a progressive way, with those important mitigations in place so that this chapter cannot be repeated.

Situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Baroness Blackstone Excerpts

Tuesday 30th January 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

I certainly do. That is the first step in a road out of this sorry saga that we all want to see achieved. I cannot imagine—well, I can imagine what it is like for the families, because on two occasions I have met them, and I am due to meet some more this week. Noble Lords can understand the emotion. When you meet them, it is absolutely a searing realisation of the true brutality of those events and the continuous misery for those families, including the parents of a child who is around one year old. You can only imagine what they feel about that.

On my noble friend’s point about democracy, he is absolutely right. As we can see daily in our newspapers, Israel is a vibrant democracy. There are future changes perhaps—we do not know—but we will support whoever is the legitimate Government of Israel to help to find a solution to this. My noble friend is also right that it has been 18 years, I think, since free and fair elections, or elections, have taken place in Gaza. The Hamas controlling body has no democratic authority. We want to make sure that the future of Gaza does not have Hamas anywhere in it.

[Baroness Blackstone (Lab)]

My Lords, while welcoming much of what the Minister has said, will he tell the House what steps the Government are taking to ensure that the Israeli Government actually respond to the request that the UK Government and the Foreign Secretary are now making about an immediate cessation of hostilities to allow for more aid to get in, for hostages to get out and above all for the slaughter to stop with a view to turning this into a permanent sustainable ceasefire, which is demanded by more and more countries and by public opinion in this country? Has the time not come for the UK to cease trading in arms with Israel while it continues to kill thousands of civilians, as we have heard, 70% of whom are women and children, which my noble friend Lord Collins has described from the Front Bench as a humanitarian disaster?

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

We are very concerned with the immediate days—hours, even—of this emerging saga. Whatever any Minister says at any Dispatch Box is very often out of date by the time he or she sits down. First of all, we absolutely accept that Israel has the right to defend itself against the vile terrorism that it suffered on 7 October. We have very strict rules in this country and fantastic oversight, in this place and beyond, of our arms trading arrangements. Any Government should apply those oversights to it, and we do. But it is absolutely vital that we concentrate on the immediate problem, which is getting those hostages released. I pay tribute to the Government of Qatar for their support and great expertise in achieving this. Those who have been involved in the Northern Ireland issue over the years know how galling it is when you see people that you know have done terrible things being swapped for victims of terrorism who have done no wrong. But it does require an enormous amount of courage and determination to make sure that we can get these hostages out and move forward to sustainable, lasting peace.

Climate Change: Impact on Developing Nations

Baroness Blackstone Excerpts

Thursday 11th January 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blackstone (Lab)]

My Lords, we see all too often the terrible impact of climate change on developing countries, from devastating floods in Pakistan to appalling droughts in a number of African countries. Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland, has eloquently set out the impact of climate change on various groups, above all on the poorest of the poor in low-income developing countries. Surely a rich country such as the UK should be doing more to allocate new resources—I emphasise, new funding—rather than recycling money from other development aid allocations, greatly diminishing their impact.

It is also a regret that the Government have reneged on their original pledge to stop new oil and gas installations. It is damaging to our international reputation to increase reliance on fossil fuels, rather than investing in renewables and nuclear power. This of course led to the resignation of a much-respected Climate Change Minister. My first question to the Minister today is: why do the Government continue to provide generous subsidies and tax breaks to oil and gas companies, which are already making profits running into billions? A loophole in the Government’s windfall tax is said to result in £11.9 billion of tax relief for fossil fuel companies in the North Sea. Will the Government close this loophole and allocate the resulting savings to development aid to counter the effects of climate change in poor countries?

I turn now to the Government’s record on climate change finance for developing countries. So many times, we have been told that the Government will return when circumstances permit to 0.7% of GNI for development aid from the current 0.5%. I ask again what the criteria are for the circumstances in which that will be possible. Would the Minister also accept that the international aid budget is being decimated by the decision to cover the cost of asylum seekers and Ukrainian refugees from this source? The combination of these two decisions by the Government has meant massive cuts in many sectors where aid is desperately needed, including a failure to meet government pledges on mitigating climate change in poor countries. Given that the extreme effects of climate change are a fairly new challenge, is there not a case for establishing a special budget for it, beyond existing ODA spending?

Other speakers referred to the international development White Paper, published in November. The recommendations, including on climate change, were mainly welcomed when we debated the White Paper in this House. Regrettably, the Government’s approach does not now seem likely to meet their White Paper aspirations. In 2019, the Government pledged to spend £11.6 billion of the ODA budget on climate finance. Instead of a straightforward allocation of funding to meet this pledge, this Government have found various ways to massage the figures. They have expanded what they categorise as climate finance, increased the risk of double counting and backloaded greater proportions of spending to future years, so that the next Government—whoever they may be—will be landed with extra spending.

