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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has declared a climate and ecological emergency.

The UK has adopted some of the most ambitious climate change and environment policies and commitments in the world.

Our Nationally Determined Contribution to cut emissions by 78% by 2035 is the most ambitious in the world. We became the first major economy to set a net zero target in law in 2019. We have doubled our International Climate Finance, and are investing nearly a third of it in nature-based solutions to climate change. We are leading coalitions of ambitious countries to protect at least 30% of the world’s land and water by 2030, to redirect land use subsidies globally to support sustainability and renewal, and to breaking the link between commodity production and illegal deforestation.

Among numerous world-first interventions, the Environment Bill is being amended to create a duty to set a historic target on species abundance for 2030, aiming to halt the decline in nature.