UN Biodiversity Conference: COP 15

Lord Howarth of Newport Excerpts

Thursday 12th January 2023 Grand Committee

[Lord Howarth of Newport (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Randall of Uxbridge, on coming top of the ballot and taking this opportunity to introduce a debate on this crucial subject, which deserves a lot more thought than the House tends to give it. He spoke feelingly about biodiversity. Biodiversity is inextricably linked with climate change. Our natural systems are crucial to economic and social stability, as well as to well-being and health, from mental health through to zoonotic diseases. This week, a report in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives has estimated that the global loss of pollinators is causing about 500,000 early deaths a year by reducing the supply of healthy foods. The health of people, animals, plants and ecosystems is interdependent.

In their strategic plan in 2011, the Government acknowledged that biodiversity is

“key to the survival of life.”

They also acknowledged then that there was a “biodiversity crisis.” However, the Government’s own evaluation in 2019 found that, of eight targets, five had been missed, while three were either at risk of being missed or data were lacking. In 2021, the Treasury published the Dasgupta review, which warned that biodiversity was declining faster than at any time in human history, leading to “extreme risk” and uncertainty for our economies and well-being. The World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet Report in 2022 makes grim reading. We have all observed in our daily lives the rarity of what used to be familiar species, whether it is butterflies, bees, insects on our windscreens, wildflowers or birds— the noble Lord mourned the loss of the slender-billed curlew.

Yet there is far less focus by the public, the media and politics on biodiversity than there is on climate change. COP 27 on climate change was extensively reported as front-page news; coverage of COP 15 on biodiversity, equally an existential issue, was cursory and on inside pages. World leaders, even our own Prime Minister, flocked to Sharm el-Sheikh; only two leaders, not including our Prime Minister, turned up at Montreal. There was not the political pressure for them to do so. This is strange. Rachel Carson, in a hugely important book, Silent Spring, explained to the world back in 1962 the cataclysmic dangers of indiscriminate pesticide use. The response was to ban the use of DDT, but little more. Why this global fecklessness and improvidence? It is due partly to the power of lobbying by agribusiness, partly to the allure of cheap food and partly, perhaps, to the psychological difficulty for societies to acknowledge that their practices may be self-destructive.

Anyway, I welcome of course the Government’s signing of the global biodiversity framework at Montreal. I ask, however, what this may mean in practice. After all, by 2020 Governments across the world had failed to meet any of the targets they set themselves at Aichi in 2010, and Britain’s was among the Governments that did not do well. According to Wildlife and Countryside Link, only about 3.2% of land in Britain is well protected and managed in terms of biodiversity, and Natural England has found that half of Britain’s sites of special scientific interest are not in a good state. However, while in the latest Autumn Statement the Chancellor spoke about climate change, he said nothing about biodiversity.

There is too much wriggle room in the vague language of the GBF. For example, Target 7 on pollution commits signatories to

“reducing the overall risk … by at least half … and working towards eliminating plastics pollution.”

That does not put countries under any useful discipline. Will the 30by30 Kunming-Montreal commitment in Target 2 be the biodiversity counterpart of the 1.5 degrees Paris commitment? Fourteen of the 23 targets do not state a 2030 deadline. Moreover, the agreement at Montreal is not legally binding. Do the Government accept that honouring it is, however, morally binding and a prudential necessity?

At Montreal, the Government pledged “up to” £29 million in funding to support developing countries to deliver the 30by30 target on biodiversity, plus £5 million for British Overseas Territories, which are important in terms of biodiversity, plus a contribution to funding via the World Bank. They cannot be accused of extravagance. Will that £29 million go into the special trust fund? Will it be new money, or will it come out of the overseas aid budget or other existing budgets?

Target 4, on the need for “urgent management actions”, requires Governments to produce their national biodiversity action plans by 2024. What consultation will the Government undertake? There is complicated work to do. They will need to designate extensive new areas for protection and restoration, and these will have to be carefully delineated to include essential habitats. The Environment Act targets that Ms Coffey belatedly announced just in time for COP 15 included plans to protect only another 4% of habitats by 2042. This falls far short, in physical extension and timescale, of matching what is required.

