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Category: Environment

  • Luke Pollard – 2022 Comments on the Woodhouse Colliery in Cumbria Planning Decision

    Luke Pollard – 2022 Comments on the Woodhouse Colliery in Cumbria Planning Decision

    The comments made by Luke Pollard, the Labour MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, in the House of Commons on 8 December 2022.

    Luke Pollard (Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport) (Lab/Co-op)

    The world is currently meeting in Montreal for COP15 to deal with the pressing climate and nature crisis that we are facing. A common message from there is that coal should be kept in the ground. It will be incredibly difficult for the Government to convince the public at home and abroad that opening a new coalmine is dealing with that urgent climate crisis in a progressive way. His colleague, the former COP26 President, described this decision as an “own goal”, so may I ask the Secretary of State whether he thinks approving a new coalmine in the middle of a climate crisis will enhance or damage Britain’s reputation as a global green leader?

    Michael Gove

    Again, I stress the importance of looking at what the inspector says. The hon. Gentleman quite rightly points out that international partners are meeting in Montreal, alongside the UK, in order to uphold the importance of biodiversity and to help protect species. I should point out that in paragraph 21.163 of the inspector’s report the inspector specifically addresses the question of biodiversity and says that he

    “is satisfied that the Supplemental Undertaking”—

    given by the applicant—

    “would ensure that the proposed development would provide for a minimum net gain”—

    in biodiversity—

    “of 10% prior to the commencement of production and further net gain to be achieved on restoration.”

    The inspector took account of biodiversity in coming to his judgment, and so have I.

  • Katherine Fletcher – 2022 Comments on the Woodhouse Colliery in Cumbria Planning Decision

    Katherine Fletcher – 2022 Comments on the Woodhouse Colliery in Cumbria Planning Decision

    The comments made by Katherine Fletcher, the Conservative MP for South Ribble, in the House of Commons on 8 December 2022.

    Madam Deputy Speaker, you know me to be a biologist and an environmentalist—I should confess to the House that I also get called a tree hugger by certain hon. Members of this House—but does my right hon. Friend agree that it is the “net” in net zero that is the crucial thing here? We have heard today from the Opposition that this development is not green, but they are wrong. It is better to do this mining on our shores and in a responsible way. Does he agree that the north-west of England has the pride, the heritage, the skills and the future to deliver not only this coking coalmine, but the future industries of 4.0?

    Michael Gove

    I am tempted to say that any tree that is hugged by my hon. Friend is a very lucky tree.

    On the substance of the very important point that my hon. Friend makes, yes, in order to ensure that we have a transition to net zero we do need to reduce our reliance on a variety of different materials. However, as the inspector makes clear, and as my hon. Friend quite rightly points out, the economic benefits that this development brings to the north-west are also entirely consistent with our broader environmental ambitions.

  • Alan Brown – 2022 Speech on the Woodhouse Colliery in Cumbria Planning Decision

    Alan Brown – 2022 Speech on the Woodhouse Colliery in Cumbria Planning Decision

    The speech made by Alan Brown, the SNP MP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun, in the House of Commons on 8 December 2022.

    The decision has been condemned by the Chair of the Climate Change Committee. Chris Stark, chief executive of the committee, retweeted that this is

    “climate vandalism and economic incompetence on a scale difficult to believe”.

    The International Energy Agency previously stated that no further fossil fuel projects can be built if net zero is to be achievable by 2050 and OECD countries need to end use of coal by 2030, so why license this mine to 2049? Ron Deelan, a former chief executive of British Steel, called it

    “a completely unnecessary step for the British Steel Industry”.

    Chris McDonald, chief executive of the Materials Processing Institute research centre, previously advised that British Steel could not use this coal because it is

    “not of the right quality”.

    The reality is that 85% of this coal is going to be exported, so talking about cancelling imports is a complete red herring. What we are doing is increasing our carbon footprint to support industry in the EU. It is illogical and we know demand for coking coal will fall, as the EU is further ahead on the development of green steel. Where is the UK progress on green steel? Coking coal is not even identified on the UK’s critical mineral strategy or in the National Security and Investment Act 2021, although it is a critical mineral for the EU. But, clearly, this mine is not needed for the UK. Given this decision, what steps are being taken to rapidly accelerate the net zero pathway, for example, by changing the Scottish carbon capture and storage cluster to track 1 status?

    The Secretary of State hides behind the recommendations of the Planning Inspectorate. Why did his Government override the Planning Inspectorate on Sizewell C? This coking coal is not critical for the UK. It is going to be exported, so why has he made this decision just to appease Tory Back-Bench climate change cynics?

