Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that overseas food producers growing food for UK consumption are assisted to transition to a low carbon economy.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Sustainable agriculture and land use are critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and objectives of the Paris Agreement. The 2019 IPCC land-use report sets out the critical role that sustainable land use must play in climate mitigation and building resilience. The 2019 IPBES report warns of a pending collapse of nature, with land use change identified as the main driver. We need a food systems and land use revolution on the same scale of the transition to clean energy. A revolution with people, planet and prosperity at its heart.
The COP26 Nature Campaign aims to raise the profile of this agenda, building on the Just Rural Transition (JRT) launched at the UN Climate Action Summit and providing a platform to highlight actions that leading countries are taking to deliver change. The Government is delivering on the building and securing political ambition through several pillars of the campaign through:
Defra continues to position the UK’s commitment to sustainable agriculture through Government Trade Dialogues and Free Trade Agreement negotiations. Defra also runs a number of Agricultural Dialogues with partner countries which provide opportunities to share UK values on environmental and sustainability issues by exchanging policy and best practice on sustainable agriculture and supply chains in light of the UK’s Due Diligence legislation. Collaboration through dialogues such as these are key to promoting the UK’s environmental objectives while assisting overseas trading partners in achieving the transition to a low carbon economy.
Defra’s International Climate Finance (ICF) contributions enable the UK to meet international commitments on the environment by supporting developing countries promote sustainable livelihoods and low carbon agriculture. For example, since 2012, the UK has invested £62 million to promote sustainable agriculture in Brazil through the Low Carbon Agriculture (LCA) Programme. Phase I of the LCA brought 46,472 hectares of land under sustainable land management and resulted in over 8.9 Mt of avoided greenhouse gas emissions.
Defra is also playing a key role in catalysing the private sector to support environmentally sustainable land-use. Through its ICF, Defra has invested in the Land Degradation Neutrality fund and Eco.Business Fund, impact investment funds which seek to encourage private sector investment in more sustainable production and consumption practices to protect nature and reduce climate change.
The UK has committed to increase finance for nature through its ICF to at least £3bn from 2021 to 2026. The Government is also currently considering the findings of Professor Dasgupta’s landmark review of the economics of biodiversity and will respond in Spring 2021.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ban the sale of real fur in the UK.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Fur farming has been banned in England and Wales since 2000 and since 2002 in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
There are restrictions on some skin and fur products which may never be legally imported into the UK. These include fur and products from cats and dogs, and seal skins and products from commercial hunts.
We have established controls on fur from endangered species protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and we do not allow imports of fur from wild animals caught using methods which are non-compliant with international humane trapping standards.
Now our future relationship with the EU has been established the government is considering any further steps it could take in relation to fur.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the benefits of (1) soil restoration, and (2) kelp, forests for carbon sequestration.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The most recent published Government review of the evidence on the benefits of soil restoration for carbon sequestration is available at:
http://sciencesearch.defra.gov.uk/Document.aspx?Document=12186_SP1113Finalreport.pdf.
The Government recognises the importance of effective soil management and the social, economic and environmental benefits it can provide, including biodiversity, carbon storage, flood protection and improved productivity. The 25 Year Environment Plan sets out Government’s ambition to have sustainably managed soils by 2030, helping soils to function better to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services.
The Government is also committed to publishing an England Peat Strategy to create and deliver a new ambitious framework for peat restoration. It will set out a holistic plan for the management, protection and restoration of our upland and lowland peatlands, so that they deliver benefits for climate and nature. We intend to publish the strategy before the end of the year.
Kelp forests are productive ecosystems and in England are estimated to store 0.06 million tonnes of carbon in their biomass. However, the long-term carbon sequestration benefits are uncertain as the fate of carbon from these habitats is not well understood. Long-term carbon storage from kelp may occur in sediments outside of the habitat or be recycled within the ocean system. We are currently undertaking an evidence review to assess kelp carbon stock and accumulation rates in the UK.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to establish a tree planting target for England to achieve an increase in England’s woodland cover; and how they plan to ensure that progress towards any target is achieved.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
We are committed to increasing planting across the UK to 30,000 hectares per year by 2025 and are exploring whether a statutory target for trees in England would be appropriate, under the process proposed by the Environment Bill.
Our ambitious England Tree Strategy, being published early next year, will set out more detailed plans for achieving this unprecedented increase in woodland creation, supported by the £640 million Nature for Climate Fund announced in the March Budget.
Plans to help kickstart the nation’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund were announced on 18 November. This will include the expansion of protected landscapes, increased access to nature, stronger flood resilience, and the creation and retention of thousands of green jobs.
Over 500 hectares trees will be planted across England’s ten Community Forests, from Yorkshire to Somerset over the next five months, backed by £12.1 million of investment. This will also build the pipeline of projects for community planting in future years.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in implementing the findings of the report by Julian Glover Landscapes Review, published on 21 September 2019; and what assessment they have made of the response to those findings by civil society organisations.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government is committed to ensuring our Protected Landscapes flourish as havens for nature and are places that everyone can visit and enjoy.
