Britain’s consumption of goods such as soy, cocoa, palm oil, beef and leather is putting enormous pressure on forests around the world, MPs have warned.
The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has published a 66-page report on the UK’s contribution to tackling global deforestation, calling on the government to act urgently.
The commission said the UK’s consumption of the world’s forests (measured in footprint per tonne of product consumed) was higher than China’s. EAC chairman Philip Dunne said this „should be a wake-up call to the government“.
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This comes as the government announced that four products – cow products (excluding dairy products), cocoa, palm oil and soya – must be certified as ’sustainable‘ if they are to be sold on the UK market. It was done later.
The government plans to gradually bring more products into the scheme over time, but has not yet said when the law will be introduced. But the committee criticized the lack of a timetable and phased approach as not reflecting the urgency of tackling deforestation, adding that the scope should also be extended to maize, rubber and coffee.
In its report, the EAC outlines a series of recommendations for governments to strengthen existing legal frameworks to address these gaps and prohibit companies from trading and using products linked to deforestation. asked to do so. He also called on ministers to develop a global footprint index to show the public the impact of UK deforestation and set reduction targets.
The committee flagged concerns about the lack of transparency around how planned investment in nature and climate change programmes, including £1.5bn earmarked for deforestation, is being spent, and called on ministers to further I asked for clarification.
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MPs also said they were alarmed to hear from campaign group Global Witness that one person is being killed every other day defending land and the environment. They said it was important to support indigenous peoples to fully participate in negotiations on deforestation activities.
To fulfill its commitment to put environmental sustainability measures at the heart of global production and trade, the EAC reiterated its call for sustainability impact assessments to be conducted for all future trade agreements. „British consumption, at its current rate, is having an unsustainable impact on the planet,“ Dunn said.
“The UK market must not be flooded with products that threaten the world’s forests, the people who depend on them for a living, and the precious ecosystems that call them home. has little sense of urgency to match the rhetoric.
“Countries around the world are contributing to deforestation, and the international community rightly needs to do more to tackle deforestation.” To demonstrate leadership, the UK needs to demonstrate domestic policy progress and embed environmental and biodiversity protection in future trade deals.“