    Michael Gove

    I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his questions. He quotes a number of individuals and draws explicitly—he was good enough to acknowledge this—party political conclusions. I relied on the inspector’s report and on the evidence in front of me. As I explained in my decision letter, no evidence was provided to suggest that any other metallurgical coal mine in the world aspires to be net zero, so the proposed mine is likely to be much better placed to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions than comparative mining operations around the world. On that basis, it is entirely in keeping with our net zero commitments, and indeed with the commitment to not only jobs, but the environment, to approve the inspector’s case.

  • Lisa Nandy – 2022 Speech on the Woodhouse Colliery in Cumbria Planning Decision

    Lisa Nandy – 2022 Speech on the Woodhouse Colliery in Cumbria Planning Decision

    The speech made by Lisa Nandy, the Labour MP for Wigan, in the House of Commons on 8 December 2022.

    I have one question for the Secretary of State: what on earth is he thinking? The decision to greenlight the reopening of the Woodhouse colliery is bad policy and bad politics. It is the latest in a string of absurd decisions from a Government in chaos, causing chaos in this Chamber and out there in the country. They are in office but not in power.

    This mine will produce coking coal used for steel, not for electricity generation. So, as the Secretary of State has had to admit today, the claim it helps to safeguard our energy security is nonsense, but it gets worse. The two big steel producers, Tata and British Steel, are phasing out this coal in favour of lower-carbon production methods. By the mid-2030s, at best, the UK will use less than 10% of the mine’s output. Across the world, demand for coking coal is projected to fall off a cliff, by 88%, by 2050.

    People in Cumbria deserve a long-term future, with lasting, well-paid jobs that power us through the next century. Instead, they are saddled with a weak, short-sighted and unambitious Government who, only two months ago, rejected a plan to bring new nuclear to Cumbria, which would have created not 500 short-term jobs but 10,000 jobs for the long term.

    The right hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove) is supposed to be the Secretary of State for Levelling Up. The Tories were once the party of conservation, and now they are the party of environmental vandalism. He can fiddle the figures all he likes, but the reality is that this mine is projected to increase emissions by 0.4 million tonnes a year, according to his own advisers. That is equivalent to putting 200,000 more cars on the road every single year.

    This decision flies in the face of Britain’s net zero objectives, contradicts the aims of the UK’s COP26 presidency and undermines the 2019 Conservative manifesto. This is chaos. Successive Secretaries of State are contradicting each other and the Government’s independent adviser on climate change condemned the decision as “indefensible” even as the Secretary of State stands here trying to defend it.

    The Secretary of State told us that coal has no part to play in future power generation. He cannot even agree with himself. No leadership abroad. No leadership at home. Unable to lead even in his own party. I hope he will at least reassure the House today that this bizarre decision, which he cannot even defend, was not part of a deal to buy off Back Benchers after his U-turn earlier this week on onshore wind.

    People in Britain deserve better. Right across the country, communities such as mine in Wigan and across Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria are proud of our mining heritage and of the contribution we made to this country, but we want a Government who look forward and match our ambition so that, through clean energy, our young people can power us through the next century like their parents and grandparents powered us through the last. Where is the ambition? Where is the leadership? Where is the government?

    The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (Michael Gove)

    Mr Speaker, thank you for your ruling earlier. I apologise to you and to the House. No discourtesy was intended. I appreciate the importance of maintaining the courtesies of the House, particularly with regard to statements.

    As I mentioned earlier, the context of this statement is a quasi-judicial process on a planning application. I always admire the rhetoric of the hon. Member for Wigan (Lisa Nandy), and she asks, “Where is the ambition? Where is the leadership?” I think we all know where the ambition and the leadership is: it is sitting right across from me.

    The hon. Lady will have her own views on future demand for coking coal, but I fear she elides the difference between coking coal used for metallurgical purposes and coal used for energy generation purposes. The inspector’s report makes it clear that coking coal is used not for energy purposes but purely for metallurgical purposes, for the manufacture of steel. Of course, we will need steel for decades to come, including in the renewables sector. How else will we ensure that we supply all the materials necessary for onshore wind and other renewable energy without using steel? If she or anybody else in the House has an answer, I and millions of scientists would love to hear it.

    It is important to look at the inspector’s report, as I have in detail. The inspector makes it clear on page 239, in paragraph 21.37, that in all the scenarios and forecasts presented to him there was

    “continued demand for coking coal for a number of decades.”

    He also made it clear that, at the moment, imports of coking coal come from Australia, the USA and Russia. As I pointed out in the statement, and as the inspector makes clear, no evidence has been provided to suggest that any other metallurgical coal mine in the world aspires to be net zero in the way the Whitehaven development does. Again, the inspector makes it clear that the

    “development would to some extent support the transition to a low carbon future as a consequence of the provision of a currently needed resource from a mine that aspires to be net zero.”

    The European Commission is clear that coking coal is a critical part of steel and that steel is necessary to the future of Europe. We recognise that the demand for this coking coal, both in the UK and in Europe, is better supplied from a net zero mine than from other alternatives. As the inspector makes clear, this decision will also be responsible for high-skilled, high-value jobs in Cumbria, alongside other jobs in the supply chain elsewhere, and that is without prejudice to the other investment that the Government are making in clean green energy sources alongside it.

