Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of progress in delivering the Sustainable Development Goal on the supply of clean drinking water in countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Answered by James Duddridge
The Joint Monitoring Programme (hosted by the World Health Organization and United Nations' International Children's Emergency Fund) is the global monitoring mechanism that tracks progress against the water supply and sanitation targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Joint Monitoring Programme's most recent update concludes that since 2000, the proportion of the population of sub-Saharan Africa using safely managed drinking water supplies has risen from 18% to 27%. By comparison, the global estimate is 71%, indicating that more needs to be done. Less progress has been made on sanitation. Access to safely managed sanitation services has only increased from 15% to 18% since 2000. For both water supply and sanitation, progress is slower in rural areas compared to urban areas. The Joint Monitoring Programme also reports differences in coverage between the better-off and poorest households and regions within countries.
Between 2015 and 2020 the UK supported 62.6 million people to gain access to basic water and sanitation services. Africa was the largest beneficiary of our water supply, sanitation and hygiene programmes, with 26.3 million beneficiaries reached and we targeted some of the poorest communities in Africa. Our support to the region will continue by helping governments deliver reliable and climate resilient water and sanitation services that can reach the poorest households.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he has taken to establish a Global Ocean Treaty to enable governments to establish Marine Protected Areas, set conservation goals and adopt management measures to deliver protection.
Answered by James Duddridge
The draft Treaty text being negotiated is intended to be a legally binding instrument under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (the BBNJ Agreement).
The BBNJ Agreement is important for ocean conservation and the UK is working proactively in the negotiations, and more widely including with G7 partners, to try to ensure that an ambitious text is concluded by the end of this year. In particular, the Agreement should enable the designation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the High Seas, which will be crucial to delivering a new target under the Convention of Biological Diversity of protecting at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030. The Agreement should also enable a more holistic approach to global ocean governance, facilitating cooperation between existing bodies and filling in gaps, such as requiring Environmental Impact Assessments for new activities in areas beyond national jurisdiction.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment the Government has made of the capacity of natural systems in (a) the UK and (b) globally to deliver the objectives of the Paris Agreement through permanently absorbing CO2 emissions while (i) enhancing biodiversity and (ii) respecting land rights.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Land use is a devolved matter and the information on nature, land and biodiversity policy relates to England only. Trade and overseas aid are not devolved.
The UK Government’s environmental strategy is defined in a set of goals within the 25 Year Environment Plan (YEP). Mitigating and adapting to climate change are one of the ten goals in the 25 YEP, and are embedded into other goals, such as thriving plants and wildlife. The Government also committed to climate change mitigation and adaptation through its 2050 Net Zero Target, Clean Growth strategy, and the National Adaptation Programme within the UK Climate Change Act.
The Convention on Biological Diversity COP15 and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change COP26 provide excellent opportunities to drive ambition on taking an integrated approach to tackling the interlinked crises of biodiversity loss and climate change. This will be hugely important if we are to deliver the step-change needed to tackle these global issues. By making ‘nature’ a key focus of COP26 in Glasgow, we hope to demonstrate that Nature Based Solutions (NBS) can deliver multiple benefits for climate, biodiversity, and people, and can therefore play a critical role in tackling these interrelated crises in an integrated way.
The UK is also a member of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)
Domestic NBS
NBS can also play a role domestically in achieving our carbon reduction targets and in helping us adapt to climate change. Our assessment is that on land: restoring degraded peatlands; appropriately implementing multi-purpose woodlands and protecting them; and restoring or recreating wetland and coastal habitats will offer the greatest benefits for tackling climate change, whilst also benefitting biodiversity and livelihoods. More information can be found in the report titled ‘Implementation of an Emissions Inventory for UK Peatlands’ (2017) and in the package of measures to protect England's landscapes and nature-based solutions the Government will be setting out this year.
The Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) projections for the UK and England (UK National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory) provide estimates of LULUCF greenhouse gas (GHG) removals to 2050 from existing policy and alternative, stretching scenarios. The assumptions underlying the scenarios were developed by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) with input from the Forestry Commission, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Devolved Administrations (DAs) and LULUCF experts. The scenarios are designed to explore the magnitude of the changes in net emissions that could potentially be produced by LULUCF activities in the future, taking into account current land use policies and/or aspirations.
In December, the Government issued a call for evidence to strengthen the evidence base on the role of greenhouse gas removal (GGR) methods, including NBS, in meeting net zero. This call for evidence closes on 26 February 2021.
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NBS globally
NBS offer a mechanism by which biodiversity loss, climate change and poverty can be addressed in a sustainable way and are therefore central to the delivery of the global Sustainable Development Goals.
