Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with supermarkets and other high street retailers that sell products associated with (a) legal and (b) illegal deforestation in the Cerrado region of Brazil on their role in combating the climate emergency.

Over the past year, Defra Ministers and senior officials have had numerous discussions with supermarkets and other high street retailers regarding sustainable supply chains and products associated with both legal and illegal deforestation. This included, in November 2020, a ministerial roundtable with industry stakeholders to discuss due diligence legislation for forest risk commodities, and the launch event of the Government’s response to the Global Resource Initiative’s (GRI) recommendations.

The GRI taskforce was established by the Government in 2019 to bring together representatives from industry and civil society to recommend actions to reduce the climate and environmental impacts of UK supply chains. The GRI published its report in March 2020 and the Government outlined its response in November 2020. This response included introducing world-leading due diligence legislation for forest risk commodities and working, as co-Presidents of COP26, to forge a new alliance between governments to ensure global supply chains are sustainable. The UK Government will continue working with industry, the GRI taskforce, and other governments to tackle deforestation in the Cerrado and around the world.