Global Biodiversity and Ecosystems: National Security Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Olly Glover
Main Page: Olly Glover (Liberal Democrat - Didcot and Wantage)Department Debates - View all Olly Glover's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Global Biodiversity and Ecosystems: National Security
Olly Glover Excerpts(1 month, 2 weeks ago)
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Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)
It is an honour to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Desmond. I congratulate the hon. Member for Waveney Valley (Adrian Ramsay) on securing this important debate.
Disappointingly, this heavily abridged report did not reach the Chamber in Government time, and when it was finally released, the timing coincided with Davos, which dominated the headlines. That raises questions about how seriously this Government take the warning from their own report that nature is a foundation of national security and can no longer be treated in isolation from it.
Olly Glover (Didcot and Wantage) (LD)
My hon. Friend makes a very good point about the seriousness of this issue. Does she agree that a great way for the Government to show they understand that seriousness would be to publish the report in full and agree to a national broadcast and a national emergency briefing?
Sarah Dyke
I wholeheartedly agree. The report describes a collapse of interconnected natural systems reaching a point of no return—the loss of climate regulation destroying harvests in the world’s breadbasket regions, triggering famine, disease and mass migration, driving up food prices and poverty here in the UK. With 77% of land in England and Wales farmed or managed by farmers, and more than 800 farms in my constituency of Glastonbury and Somerton alone, we already know who would be best placed to lead our investment in long-term biodiversity resilience.