There are two good examples of this manipulation. First, the Government are including a share of their contributions to multilateral development banks, such as the World Bank, as climate finance. Secondly, as the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, said, they are going to count more funding going to British International Investment as climate finance. NGOs such as Oxfam and Save the Children have justifiably criticised the Government for reclassifying climate finance in ways that are vague in transparency and accountability. Save the Children calculates that these measures, along with increasing the share of humanitarian aid classified as climate finance, amount to a cut of £1.6 billion to the UK’s climate finance. The Minister is shaking his head, but perhaps he can comment on these claims by the NGOs.

Lastly, I want to turn to the loss and damage mechanism by which higher-emitting nations may help address losses in poor regimes, which are the least responsible for climate change. In contrast to adaptation and mitigation, which help poor countries change their own practices, loss and damage finance relates to areas over which they have little or no control, such as sea level rises or extreme weather events. The UK pledged finance for the loss and damage fund at COP 28, which was welcome. I believe it pledged £60 million to this fund but, yet again, it is financing it by taking funding from existing mitigation and adaptation funding. What is the point of robbing Peter to pay Paul?

I end by saying that poor countries are calculated to have been responsible for only around 5% of global emissions over time. They deserve a better response. There is an overwhelming humanitarian case for generosity. It is also in our long-term interest to avoid the future global disruption entailed by millions of climate change refugees.

International Development White Paper

Baroness Blackstone Excerpts

Thursday 23rd November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

My Lords, I recognise the noble Baroness’s work in this area and I agree with her. The noble Baroness will know directly about my commitment, as the Minister responsible for the very objectives she has outlined. Notwithstanding the takeover by the Taliban, and even in advance of that when we had the Covid pandemic, the United Kingdom sustained important funding to teachers in Afghanistan, particularly those focused on girls’ education. We have also continued to work, albeit at times discreetly, to protect those agencies delivering girls’ education in certain regions of Afghanistan, through both funding and technical support. I agree with the noble Baroness about innovative ways of delivery. Ultimately, whether it is Afghanistan, the United Kingdom or any other country around the world, a country will succeed only when it harnesses the true potential of every one of its citizens. Ignoring 50% of the population is no way to achieve progress.

[Baroness Blackstone (Lab)]

My Lords, I welcome a great deal about this White Paper, but there have been massive cuts to the development aid to advance women’s sexual and reproductive rights, as far as their health is concerned, since the aid budget plummeted from 0.7% to 0.5% of gross national income. I note that the White Paper is going extend work in this area, and the Minister has said a little about that. Can he say how and where this is going to happen, and how much extra funding is going to be available? Can he also say whether it is going to cover safe abortion, which he did not mention? Does the Minister think that funding from the private sector, which he and the White Paper emphasised, is going to provide any resources for this area?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

On all the questions that the noble Baroness raises, what we have first of all done in terms of framework, without going into the specifics of country, is that for all posts and departments within the FCDO, the commitment is that UK ODA will ensure the delivery of 80% commitment by considering women and girls in every element of their different programmes. The Foreign Secretary recently wrote to heads of mission on this specific point to ensure that submissions that are put back to the centre on business plans reflect that every post is committed to that particular element.

The noble Baroness also talked about sexual and reproductive health within our women and girls strategy. That is a specific objective and priority, and is a key component, again, within my work on preventing sexual violence in conflict. I can give the assurance that we have instructed and have been looking at programmes with that framework. As for some of the programmes in specific countries, if the noble Baroness has particular countries she wants to follow up on, I will of course highlight where we are able to work in these areas.

I would go as far as to say that there has been, at times, regression in this area of women and girls’ rights all over the globe, including sometimes among people you would expect more from. Part of our job is not just to speak about it but to deliver some of these outcomes. Let us not forget also that some of these outcomes about safe abortion also have great barriers nationally, so we must find the right delivery partners to ensure that women who want to make choices of their own are able to do so in a safe environment. That is why it is important that we identify local partners who can deliver these outcomes, supported by UK financing and support.

Climate and Nature

Baroness Blackstone Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

I can give the noble Lord that reassurance. I confess that I do not remember the exact detail of our debate 10 years ago, but I am sure that Hansard has recorded it fully. We will have a Statement on the White Paper tomorrow, when I am sure we can amplify some of those lines, but I give him that reassurance. For any kind of challenge posed by climate change, whether weather-based or natural things such as earthquakes and so on, we need a consolidated, collaborative response. That needs to be reflected in our development policy.

