The loss of habitats and biodiversity in our world is utterly heart-breaking and appalling. I am determined to do everything I can to reverse the tide.
The Environment Bill will ensure the environment is at the heart of all policy making. It will ensure that future governments are held to account if they fail to uphold their environmental duties. These will include meeting net zero by 2050, which you may be aware was a Bill that I piloted through Parliament as Cheltenham's MP, as well as wider long-term legally binding targets on biodiversity, air quality, water, and resource and waste efficiency.
I introduced the Net Zero Bill because of my deep concern about the conclusions of the International Panel on Climate Change about measures required to meet the Paris Climate Accord targets.
I'm delighted that the Government subsequently committed the UK to the Net Zero carbon emissions target. We are the first country in the G7 to legislate and set such an ambitious legal requirement. The Queen’s Speech included plans for the new Environment Bill which will transform the UK’s environmental governance, putting environmental principles into law and establishing a new Office for Environmental Protection.
The Office for Environmental Protection, a new, world-leading independent regulator, will be established in statute to scrutinise environmental policy and law, investigate complaints and take enforcement action when necessary. This will ensure we succeed in leaving the environment in a better condition than we found it. The Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan will also be placed on a statutory footing, and a set of environmental principles will be introduced that will be used to guide future government policy making.
In the 25 Year Environment Plan, the Government committed to developing a Nature Recovery Network and, in the long term, to create or restore 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat outside the protected site series. A new framework for Local Nature Recovery Strategies will be legislated for in the Environment Bill, to help support the Nature Recovery Network and better direct investment in the environment and green infrastructure – creating places that are richer in wildlife and provide wider benefits for local communities.
The Nature Recovery Network Delivery Partnership, led by Natural England, will bring together representatives from over 600 organisations to drive forward the restoration of protected sites and landscapes and help provide at least 500,000 hectares of new wildlife-rich habitat across England. The Network will link together our very best nature rich places, restore landscapes in towns and the countryside and create new habitats for everybody to enjoy. This is the biggest initiative to restore nature ever to be launched in England.
As well as making sure our existing protected sites are in the best possible condition, the Nature Recovery Network programme will recover threatened animal and plant species and create and connect new green and blue spaces such as wetlands, ponds, meadows, woodlands, and peatlands. It will engage conservation rangers and environmentally focused community-based projects and put lost features like hedgerows and trees back into our landscapes. These restored habitats will help address climate change through capturing carbon, while improving the quality of our air, water, and soil, and provide natural flood protection. They will also provide us all with places to enjoy and connect with nature and helping to improve our health and wellbeing.
Turning to your point about deforestation, in every conceivable way we depend on the natural world around us. Rainforests cool the planet, provide clean air and water, and are a haven for some of the most endangered species on Earth – and so protecting them must be a core priority. I am therefore pleased that the UK will go further than ever before to clamp down on illegal deforestation and protect rainforests.
A new report has now been published which sets out the Government’s approach to tackling deforestation linked to UK demand for products such as cocoa, rubber, soya, and palm oil. Combined, the new package of measures set out in the report will ensure that greater resilience, traceability and sustainability are built into the UK’s supply chains by working in partnership with other countries and supporting farmers to transition to more sustainable food and land use systems. The measures include the introduction of a new law in the Environment Bill which will require greater due diligence from businesses, and make it illegal for UK businesses to use key commodities if they have not been produced in line with local laws protecting forests and other natural ecosystems.
International Climate Finance (ICF) is the UK’s mechanism for delivering international climate action. It helps poor countries adapt to climate change, supports the creation of jobs and livelihoods to reduce poverty, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and promotes sustainable economic growth. £210m of ICF will be spent between 2016 and 2021. I am pleased that at the UN General Assembly in 2020, the Prime Minister announced the doubling of ICF over the next five years.
The UK fully endorses the New York Declaration on Forests, which aims to end natural forest loss by 2030, and is also a member of the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020. At the Paris UN Climate negotiations in 2015, the UK signed up to a collective pledge with Germany and Norway that will make up to $5bn available to support international efforts to tackle deforestation.
In terms of tackling deforestation internationally, the UK has committed to spending £5.8 billion in international climate finance between 2016 and 2021, which includes programmes that aim to reduce emissions from deforestation and land use-change.
We have spent over £800 million since 2011 on such projects in Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia. In the Amazon alone, we have spent £64.9 million to protect over 200,000 hectares of forest.
Moreover, the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan is an ambitious programme that aims to improve our environment within a generation. The plan supports sustainable agriculture, andpromotes zero-deforestation supply chains. As you may know, a handful of forest commodities — palm oil, beef, soy, pulp and paper — account for more than 70% of all deforestation in tropical forests. Zero-deforestation supply chains would reduce these losses.
I am also pleased that the Government has committed to plant millions of trees by the end of this Parliament. Here in Cheltenham, I am in favour of a more assertive tree-planting strategy. Where there are large open spaces, I would urge the local authority to consider whether trees can be planted. I welcome the Government funding for an initial tranche of 1,000 trees for the town.
As a Minister, I am not permitted to speak in the debate but I did just want to assure you that I will be following it closely.