Are the Government prepared to set aside their shibboleths? Instead of obsessing about abolishing EU law, will they focus on producing good new law? Target 15 is about regulation of businesses. Will the Government accept that biodiversity is an area where tough regulation of business is essential? Target 15 also concerns the provision by businesses of information to consumers, and Target 16 is about ensuring that people

“are encouraged and enabled to make sustainable … choices”.

Will the Government make sure that we are informed and, frankly, nanny all of us to do the right things?

Will the Government ensure that their own scientists are seriously committed to the GBF’s objectives? I ask this in view of intense concerns that Defra scientists have not properly examined the toxic effects on marine species, as well as on fishermen’s livelihoods, of dredging in the Tees. The biodiversity disaster that recently occurred in the North Sea off the coast of Teesside raises worries about the performance of the regulators, the Environment Agency and the Marine Management Organisation. Will the Government ensure that, in their haste to create freeports around the country—two more have just been announced—construction work does not have devastating effects on wildlife?

We will want to see that the Government are sturdy in resisting lobbying by vested interests, particularly the agricultural and food industries, against the necessary measures to preserve and restore biodiversity. Target 18 is to:

“Identify by 2025, and eliminate, phase out or reform incentives, including subsidies harmful for biodiversity”,


substantially reducing them by 2030. As things are, Governments across the world are providing $1.8 trillion—2% of global GDP—in subsidies that exacerbate biodiversity loss and climate change. Mr Gove expressed a clear willingness to tackle this problem; it is less clear that Ms Coffey is seriously committed to doing so. I hope that the Minister, whose personal commitment is not in doubt, can reassure us. Will our Government repurpose their agricultural support spending to prioritise the protection of biodiversity in the fight against climate change? The opportunity is there to create many new jobs in the protection and enhancement of nature, and in making a positive experience of nature more accessible to people whose well-being and health can benefit from it.

Do the Government accept that the GBF is an opportunity for businesses of many kinds to remodel themselves to stop damaging ecosystems? Will the Government support this process by redefining reporting requirements for businesses, regulating constructively and offering positive incentives? Will they encourage UK businesses to lead in this revolution?

Target 14 calls for the integration of biodiversity policies across all sectors. In their 2011 plan, the Government admitted that nature was “consistently undervalued in decision-making”. What procedures will the Government follow to ensure that the whole of Whitehall and its relevant agencies are involved in delivering GBF commitments? Will we see that reflected in impact assessments from all departments? How will the Government report to Parliament on their methodology and process?

We look to the Government for leadership on this massively important issue of biodiversity. I hope, in the wake of COP 15, that they will no longer be found wanting.

Sri Lanka

Lord Howarth of Newport Excerpts

Thursday 21st July 2022 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Speaker (Lord McFall of Alcluith)]

My Lords, we have a remote contribution form the noble Lord, Lord Howarth of Newport.

[Lord Howarth of Newport (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, will Her Majesty’s Government urge the Americans to provide more assistance to the people of Sri Lanka? After all, are not the woes of developing countries such as Sri Lanka compounded by the strength of the US dollar, itself largely the consequence of belated remedial action to raise interest rates following the excessive stimulus provided by Washington to the US economy during the last two years? Should not the Americans take account of the impact of their domestic policy on other very vulnerable countries both for humanitarian and geopolitical reasons.

Burma

Lord Howarth of Newport Excerpts

Tuesday 15th September 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Alton of Liverpool (CB)]

My Lords—

[Lord Howarth of Newport (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Nye (Lab)]

My Lords—

Soma Oil & Gas: SFO Investigation

Lord Howarth of Newport Excerpts

Monday 14th September 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

The noble Lord rightly draws attention to the fragility of states in those circumstances. We have strongly encouraged the federal Government and the emerging federal states to reach agreement on resource control and revenue sharing, and indeed to develop a legal framework which both supports that agreement and reflects best practice, before signing oil and gas deals. When it comes to the crunch, it is up to the sovereign country whether it signs those deals.