The UK recognises the crucial role of NBS for climate mitigation and adaptation. They have the potential to cost-effectively deliver up to one third of global climate mitigation required by 2030 to meet the Paris Agreement’s goals, while also providing adaptation benefits and delivering wins for biodiversity and sustainable development.
The UK is already contributing to NBS internationally through its Official Development Assistance, including through its International Climate Finance. The Prime Minister committed in 2019 to double the UK’s public ICF to at least £11.6 billion between 2021 and 2025 to help developing countries tackle climate change.
The UK committed to spending at least £3bn of our International Climate Finance on climate change solutions that protect and restore nature and biodiversity over the next five years.
The Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Regulation establishes a licensing scheme to improve the supply of legal timber. The regulation is underpinned by Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs), which are bilateral trade agreements between the UK and a timber-exporting country. The benefits of a VPA can include reduced corruption, strengthened forest sector governance, support for forest-dependent people’s livelihoods, avoided deforestation and associated greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss, and avoided loss of Government revenues through illegal activity. Whilst VPAs are voluntary for timber-exporting countries, a VPA is legally binding on both sides once it has entered into force.
Permanence
Due to the reversibility of carbon stored within growing and harvested biomass, Defra notes that NBS for climate mitigation purposes are not a replacement for reducing carbon emissions at source and that both carbon emissions reductions and nature-based solutions for climate change should be pursued. This is because carbon in natural systems can be released either purposefully or through unplanned disturbances such as fire, flooding and disease. As such, Defra is particularly interested in developing policies which look to protect existing carbon stocks and prevent reversal of stored carbon.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of whether the Millennium Development Goal targets on access to clean water by the end of 2020 will be met in sub-Saharan Africa.
Answered by James Duddridge
The UK Government works with the United Nations Statistics Division via the UNICEF and WHO Joint Monitoring Programme, an initiative which the UK supports, to assess progress against sanitation and water goals. The Millennium Development Goal target to reduce by half the number of people without access to improved water supply was not met in the sub-Saharan Africa region.
The Millennium Development Goal targets were superseded by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The sub-Saharan Africa Region is currently not on track to reach the SDG access to water target by the target year of 2030. The most recent evidence on access to safe water suggests that only 61% of people in sub-Saharan Africa had access to at least basic water supply services in 2017. The impact of COVID-19 makes attainment of the global goals harder but also more urgent as access to water is vital to enable people to wash their hands to stop the spread of the virus.
Asked by: Lord Balfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 20 December (HL12099), whether they will now answer the question put, whether, and if so when, they intend to sign the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.
Answered by Lord Bates
The UK Government is supportive of the United Nations’ Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, both as a step forward in international co-operation to tackle irregular migration and as a framework to help us deliver our commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals. The Secretary of State announced the UK’s support for the Migration Compact at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2018, and Minister Burt attended the intergovernmental launch event in Marrakesh in December 2018.
The UK voted in favour of the UN General Assembly Resolution to adopt the Compact on 19th December 2018 and issued an Explanation of Vote to set on the record its interpretation of the text. A summary of the Explanation can be found on the UN website at: https://www.un.org/press/en/2018/ga12113.doc.htm
Well-managed migration is in everyone’s interests. But uncontrolled migration erodes public confidence, damages economies, and places people on the move in situations of great vulnerability. The UK is taking significant steps to tackle uncontrolled migration both in our domestic policy work and in our ODA-funded programmes by:
The Global Compact for Migration supports delivery of these efforts within the international system and enhances cooperation between states without affecting the sovereignty of all countries to control their own borders. The Compact will not in any way create legal obligations for States, nor does it seek to establish international customary law or further interpret existing treaties or national obligations. It does not establish a ‘human right to migrate’ or create any new legal categories of migrant. The GCM emphasises that migrants are entitled to the same universal human rights as any human being and does not create any new ‘rights’ for migrants.
The Compact commits to protecting freedom of expression for the press and public. The freedom of the media to debate all issues of importance to society, including the issue of migration in all its aspects, is fundamental to a liberal society and the UK Government attaches the highest importance to this.
It also includes proposals which will help the UK make a strong contribution to the delivery of the global Sustainable Development Goals. This includes those relating to orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people; and those intended to eradicate forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking, and child labour.
The final draft of the Compact is available online at:
https://refugeesmigrants.un.org/sites/default/files/180711_final_draft_0.pdf
Asked by: Lord Vinson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 17 December (HL12096), whether the adoption of the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration would not make any criticism of immigration a criminal offence; and if so, what plans they have to mitigate any such impact on freedom of speech.
