Global Warming

Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer Excerpts

Thursday 16th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer (LD)]

My Lords, this has been an excellent debate and much more optimistic than it might have been. I felt, like the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone, that we could have fallen into a bit of a doom loop, but thanks to my noble friend Lord Teverson’s tour de force introduction, as the noble Lord, Lord Gascoigne, called it, which gave good examples of how things link up, we have had a very positive debate.

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Randall, for saying that we had not talked enough about wetlands, because that is what I intend to talk about in my wind-up. I will look at a couple of examples of how habitat restoration can substantially increase biodiversity, mitigate aspects of climate change and store carbon. Salt marshes and wetlands at the confluence of freshwater and saltwater are examples of this.

There are now 470 hectares of wetlands at the mouth of the River Parrett in Somerset. They are known as the Steart Marshes, which started out as a flood management project in 1998. I must declare an interest as my husband, Humphrey Temperley, was then chair of the Wessex flood management board. He was passionate and committed to this ambitious project for many years, so I have learned an awful lot about it. Under a different regime, it continues to thrive and go from strength to strength.

It is a multifaceted and, as my noble friend called it, triple-win situation. The mudflat habitat and tidal creeks provide nursery areas for fish, including sea bass, and overwintering migrant birds thrive. There are otters, marsh harriers and any number of species that had been in substantial decline. There is grazing for Dexter and other cattle and sheep command a premium price as salt marsh lamb. There is a lot of community engagement and Manchester Metropolitan University has estimated that, since the restoration, 30,000 tonnes of carbon have been stored that would not have been otherwise. It has certainly fulfilled its original aim of flood mitigation and management.

The noble Lord, Lord Randall, mentioned that it is sometimes controversial to do things of this sort. Indeed, this was, but, happily, one of the irritants in the way of further salt marsh plans in the area has been removed. The then Conservative MP for Bridgwater, Ian Liddell-Grainger, said such schemes were a waste of money. Thank goodness the community by the Severn estuary had the good sense to replace him with Rachel Gilmour MP, who has a wealth of experience in environmental issues.

There are lots of estuary and salt marsh projects. There is a huge project under way in the Humber which I have not visited yet. It is being undertaken between the Wildlife Trusts and Ørsted, the huge wind farm company. That is an example of a big one and there is a small one that I hope to visit tomorrow on the Dart estuary between Totnes and Dartmouth.

My noble friend did not limit his debate to what was happening in the UK; he also mentioned mangrove forests. That is another win-win-win situation. When I visited Sri Lanka in 2011 with War on Want, I was taken to see a community project then in its infancy. Noble Lords will remember that in 2004 Sri Lanka suffered terrible effects of the tsunami. Also, shrimp farms and salt pans had degraded the coastal strip very adversely, affecting fishing and making the coast vulnerable to erosion as well as tsunamis. The tsunami provided the impetus to think about mangrove forests and the immediate protection they offered, and the community was replanting them. In 2015 Sri Lanka became the first nation to legally protect all its mangrove forests and a decade later, in 2024, Sri Lankan mangrove regeneration programmes were recognised by the UN as one of its first World Restoration Flagships. Both wetlands here and mangrove forests there give us firm examples of a win-win-win. Blue carbon sequestration in mangrove forests is one of the most efficient methods of sequestration in the world.

I have to leave the cheerful examples now and move to some of the questions I have for the Minister. I certainly do not accept what the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb, said, that this Government are worse than the last. She must have forgotten all the things that happened as a result of Brexit, such as no more regulation around water and air. The loss of the EU water framework directive alone should give her pause for thought. This Government are busy bringing in regulations that will make sure that some of these issues are addressed in the short and long term. There was also a starvation of funds to Natural England and the Environment Agency, which meant that they were not able to deal with the things she mentioned, such as the North Yorkshire issue. I feel that this Government are making a very good start.

However, I have to ask the Minister about neonicotinoids. They are a proven mortal threat to our pollinators. I mention it particularly tonight because the government decision is imminent on whether or not to allow a fifth year of derogation from the ban. I believe it would be an utter disgrace if this Government cave in and allow a fifth year of derogation. I agree there might be a bit of loss to the sugar beet growers but it is nothing compared with the loss of our pollinators. Each year for the previous four years the Conservative Government allowed the derogation even though the negative effects to our pollinators was known and proven. That derogation was subject to farmers implementing a strict rotation system but after four years it is unlikely that even they can comply with the conditions, because, as the Minister must know, you are not allowed to use the same fields that you have used neonics in for 46 months, so unless they are very large holdings, that rotational requirement is probably being ignored or not enforced. A further condition is that they monitor the levels of neonics in the environment and submit the results to the Government. Is the Minister satisfied that that data has come in and is it feeding in to the decision?

As I mentioned, I absolutely do not doubt that exiting the EU has had an extremely detrimental economic impact, but I believe that it has had an even more detrimental effect on our biodiversity.

The noble Lord, Lord Curry, called for a soil action plan. I absolutely echo his call.

Finally, will we in some form follow the EU chemical strategy for sustainability, particularly to address the issue of forever chemicals? They are really dangerous: they turn up in drinking water, and they threaten not only this generation but generations to come. We really need a chemical strategy with teeth to make sure that any manufacturing does not threaten this country’s drinking water in any way whatever. The Government should look at having that sort of regulation.

Having said that, I am delighted to have been able to take part in this debate. I look forward to the Minister’s answers.