The Glover Landscapes Review set out a compelling vision for more beautiful, more biodiverse and more accessible National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. We welcome this ambition and recognise the importance of actively engaging with civil society organisations and the Landscape organisations to inform and develop our response
We have therefore established the ‘National Landscapes Stakeholder Reference Group’ and have been working closely with them to help shape our response to the Review, with a focus on those recommendations requiring collective action and new ways of working nationally.
The Government will come forward with firm proposals for implementing the Glover Landscapes Review in due course.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the forthcoming Environment Bill and all other relevant environmental legislation enshrines legally binding provisions to meet air quality standards, set out by the World Health Organization.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The draft Environment Bill, published in December last year, would place the 25 Year Environment Plan on a statutory footing by establishing a new statutory cycle of environmental planning, monitoring and reporting. The Government also committed to exploring the inclusion of additional targets for environmental improvement within this cycle.
In the Environment Bill policy paper, also published in December last year, we reaffirmed that improving air quality is a key part of our plan to leave the environment in a better state than we found it.
In our Clean Air Strategy, published in January this year, we set out our ambition to reduce people’s exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and committed to setting a new, ambitious, long-term target to reduce people’s exposure to PM2.5. We also committed to publishing a report this year examining what action would need to be taken to meet the World Health Organization’s (WHO) PM2.5 annual mean guideline level of 10μg/m3, and we will use this evidence to inform the target which we set.
The actions in the Strategy will reduce concentrations of PM2.5 for everyone, resulting in a halving of the number of people living in areas with annual mean concentrations of PM2.5 above the WHO’s guideline level of 10μg/m3 by 2025, compared with 2016.
We are the first major economy to set out ambitions based on the WHO’s PM2.5 targets, and our Clean Air Strategy was welcomed by the WHO’s Director General as “an example for the rest of the world to follow.”
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that Natural England is fulfilling its duties and responsibilities.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The relationship between Defra and Natural England is clearly set out in Natural England’s Framework Document. Priorities and performance measures are agreed across the Defra Group and with the Secretary of State. Performance is monitored and challenged within Natural England through monthly reports to the non-Executive Board, and to Defra through reporting against the Single Departmental Plan on a quarterly basis. The Secretary of State also reviews performance at biannual meetings with Natural England’s Chair and Chief Executive. Financial management is reviewed monthly between Natural England and Defra Finance teams.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of the funding for Natural England to enable it to discharge its duties and responsibilities.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Natural England, like all other Defra sponsored bodies, receives an appropriate budget to carry out its duties and responsibilities in line with what is affordable and the priorities set out by the Secretary of State.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to enshrine all the provisions of Article 191(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union in British law after the UK leaves the EU; and if so, how.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill will preserve environmental principles where they are included in directly applicable EU regulations (which are converted into UK law by the Bill); or in EU-derived domestic legislation (which is preserved by the Bill); or in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (which is relevant to the interpretation of retained EU law). For example, the precautionary principle, referred to in Article 191(2), is included in the REACH Regulation (1907/2006) and the Invasive Alien Species Regulation (1143/2014) and so will be preserved by the Bill in those areas. . The ‘polluter pays’ principle, also referenced in Article 191(2), is referred to in the Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) (England and Wales) Regulations 2017 which will also be preserved by the Bill. Similarly, CJEU case law on chemicals, waste and habitats, for example, includes judgments on the application of the precautionary principle to those areas. This will likewise be preserved by the Bill.
Although environmental principles are already central to government policy, they are not set out in one place other than the EU treaties. The Secretary of State therefore announced on 12 November our intention to create a new comprehensive policy statement setting out the environmental principles to underpin future policy making. We will consult on this early next year alongside proposals for a new, independent statutory body to uphold environmental standards.
Asked by: Lord Judd (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to enshrine the "polluter pays principle" and the "precautionary principle", as it relates to environmental protection, in British law after the UK leaves the EU; and if so, how.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill will preserve environmental principles where they are included in directly applicable EU regulations (which are converted into UK law by the Bill); or in EU-derived domestic legislation (which is preserved by the Bill); or in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (which is relevant to the interpretation of retained EU law). For example, the precautionary principle, referred to in Article 191(2), is included in the REACH Regulation (1907/2006) and the Invasive Alien Species Regulation (1143/2014) and so will be preserved by the Bill in those areas. . The ‘polluter pays’ principle, also referenced in Article 191(2), is referred to in the Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) (England and Wales) Regulations 2017 which will also be preserved by the Bill. Similarly, CJEU case law on chemicals, waste and habitats, for example, includes judgments on the application of the precautionary principle to those areas. This will likewise be preserved by the Bill.
Although environmental principles are already central to government policy, they are not set out in one place other than the EU treaties. The Secretary of State therefore announced on 12 November our intention to create a new comprehensive policy statement setting out the environmental principles to underpin future policy making. We will consult on this early next year alongside proposals for a new, independent statutory body to uphold environmental standards.