My Lords, I speak principally to my Amendments 260B, 260C, 265B and 265C. Bearing in mind the hour, I will try to make this brief, but they are on important issues.
In the 25-year environment plan, the UK Government articulated an ambitious set of goals and actions for the UK, including the commitment that
“our consumption and impact on natural capital are sustainable, at home and overseas.”
I believe that the Environment Bill should reflect this commitment but, sadly, I do not think it adequately does. The goals and actions must be strengthened to tackle the growing problems caused by deforestation and drive action to significantly reduce our global footprint.
Due diligence legislation is only part of the comprehensive approach that will be needed to deliver deforestation-free supply chains and significantly reduce global footprint impacts more broadly. A mandatory due diligence framework should formalise and obligate responsible practices throughout UK market-related supply chains and finance to ensure comprehensive accountability and help prevent deforestation and other global environmental damage.
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The proposed forest risk commodities framework is a welcome first step. It should, however, also commit the Government to introducing a legally binding target to significantly reduce the UK’s global footprint by 2030; address all deforestation linked to UK forest risk commodity supply chains, whether regarded as legal or illegal under local laws; include a mechanism to progressively improve the framework, its implementation and enforcement; establish equivalent obligations for financial institutions; ensure that the right to free, prior and informed consent of affected indigenous peoples and local communities is respected; and establish clear and effective due diligence requirements, including clarity on the acceptable level of risk, public reporting and adequate parliamentary oversight.
My Amendments 260B and 260C would upgrade the parliamentary procedure to affirmative resolution for regulations relating to this due diligence system.
Given that the due diligence system required under paragraph 3 of Schedule 16 will be central to the effectiveness of the schedule, any regulations made to specify requirements for this system should be subject—in my opinion—to the affirmative procedure. This is essential, given the public interest in this important new provision and the need for adequate parliamentary oversight.
My amendments 265B, 265C and 265D seek to introduce a requirement that the Secretary of State must take the steps identified through a review to improve the effectiveness of Schedule 16. I welcome paragraph 17 of the schedule, which includes a requirement for the Secretary of State to review the effectiveness of the forest risk commodities framework every two years and to table before Parliament and publish a report of the conclusions, but there are no requirements regarding the quality, transparency or independence of this review. Nor is there a requirement to address any deficiencies or weaknesses identified by a review or to make any needed improvements to the content, implementation or enforcement of the forest risk commodities framework. Given the novelty of the due diligence framework and the fact that much of it will be set by secondary legislation, it is important that the review procedure ensures that, where deficiencies are identified, there are clear procedures that result in improvements to the framework. This would help to ensure that the measure is progressively improved over time and keeps pace with other legislation being developed, including in the EU. It would also enable the due diligence framework to be adjusted to address any deregulation or undermining of protections for forests in producer countries. The Secretary of State should be required to seek and consider independent expert advice and consult with stakeholders when proposing changes to the framework.
My amendment 293B asks for a requirement to set a global footprint target, as the Bill is silent on how the UK Government intend to address our global footprint. The Bill therefore does not deliver on the commitment in the 25-year environment plan, as I mentioned earlier. In its Biodiversity in the UK: Bloom or Bust? report, published on 30 June, the Environmental Audit Committee recommended that the Government should set a target to reduce the UK’s global environmental footprint. New evidence from the World Wildlife Fund found that, as a nation, we need to reduce our global footprint by three-quarters if we are to live within our planetary means. The report highlights that human impacts on the natural world are driven by overconsumption, unsustainable extraction rates and the methods we use to produce material goods. The UK is a particularly large consumer of products with a major environmental impact. The report found that the UK needs to reduce its ecological footprint by 60%, its material footprint by 38%, its biomass footprint by 48%, its nitrogen footprint by 89%, its phosphorus footprint by 85% and its carbon footprint by 85%.
Significant reductions in the UK’s footprint should not be interpreted as meaning that the UK’s economy must shrink, or that the well-being of UK citizens must be reduced. With very few exceptions, the targets proposed are about doing things differently. If the Bill continues to exclude measures to address the UK’s
global environmental footprint, we will miss a very significant opportunity. I suggest that my Amendment 293B, which requires the Government to set a global footprint target, would provide them with the flexibility to develop that target following Royal Assent.
I welcome the steps that the Government are taking regarding illegal deforestation; however, Governments could make legal deforestation that is currently illegal in order to circumvent new measures—then we would have a problem. We should also be taking into consideration the many other issues surrounding this general subject; I think particularly of the cutting down of primary forest for biomass both in Europe and indeed in the US and Canada. These are difficult issues, perhaps too complex for us to include in this Bill, but we must address them. What we can do is ensure that we have full parliamentary accountability.