[Baroness Blackstone (Lab)]

My Lords, climate change reduces crop yields and lowers the quality of food. This affects household and global food security, so how are the Government working with global partners to shore up good systems for food resilience?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

I agree with the noble Baroness and assure her that we are working on this. As I said in my Answer, we recognise that climate change, biodiversity loss and disease emergence are intrinsically linked. These issues need to be looked at as a whole, not separately. We work with international agencies—including the World Health Organization, which is also looking specifically at climate change and its impact on daily human lives—and we have the COP coming up, which will be an opportunity to discuss climate and its real impact on other aspects of how we go about our daily lives, including issues of food security, food safety and nutrition. As recent events around the world have demonstrated, these climate issues are big causes of conflict. However, nutrition and food security also need to be addressed.

Occupied Palestinian Territories: Humanitarian Situation

Baroness Blackstone Excerpts

Thursday 9th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

Just a point of reflection: when I was in Israel, I too saw the shock and some of the images, the videos of ordinary Israelis who were attacked during the terror attack. Equally, I was in the West Bank: we see the tragic nature of what conflict brings when we see children being buried under rubble. That means that we must be seen to be acting in a co-ordinated way. There is no option. We need now to use this extremely dark cloud over the Middle East to ensure that we get focus and pull out all the stops to ensure that there can be lasting and sustainable peace. I have already said what the Government’s vision is to ensure that happens.

On my noble friend’s point, and I recognise it, we are working directly with the Israeli authorities. He will be aware that aid going through Rafah is being co-ordinated by the Egyptians and the Israeli authorities to ensure that there is no smuggling, as the noble Lord rightly pointed out, of items. The noble Lord, Lord Collins, asked about fuel. We are seeing how we can create conditions for fuel to be delivered efficiently and effectively. We are talking to the Israelis about that. The Israelis’ checks and balances ensure that it is delivered through the agencies we are working with on the ground to the people who need it most.

[Baroness Blackstone (Lab)]

My Lords, I welcome many aspects of the Statement and that at last the Government are properly acknowledging the calamitous effects of the Israeli bombardment on Palestinian civilians in Gaza. I regret that the Statement makes no reference to the terrible toll on children, not just the many deaths and the serious injuries but the trauma they are suffering which will affect their lives for ever. Does the Minister agree with UN Under-Secretary Martin Griffiths that a war crime is being committed by the Israeli Government in Gaza? Does he also accept that far more pressure needs to be exerted on the Government of Israel, who for more than a week have resisted the call by the US and many others for humanitarian pauses? Can he tell the House how long the pauses need to be and how many are needed for there truly to be an effective and lasting impact on what is happening in Gaza?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

My Lords, I listened very carefully to what the noble Baroness said. I do not think in any Statement, or indeed in subsequent questions, such as we are doing now, that we have in any way underplayed any conflict, and this is particularly about the impact on children and children’s lives. We see it, we hear it directly and we are focused on ensuring that children are provided that glimmer of hope, but we are far from that point right now. That is why it is important that we engage directly. I talked about the additional crossing at Kerem Shalom. That is needed to allow the level of support that is currently needed because again I stress that Rafah was not the primary route for delivering humanitarian support to Gaza.

The impact on children is primary in our minds. Ensuring that we mitigate that is at the forefront of our discussions with our Israeli partners. The noble Baroness asked about the timeline. That is why we have experts deployed in Rafah right now. We have teams deployed in Jerusalem in Israel and in Rafah to ensure that the expertise, in terms of both logistics and the time needed, is amplified.

We are working directly with the likes of Martin Griffiths and others within the UN because of the time needed, for example, to establish a field hospital or to access a particular level of support for an existing facility. A cessation is required to allow time for that to be delivered. This is a matter not of minutes but of effective, well-managed and secured pauses so that delivery of aid can be sustained. I emphasise that, once it starts, it has to be sustainable.

Israel/Gaza

Baroness Blackstone Excerpts

Tuesday 24th October 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blackstone (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for so eloquently setting out the Government’s position. A group of eminent Jewish lawyers wrote a letter over a week ago to the Financial Times condemning the appalling atrocities committed by Hamas as a crime against humanity. I strongly agree. They also state that, under international law, Israel has a right to respond in self-defence and to seek justice for the awful crimes that have been committed on its soil. I agree. They continue by saying that international law and, more specifically, the rules of war should be complied with in any response, however great the crimes against them. The lawyers then list their concerns about Israel’s response, arguing, first, that it is a grave violation of international law to hold a civilian population under siege and, secondly, that international law requires ensuring minimum destruction of civilian life and infrastructure. It is essential that we live by these laws, they say, and I agree with them.

