Environment Secretary George Eustice MP has said the Government is committed to tackling biodiversity loss both at home and abroad, together with shrinking the UK's environmental footprint overseas.
The Minister was speaking at a discussion hosted by China – together with the UK, the two countries will host upcoming UN Conference of the Parties (COP) summits in Kunming and Glasgow.
China is due to host the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province in south-west China in the second quarter of 2021. The key meeting has the goal of putting in place a post-2020 framework for biodiversity protection.
For the first time, the UK will host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Scotland on 1 – 12 November 2021.
George Eustace said:
“At next year’s conferences, we have the opportunity to bring the world together to commit to reversing biodiversity loss, and to make protecting and conserving nature part of tackling climate change and poverty too.”
“I am pleased that Minister Huang has agreed with my colleague Alok Sharma, the UN climate COP President Designate, that our two countries should work together as incoming presidents for ambitious, integrated outcomes at both summits.”
The UK Government is “determined to secure international action to tackle biodiversity loss” and will channel finance into nature-based solutions that could provide a third of the cost-effective climate change mitigation needed.
“Action for nature must also be ambitious” he continued, “we must also put our words into action – and in this area the UK is keen to plays its part, both at home and around the world.”
He also announced that the UK would be spending more of its International Climate Finance on nature, including the establishment of a £500 million Blue Planet Fund.
A quarter of UK waters are protected, and the UK is on course to protect an area the size of India around UK Overseas Territories, the Minister said.
"And in the UK, we are replacing destructive agricultural subsidies with a system that rewards environmental stewardship – and encouraging other countries to do similarly. .....in the UK, we are also setting environmental targets to accelerate action to improve the state of UK nature and help us make progress towards our commitment to reach net zero by 2050." he continued.
He also drew attention to the fact that on land, forests are home to 80% of biodiversity, yet the scale of global deforestation makes it a leading cause of global emissions.
As part of the UK’s commitment to shrinking its environmental footprint overseas, the Government is now consulting on legislation requiring larger businesses operating in the UK to carry out due diligence on forest risk commodities in their supply chains, to show that they were produced in line with local laws.
He concluded:
“In conclusion, at COP26, we want to convene a global government-to-government initiative on sustainable land-use and trade in forest and agricultural commodities between producer and consumer countries.”
“We encourage every nation to put nature at the core of their recoveries now and to agree an ambitious post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework underpinned by robust implementation and accountability mechanisms.”