Avian Flu: Turkeys in Norfolk

Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer Excerpts

Thursday 12th December 2024 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of reports of avian flu affecting turkeys in Norfolk.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Baroness Hayman of Ullock) (Lab)]

My Lords, following the detection of avian influenza in England, Defra has stood up its well-established response to control and eradicate disease. This has included humane culling of affected birds and establishing disease control zones to help prevent onward spread. The latest information is that there have been six cases in England—three in Norfolk, with two that affect turkeys. Defra will continue to monitor the situation and will consider a regional avian influenza protection zone if risk warrants this.

[Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her reply—that sounds like good news for Christmas, because there are no more outbreaks in turkeys at present. As someone who once raised turkeys for my local WI market for Christmas, I can empathise with the free-range turkey producers. Can the Minister say how affected poultry farmers, who have the rest of the winter and of the 2025 avian flu season to survive, are compensated should they need to cull? Have the Government changed any aspects of the compensation scheme since they became the Government? Finally, given that insurance against avian flu is virtually impossible to get now, will the Government consider bringing in their own insurance scheme?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

First, the compensation scheme that we are looking at is the same as previously, in that poultry owners will be compensated for the value of the birds if they were healthy at the time of the cull. We have no plans to change that. Secondly, I am extremely aware of the complications around insurance. When we had the previous outbreak, I met a number of poultry owners who were having real problems with insurance. We are very concerned about this, and we will work with insurance companies to monitor the situation.

Environment and Climate Change Committee Report: An Extraordinary Challenge: Restoring 30 per cent of our Land and Sea by 2030

Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer Excerpts

Wednesday 11th September 2024 Grand Committee

[Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer (LD)]

My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lady Parminter and her committee on producing this report. It is both an impressive route map for government and a salutary report, as it shows the scale of the work needed. As the report states, one of the keys to achieving the target, besides firm and unwavering government support, is public buy-in. This is what I want to talk about today.

The recommendation in paragraph 80 is that

“the Government expand the role of robust citizen science”.

The report underlines the importance of citizen science in helping assess the achievement of targets. It is undoubtedly also a way of capturing the hearts and minds of participants.

I still remember well, aged 18, doing my A-levels, recording everything I could find in my square metre above Pickering—I am glad that the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, is here today. As a southern, lowlands girl, I really had not seen sundews before, and it was thrilling.

There are many citizen science projects, whether by genus or by ecosystem, and I should just run through a few that are happening at the moment. I am sure that noble Lords have taken part in some of these. There is the Big Garden Bird Watch from the RSPB. As its CEO, Beccy Speight, says,

“With birds now facing so many challenges due to the nature and climate emergencies, every count matters. By taking part, individuals are not only practicing their own mindfulness, but they are also part of something much bigger”.


I think that captures what I want to say here very well. Then there is the Big Butterfly Count, which usually takes place during July and August. For amphibians and reptiles, there is advice on frog spawn, for example; or, in Scotland, on helping to restore the natterjack toad’s habitats. The UK Tree Health Citizen Science Network has been formed from a group of individuals and organisations working across a range of projects and activities that engage people with trees.

Particularly topical is River Watch, which the Canals and Rivers Trust is running in order to involve the public in checking rivers for sewage and other pollution. I am sure the noble Lords do not need me to remind them that, when the UK was in the EU, we were subject to the water framework directive, which meant that the Government had the responsibility to carry out detailed pollution analysis of waterways and report every year. There has not been a survey done along the lines of the water framework directive since 2019, so I ask the Minister what the Government will use as a replacement for the water framework directive survey.

Then there is Buglife, a very energetic campaigning organisation that involves people in monitoring both the good, such as grasshoppers, and the bad, such as the invasive flatworm, which usually comes in with imported pot plants. Buglife’s website headlines a quotation that I think is worth repeating here, from Sir David Attenborough:

“If we and the rest of the back-boned animals were to disappear overnight, the rest of the world would get on pretty well. But if the invertebrates were to disappear, the world’s ecosystems would collapse.”


I congratulate Buglife on outlining why insects are so important, and it has been doing it for a long time—for example, on bees, which have just been in the headlines.

Then there are the wildlife trusts. They are particularly important, with over 900,000 members and 39,000 volunteers, who work together to make their local area wilder and make nature a bigger part of everyday life. Local nature reserves are very accessible to people, and something that people can feel is theirs. We need to encourage this feeling that nature is both our responsibility and ours to enjoy. That will be critical to achieving 30 by 30 and reversing biodiversity decline more widely.

Although digital tools are terrific—I must admit to being a huge fan of the Merlin app, because I do not see all that well, and being able to recognise a bird by its song or cry is incredibly helpful—they just do not replace the actual experience of walking through that damp, mossy wood, finding the first wood anemone announcing spring or seeing the flash of greeny-yellow and hearing the yaffle of the woodpecker; or, even better, of lying on the warm summer grass, watching the blue butterflies and trying to identify one blue from another, which I seldom succeed in: is it a holly blue or an adonis blue?

I am sorry that the Government are not going to extend the right to roam. Too much of our countryside is still inaccessible to the public. In the year 2000, the Labour Government made such a good start with the Countryside and Rights of Way Act. I am particularly pleased that the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, is here because, as the Minister responsible, he really spent day and night, including many nights in Committee, achieving the outcomes of that Act.

The Labour manifesto mentioned nine new national riverside walks and three new national forests. Can the Minister give any idea of timescale for these? Importantly also, when Steve Reed was shadow Minister, he mentioned that there would be a White Paper on access to nature. That would be really important and should be an integral part of helping us to achieve what is suggested in this excellent report.