Since the publication of this letter, 2.2 million people in Gaza have been besieged without supplies of food, water, fuel and medicines, with the maximum destruction of infrastructure destroying any semblance of normality in civilian life. Israeli bombs have razed residential areas and hit schools, medical facilities, plants providing electricity and water, mosques and churches. Nearly 6,000 Palestinians have been killed, more than a third of them children, and more are unaccounted for, buried under rubble. Hospitals are struggling to cope with thousands more who have been injured, including many children.

The terrible suffering of the people of Gaza should touch us all. What has been inflicted on them is another crime against humanity. Does the Minister agree, and will the Government condemn it? The Israeli Government have also told 1.1 million Palestinian civilians to leave their homes in north Gaza and go to the south. Hundreds of thousands have left and are now homeless in the south. This amounts to mass forcible transfer, which, under the Rome statute, is a crime against humanity. Still the killing goes on, as air strikes continue across central and southern Gaza to where these civilians have been told to flee.

The Government are focused on calling for more humanitarian aid to be provided. Would it not be better to ask for a ceasefire and a lifting of the siege so that the cause of the need for ever increasing amounts of humanitarian aid might be addressed? I welcome the Government’s announcement yesterday of funding for aid on top of the £10 million already announced, but can the Minister tell the House whether, and how, the first tranche is being spent? Does he agree that the tiny number of trucks allowed through the Rafah crossing cannot meet the huge needs—and that fuel must be included too, so that hospitals do not run out of power and water pumps can work? Without that, deaths will rise.

Time is running out for the people of Gaza, nearly half of whom have been displaced from their homes with nowhere to go; many are traumatised, fearing they will never be able to return to them. It is good news that two more Israeli hostages have been released; but they must all be released and, with the help of Qatar, priority must surely be given to negotiating this with Hamas. Many Israeli citizens are calling for this to happen.

An invasion of Gaza is a terrifying prospect for the families of hostages. It also threatens a widening conflict across the Middle East, with horrific consequences, including a war between Hezbollah and Israel and the destabilising of Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. What is the UK Government’s position on this planned invasion, which will lead to more death and destruction, including the deaths of many Israeli soldiers, and a prolonged and probably wider war?

Yesterday, the Prime Minister—and today, the Minister—rightly referred to the need for a two-state solution, but what have the Government done in recent years to help bring this about? Too little, I fear. The West Bank has been occupied for 56 years, breaking the rules of war, and 250 illegal settlements have been built there, making the two-state solution far more difficult. Unless the international community brokers longer-term solutions that address the underlying problems, there is a danger that this horrible cycle of death and destruction will continue.

In the short term, Hamas must release all the hostages and stop firing rockets into Israel, and Israel must cease its bombardment of Gaza. Will the Government do what, according to a recent YouGov poll, 75% of British citizens want—as do the many Jewish organisations listed by the noble Baroness, Lady Warsi—and commit to a ceasefire so that, out of this awful crisis, opportunities for peace and reconciliation, and for an agreement between Palestine and Israel, can be pursued?

United Nations Population Fund Report

Baroness Blackstone Excerpts

Wednesday 24th May 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Con)]

The Government share the view outlined by my noble friend, on all the points. As she said, the report makes for grim reading in parts, although I think it is optimistic. We learn, for example, that, in the 68 reporting countries, around 44% of partnered women are unable to make decisions over healthcare, contraception or sex, which I found a shocking figure. The FCDO invests in a broad range of programmes in maternal, newborn and childcare, such as on access to voluntary family planning, HIV/AIDS care and ending FGM. My noble friend asked for examples. These include: the Global Financing Facility; reproductive health supplies; and our support for the FP2030, the grass-roots Safe Abortion Action Fund, and the Africa-led movement to end FGM, to name just a few.

[Baroness Blackstone (Lab)]

My Lords, the UN report estimates that 257 million people around the world do not have direct access to safe and reliable contraception, which means that they have no choice in deciding how many children they want. In the light of this, is it not crucial to restore the family planning programmes that have been cut by the Government as a result of the reduction in development aid from 0.7% to 0.5% of GNI? How soon will these reductions, which the Government made, be reversed, in particular to their aid for family planning?

[Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Con)]

I cannot give a date for the return to 0.7% from 0.5%. I hope that happens as soon as possible; I know that view is shared by many in this House. But we remain a significant funder. Between 2015 and 2020, we supported an annual average of 25 million women and girls to use voluntary modern contraception. We believe that, every year, that prevented nearly 9 million unintended pregnancies and 2.8 million unsafe abortions, and saved more than 8,000 women’s lives, as well as preventing the trauma of over 81,000 stillbirths and 48,000 newborn deaths. Since 2018, our aid to the women’s integrated sexual health programme has supported nearly 10 million women to use modern methods of contraception. We believe that in 2021 over 12,000 maternal deaths and 1.8 million unsafe abortions were averted as a direct consequence.