Answered by Lord Bates
The UK Government is supportive of the United Nations’ Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, both as a step forward in international co-operation to tackle irregular migration and as a framework to help us deliver our commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals. The Secretary of State announced the UK’s support for the Migration Compact at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2018, and Minister Burt attended the intergovernmental launch event in Marrakesh in December 2018.
Well-managed migration is in everyone’s interests. But uncontrolled migration erodes public confidence, damages economies, and places people on the move in situations of great vulnerability. The UK is taking significant steps to tackle uncontrolled migration both in our domestic policy work and in our ODA-funded programmes by:
The Global Compact for Migration supports delivery of these efforts within the international system and enhances cooperation between states without affecting the sovereignty of all countries to control their own borders. The Compact will not in any way create legal obligations for States, nor does it seek to establish international customary law or further interpret existing treaties or national obligations. It does not establish a ‘human right to migrate’ or create any new legal categories of migrant. The GCM emphasises that migrants are entitled to the same universal human rights as any human being and does not create any new ‘rights’ for migrants.
The Compact commits to protecting freedom of expression for the press and public. The freedom of the media to debate all issues of importance to society, including the issue of migration in all its aspects, is fundamental to a liberal society and the UK Government attaches the highest importance to this. The UK reiterated the importance of this when the UN adopted the Global Compact in December 2018.
It also includes proposals which will help the UK make a strong contribution to the delivery of the global Sustainable Development Goals. This includes those relating to orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people; and those intended to eradicate forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking, and child labour.
The final draft of the Compact is available online at:
https://refugeesmigrants.un.org/sites/default/files/180711_final_draft_0.pdf
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the absence in the UN Global Compact for Migration of the UK’s three main objectives as set out in the Prime Minister’s addresses to the UN General Assembly in 2016 and 2017, whether the Government plans to decline to sign that compact at the forthcoming UN meeting in Morocco.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK Government is supportive of the UN’s Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, both as a step forward in international co-operation to tackle irregular migration and as a framework to help us deliver our commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals.
As a leading voice in the negotiations, the UK Government secured positive outcomes in the final text which clearly support the Prime Minister’s main objectives as set out in her speech to the United Nations General Assembly. This includes a clear differentiation between refugees and migrants; the recognition of a State’s right to control their borders and proposals to help States build capacity in this area; and an explicit acknowledgement of States’ responsibility to accept the return of their nationals who no longer have the right to remain elsewhere.
Asked by: Earl of Sandwich (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to provide in-country training for government officials and others engaged in (1) monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals, and (2) data collection, following United Nations guidelines; and to what extent the Commonwealth could provide this training.
Answered by Lord Bates
DFID provides a range of support and training to National Statistics Offices in developing countries to gather, analyse and use a wide range of information, including data relevant to the SDGs. For example, through the UN Statistics Department, we are supporting 20 developing countries to disseminate SDG data through National Reporting Platforms, including technical assistance and training. We are also funding such support through the World Bank, the IMF and UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) is also planning to host a meeting of Commonwealth heads of National Statistics Institutes (NSI) later this year. The ONS is proposing including in the agenda a focus on data gaps for global SDG indicators. This will build on publication on 19 March of a report on UK data gaps, including our initial Inclusive Data Action Plan.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent steps the Government has taken to support meeting the specific targets on (a) violence against women and girls, (b) female genital mutilation and (c) child and early forced marriage within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Answered by Rory Stewart
This government is proud of its global leadership on tackling violence against women and girls. Globally, one in three women have experienced some form of physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime. We cannot and will not tolerate this.
We are supporting the UN and national governments in the challenge to eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls, including female genital mutilation (FGM) and child and early forced marriage (CEFM), across a range of interventions, including, but not limited to:
Asked by: Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, entitled Voices of the hungry, published in April 2016, what steps his Department plans to take to (a) initiate regular annual monitoring of adult and child food insecurity in the UK and (b) determine a precise estimate on which to base action to reduce food poverty.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Food insecurity is a global problem which the United Nations (UN) agreed to confront at the World Food Summit in 1996 and has framed subsequent sustainable development goals. Getting accurate and informative data was the motivation for the ‘Voices of the Hungry’ project. This project has established an annual universal metric to measure lack of access to food and the severity of this in over 150 countries, and help inform UN policy. The Department for International Development has provided financial support to enable the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to take this forward.
The United Kingdom is committed to the Sustainable Development Goals and to the data the FAO commissions and manages. There are therefore no plans for the Department of Health to independently monitor food insecurity going forward, or determine a precise estimate on which to base action to reduce food poverty.
The Government is committed to tackling childhood obesity and launched Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action on 18 August. A copy of the plan is attached and is also available at:
www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/546588/Childhood_obesity_2016__2__acc.pdf