[Lord Howarth of Newport (Lab)]

My Lords, with regard to the problem of corruption in Somalia and the associated problem of poverty, would not better progress be made towards the alleviation of poverty in Somalia—and, indeed, in other countries in the region, providing the better future for those countries that she and all of us wish for—if there were more rapid development of genetically modified crops? Is a more positive approach to GM crops in the European Union one of the reforms that Her Majesty’s Government are seeking?

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My goodness, I think I am going even beyond my initial cricketing analogy. However, the noble Lord comes to a key issue, which is that the role of this country overseas has been to ensure stability and security in other states. The way that we work together and with our European colleagues is important. The Prime Minister’s golden thread is the way to go.

Building Stability Overseas Strategy

Lord Howarth of Newport Excerpts

Thursday 16th July 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, that is exactly why the National Security Council has taken the measures it has to be able to deliver decisions more effectively and rapidly. Also, sometimes is has to be festina lente. One has to have the underlying principles on which one acts and they are, as I mentioned earlier, early warning, rapid response and upstream prevention. Upstream prevention takes time.

[Lord Howarth of Newport (Lab)]

My Lords, just now the Minister reminded the House that the Government have pledged to spend 0.7% of GDP on international development and 2% of GDP on defence, but the Government have also pledged to consign very considerable numbers of our children in this country to poverty. Is not the Government’s policy stance surreal?

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, this Government have as their objective to raise the living standards of all people in this country by having a stable economy. That, of course, includes the children, who are our future.

EU: UK Membership

Lord Howarth of Newport Excerpts

Tuesday 25th November 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Howarth of Newport (Lab)]

My Lords, the Prime Minister’s proposal to hold a referendum on Europe in 2017 has nothing to do with any foreseeable state of affairs in the European Union at that date and everything to do with the intractability of Europe in British politics. If the British people do vote on Europe in 2017, it is improbable that they will take their decision in a calmly reflective frame of mind. Europe is so emotive. For Europhiles, membership of the European Union is an article of faith; for Eurosceptics, membership of the European Union is a continuing source of irritation and not infrequently of anger. They resent the pooling of sovereignty and they resent being ruled, as they see it, from Brussels.

Unless the bread-and-butter case for Britain’s continuing membership of the European Union is clear and compelling, which it is not, as has been lucidly and rationally explained by Roger Bootle in his book, The Trouble With Europe, it is entirely possible that a majority of our compatriots would vote to come out. The establishment would, with the possible exception of one of the major party leaders, no doubt advise the British people to stay in. However, there is no longer the habit of deference that caused the British people to overcome their misgivings in 1975 and vote yes. It is quite possible that a majority of Britons will, echoing Churchill, say they are for the open seas.

Free movement of people is a great preoccupation at present but I suspect that there will be concessions on that because other countries have problems with this issue. The crucial issue is the euro. Britain opted out of the single currency but it cannot escape the consequences of the single currency. The deflationary bias, the catastrophic consequences of a single monetary policy across so many disparate economies and chronic banking and government debt crises are all dragging down the economic performance of the European Union and that of the United Kingdom. As the 18 member countries of the eurozone meet separately to determine their stance on major economic issues, Britain is increasingly marginalised within the EU and yet has to live with the consequences of decisions in which we have had no part. We have found ourselves in a situation which it was a cardinal principle of British diplomacy for hundreds of years to avoid, where the major continental powers combine in their own interests regardless of the interests of Britain.

It is hard to foresee that the minority of non-eurozone countries will be able to combine to counterbalance the power of the eurozone while maintaining a coherent European Union of 28 countries. It is hard to foresee that the countries of the eurozone itself will be able to resolve their political tensions simultaneously to satisfy the requirements of Germany for fiscal rigour and its reluctance to pay for the costs of fiscal laxity elsewhere while easing social hardship and averting baleful political pathologies. Can we foresee that there can be a viable European Union in which all the member states agree on issues of trade, the environment, crime, migration and defence while financial and fiscal issues and associated political issues are decided by the eurozone countries in a deepening political union?

Damage limitation will mean that there is no answer to that question by 2017, nor will Britain by that date, with or without the other non-eurozone countries, have devised an alternative strategy or found a “better ‘ole” to go to. It would be wiser not to cut short the diplomacy by that date by having an in or out referendum.

