Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to increase awareness of the potential impact of air pollution from domestic wood burning on public health.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Following the publication of the Air Quality Information System (AQIS) review in March, we are working to increase awareness about air pollution and make air quality part of everyday conversations.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help mitigate the risks of coastal flooding associated with rising sea levels.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are committed to supporting coastal communities and ensuring flood risk management is fit for the challenges we face now and in the future.
Delivering on the Government’s Plan for Change, this government is investing a record £2.65 billion over 2024/25 and 2025/26 for the construction of new flood schemes, and the maintenance and repair of existing ones.
With this funding, 1,000 flood schemes have been or will continue to be supported, better protecting 52,000 properties by March 2026.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to financially support low carbon farming.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to our net zero ambitions and boosting nature’s recovery, which are the foundations of a productive and profitable farming sector.
Our Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMs) pay farmers to take up land management practices that contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The farming budget will be £2.4 billion in 2025/26, which includes the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history: £1.8 billion for ELMs to boost Britain’s food security and accelerate the transition to a more resilient and sustainable farming sector.
The Government has spent £51.8 million through the Farming Innovation Programme (FIP), with a further £98 million committed to ongoing projects in support of Agri-technology research and innovation. Many FIP projects support low carbon farming practices. FIP competitions for 2025/26 will include up to £12.5 million for the Net Zero Farming thematic competition.
Since 2021, Defra’s Farming Investment Fund awarded more than 11,000 grants worth over £130 million to farmers, growers and foresters to invest in technology, equipment and infrastructure, much of which supports low carbon farming practices. Of this, £107 million was through the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF). The next window of FETF will launch in Spring 2025.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the emissions reductions required in agriculture to deliver the sixth carbon budge.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is absolutely committed to our net zero targets. We will publish an updated Carbon Budget Delivery Plan that sets out the policy package out to the end of Carbon Budget 6 in 2037 for all the sectors in due course. This will outline the policies and proposals needed to deliver Carbon Budgets 4-6 and our Nationally Determined Contribution commitments on a pathway to net zero.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the conservation projects it funds in (a) Africa and (b) Asia do not lead to (i) forced evictions and (ii) violent abuses of Indigenous peoples.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra aims to take a do no harm approach to aid programming. Official development assistance (ODA) projects are required to undertake risk management and due diligence assessments in order to understand and mitigate programmatic risks, including understanding IPLC programming risks.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the environmental impact of running artificial intelligence technologies.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on a range of issues.
The AI (artificial intelligence) Opportunities Action Plan sets out how we will achieve our AI ambitions by laying the foundations for growth, driving adoption and building UK capabilities. We recognise that data centres face sustainability challenges, from energy demands to water use.
Through the AI Energy Council, we will be exploring bold, clean energy solutions from next-generation renewables to small modular reactors to ensure our AI ambitions align with the UK’s net zero goals. This builds on the Department of Science, Innovation & Technology’s contribution to make Britain a clean energy superpower by investing in relevant research on clean energy and climate change.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of costs associated with extended producer responsibility on small businesses.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We have made a full assessment of the impacts that implementing packaging extended producer responsibility will have. This includes assessment of the impacts on small businesses, which can be found in Section 8 of the impact assessment: The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024.
Packaging extended producer responsibility cost obligations will only apply to large producers with a turnover over £2 million and who place more than 50 tonnes of packaging on the market. This threshold exempts around 70% of producers from paying these fees. Any large producers who supply the exempt producers with empty packaging will pay the fees associated with that packaging.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take additional steps to increase public awareness of how people can protect themselves from the impacts of air pollution.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is undertaking a comprehensive review of how we communicate air quality information to ensure members of the public, and vulnerable groups in particular, have what they need protect themselves and understand their impact on air quality. This review is being undertaken by the Air Quality Information Systems steering group; the group’s recommendations will be published summer 2024.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will provide additional funding to organisations that increase awareness of how people can protect themselves from air pollution.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The grant has been running since 1997 and regularly funds projects aimed at increasing the awareness of the impacts of air pollution. Around £53 million has been awarded across almost 500 projects through the Air Quality Grant scheme since 2010. Projects have included anti-idling campaigns around schools, raising awareness about the impacts of domestic burning, and measures to encourage active travel.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to reduce the impact of air pollution on people in poverty.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises there is more to do to protect all people in our society and the environment from the effects of air pollution. This is why we are taking the significant and wide-ranging action to drive improvements to air quality as set out in our Environmental Improvement Plan 2023.
This action is supported by the Environment Act 2021, which makes sure that local authorities have the necessary powers to tackle emissions collaboratively in their local area to improve air quality. Through the Act we also introduced two new targets for fine particulate matter, the pollutant most damaging to human health, setting a maximum annual mean concentration target and a population exposure reduction target. This dual-target approach will improve public health for all by tackling the highest concentrations whilst ensuring all areas benefit from continuous improvement.
We continue to support local authorities in England to take action in their communities through the Local Air Quality Grant, which has awarded around £53 million to almost 500 projects since 2010.