Environment Bill

Andrew Bowie Excerpts

Report stage & 3rd reading
Wednesday 26th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Anna McMorrin (Cardiff North) (Lab) [V]]

The climate and ecological crises are the gravest threats we face, and no one, in no part of their lives or those of their children, is immune from the challenges we face due to climate. Despite being decades in the making, we no longer have decades to solve or tackle the challenges ahead of us.

The 2020s must be the decade for decisive and bold action. For the UK to be a global climate leader, the steps we take here at home must align with climate commitments overseas and vice versa. We must work collaboratively with our international partners and support developing nations. There must be mutual reinforcing and climate must be a thread that weaves through all parts of government. If done correctly, this can act as a catalyst for real advancement in health, wellbeing, security and prosperity at home and overseas. It can both free us and equip us with the tools we need now and in the future to live better and healthier lives.

However, in the year when the UK hosts both the G7 and COP26, we are far from reaching the necessary action we need. We are failing to meet 17 out of 20 UN biodiversity targets. We are one of the most depleted countries in the world. Wildlife in Britain has been seriously threatened over the past decade. Half our species are in decline and one in seven native British species are at risk of extinction. We have seen flooding increase in recent years, up by more than a quarter across the UK compared with previous decades. We know that, like health, the impact of climate breakdown is disproportionately felt by those who have contributed to it the least, but rather than put us on a path to net zero by 2050 and build the solutions we need now to protect the environment, delay, indecision, short-termism, arrogance and recklessness are all on display from this Government. This will aggravate and deepen the challenges, which will impact future generations.

This is the fourth time I have spoken on the Environment Bill. The purpose is to debate and improve, not to debate and stonewall. We need—and future generations deserve—a piece of legislation that is up to scratch to meet our objectives and that acts as a launch pad for reforms and progress for the era that must come next, so that we can get the job done, not only to protect but to strengthen and advance our environment.

In Wales, we see Labour showing how it is done, with a Welsh Government forestry industrial recovery scheme, an effective ban on fracking and the restoration of our peat bogs with a national peatlands action programme. We need bigger, bolder action to address this climate and ecological emergency right now.

[Andrew Bowie (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (Con)]

The Opposition Front-Bench spokesman, the hon. Member for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport (Luke Pollard), is a diligent and well-respected Member of Parliament, and we have worked together on many issues in the past. Indeed, we have worked so well together that I have often felt he might be more comfortable on this side of the House. However, earlier today, he described the Bill as a “meh” Bill. I have been going through the Bill, and I would like to draw all Members’ attention to what this “meh” Bill actually delivers.

The Bill delivers targets for air quality, biodiversity, water, waste reduction and resource efficiency. It introduces an environmental improvement plan. It introduces environmental principles embedded in our domestic policy making. It creates an Office for Environmental Protection. It ensures that, under all new Bills containing environmental law, statements must be laid before Parliament on how they will maintain environmental standards. It ensures that the Government must conduct a review every two years of significant and effective international environmental legislation to ensure that we are leading the way internationally on the environment. It extends producer responsibility to make producers pay 100% of the cost of disposable products. It creates powers to introduce new resource efficiency standards for products to ensure better durability and recyclability. And I could go on, and on.

This is not a “meh” Bill. This is a transformative, world-leading, exciting, ambitious Bill that is delivering not just for the British people but on our duty to future generations and indeed, this planet. I represent a Scottish constituency, and the only thing I regret is that quite a lot of the provisions in the Bill will not affect my constituents. I can only hope that the Scottish Government go as far and as fast as this Government are proposing to do for the rest of the United Kingdom.

There is one area of the Bill that I think stands out above all others, and that is the introduction of powers allowing the Government to set out mandatory requirements on larger businesses that use agricultural commodities associated with wide-scale deforestation. Deforestation is one of the biggest threats to the health of this planet. Right now, one fifth of the Amazon rainforest is emitting more carbon dioxide than it absorbs. That is a terrifying statistic: 20% of that major rainforest, the lungs of the planet, is emitting more carbon dioxide than it is absorbing. Our proposals to ensure that we sustainably source all products that might be used in agriculture are essential in delivering on our commitment to cut down on illegal deforestation, which accounts for 95% of deforestation in the Amazon and other rainforests around the world.

This is a great Bill, and I know that, deep in his heart, the hon. Member for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport welcomes it strongly.