What is clear is that Britain will not join the single currency. However, for the single currency ultimately to survive, the eurozone will have to move to political integration and a federal state. The European Union will continue to be dominated by the eurozone. The political leaders of the eurozone countries have invested so much in that project that they will maintain the single currency for some years to come. If British policy is to be more than passivity and drift, Britain will have to establish new terms of membership in a substantially reformed European Union—that is Mr Cameron’s policy but it is hard to see how meaningful reform can be achieved given the requirement for unanimity for treaty change—or find a way to split the European Union into two separate unions, but we have no allies for that, or leave altogether. Perhaps a looser association will be possible but we should ask ourselves what pattern of engagements will make sense for Britain in a globalised world in which the European Union is a diminishing force.

EU: Free Trade Agreements

Lord Howarth of Newport Excerpts

Monday 13th January 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livingston of Parkhead]

Indeed it is. The timetable for TTIP is very aggressive, with the aim of completion by 2015, which would be almost unprecedented. I met with the US ambassador to the UK just before Christmas and we discussed TTIP at some length. Certainly, his enthusiasm for it is there, albeit that I recognise that not everyone in the American political system feels that way. However, we made that point very clearly. The Prime Minister said at the G8 conference that this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity and, understandably, I would not disagree with the Prime Minister on this issue.

[Lord Howarth of Newport (Lab)]

Is the Minister confident that free trade agreements would be good for African economies? Historically, did not the US, our own country and the countries that are now successful—the industrialised countries of south-east Asia—build up their economic strength behind protectionist barriers? Is it not the case that when the countries of the advanced West pressure African countries into free trade agreements, they are doing so not for the benefit of those African economies but for themselves?

[Lord Livingston of Parkhead]

As I indicated earlier, from the free trade agreement that was recently conducted in Bali, for example, the biggest beneficiaries by far will be the developing nations. The improvement of trade facilitation will yield £100 billion in benefit, most of which will come to them. Actually, a lack of free trade, rather than the absence of it, has been the challenge for a lot of developing nations. The UK will continue to push to see free trade around the world, not just with developed countries but with developing countries.

UK-Israel Life Sciences Council

Lord Howarth of Newport Excerpts

Thursday 6th December 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Warsi]

It is not something that I am directly aware of, but I am grateful for the noble Lord’s information.

[Lord Howarth of Newport]

If academic effort ought to be collaborative across international frontiers, and that is surely right, why do Education Ministers so frequently speak of British universities being in competition with universities elsewhere in the world?

[Baroness Warsi]

I am sure that noble Lords will agree that British universities are some of the best in the world. We therefore have to praise our competitiveness and competitive edge. Whenever I and my ministerial colleagues are in places around the world we say that we are in direct competition with other academic institutions, because we are trying to encourage citizens of those countries to choose Britain as a destination for study.

Arms Trade Treaty

Lord Howarth of Newport Excerpts

Monday 21st May 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

These fragile nations certainly have much to gain and we want to see their participation. Like all nations, they have a legitimate desire to defend themselves. One must be realistic: if one wants to protect people and nations, some hard-power defence—in other words, weaponry—is needed. There has to be support for sensible, non-repressive arms supplies across international barriers, which can support the proper protection of young nations as they struggle to establish themselves and achieve stability against incursions from outside.

[Lord Howarth of Newport]

My Lords, in their vision for Britain’s economic future, do coalition Ministers foresee us earning our living to a diminishing extent by contributing to the saturation of unstable areas of the world with weapons? In the process, we tie ourselves into long-term relationships with unsavoury regimes while committing disproportionate amounts of resources that would otherwise be used to construct a more balanced and responsible economy.

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

The noble Lord paints a bad picture of the international arms trade, and it is bad—largely because of illegal arms trading, with blind eyes being turned by Governments. In our case, we have one of the most rigid supervisions of criteria applications for arms export in the world. We operate on a very close case-by-case basis, and it is generally agreed looking back over the last two tumultuous years in the Arab spring that very rigid controls have broadly operated. Certainly, we have received no evidence to the contrary. But his broader picture of a world awash in arms is precisely the one that must cease and to which this arms trade treaty, if we can get it in the form we want, will make some contribution. It will not cure all the problems but it will make some contribution.