    The inspector’s report is clear and, in responding to the questions from the hon. Member for Wigan, I urge every Member of the House to read the inspector’s report in full, alongside my decision letter. Those 350 pages lay out the evidence. They present the arguments for and against the decision. The inspector, an independent planning expert, has concluded that this development should go ahead and I agree with him.

  • Michael Gove – 2022 Statement on New Coalmine at Whitehaven in Cumbria

    Michael Gove – 2022 Statement on New Coalmine at Whitehaven in Cumbria

    The statement made by Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, in the House of Commons on 8 December 2022.

    With permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to make a statement following the decision I made yesterday to grant planning permission for a new metallurgical coalmine at Whitehaven in Cumbria.

    I think it is important to stress at the beginning of my statement that I am speaking with regard to a planning decision that I have taken in my capacity as Secretary of State in what is a quasi-judicial process. Members of the House will be aware that the decision may, of course, be subject to a legal challenge, so I urge all Members of the House who are interested in the decision to read the decision letter, which was published yesterday, alongside the detailed report of the independent planning inspector who oversaw the public inquiry into the proposals. Any mature and considered response needs to take account of both my decision letter and the planning inspector’s full report.

    I would like to refer in my statement to some of the arguments that the planning inspector has entertained and some of the arguments that he has made in the course of his report, but nothing that I say at the Dispatch Box should be taken in any way as a substitute for full engagement with the inspector’s report.

    It is important to note that it is rare that any planning decision is an open-and-shut matter. There are almost always competing elements for and against any planning scheme—particularly a substantial one of this kind, which can raise serious and passionate debate—but the open and transparent public inquiry system allows all those issues to be fully explored. It also allows all parties to put their case before an independent inspector.

    The decision that I issued yesterday was in line directly with the recommendation of the inspector, who heard all the evidence for and against the scheme and was able to test that evidence through the participation of interested parties. This was a comprehensive and thorough process, lasting over a month and hearing from over 40 different witnesses. It is summarised in a report of over 350 pages, which, again, I urge all hon. Members to read.

    I think it important to restate—as I think is well understood—that the proposal granted permission yesterday for the production of coking coal for use in steel production is not an energy proposal. Our net zero strategy makes it clear that coal has no part to play in future power generation, which is why we will be phasing it out of our electricity supply by 2024. Coal’s share of our electricity supply has already declined significantly in recent years. It was almost 40% of our energy supply in 2012, and less than 2% in 2020.

    I took account of the facts in reviewing the planning application, as did the inspector, taking into particular account the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy industrial decarbonisation strategy of March 2021, which explicitly does not rule out the use of coking coal in an integrated steel-making process, and makes it clear that, together with carbon capture and storage, that can be part of a net zero-compliant option.

    It is important to note, as the inspector makes plain on page 239 of the report, that it is clear all the scenarios and forecasts for the future use of coking coal which were put before the inquiry demonstrated a continued demand for coking coal for a number of decades to come. It is also important to state that the European Commission, as the inspector noted, recognised the indispensable role of coking coal during the steel industry’s transition to climate neutrality.

    It is also important to note, as the inspector did on page 238, that the UK is currently almost wholly dependent on imports of coking coal to meet its steel manufacturing demand. In 2017, 98.8% of the more than 3 million tonnes of coking coal used in UK steel plants was imported. The main exporters of coking coal at the moment are Australia, the USA and, of course, Russia. European metallurgical coal demand is forecast to remain between 50 and 55 million tonnes per annum for the next 28 years, and in the UK demand is forecast to remain at the current level of 1.5 million tonnes per annum.

    The coking coal that will be extracted from the mine in Whitehaven is of a particular quality. Coking coal is usually a blended product of soft and hard high volatile coals and low volatile coals. The coal from the proposed mine would have a low ash content of below 5%, compared with between 7% and 8% for US coal and 10 % for Australian coal. It would also have a low phosphorus content, lower than that of Australian coal, and a high fluidity. It is also important to note that, while the sulphur content of this coal has been referred to, and it is relatively high, the evidence before the inspector suggests that the coal handling and processing plant will produce coal with an average sulphur content of 1.4 %, and the applicant has stated its acceptance of the planning condition to ensure the product leaving the mine meets this level.

    It is also important to note that the applicant is making it clear that this will be the only net zero metallurgical coking coalmine in the world. It is vitally important that all of us recognise—as the inspector does on page 255—that the proposed development would to some extent support the transition to a low-carbon future specifically as a consequence of the provision of a currently needed resource from a mine that aspires to be net zero. I think it is also important that we recognise that, in any change of land use, there will always be a potential impact on biodiversity and on the local environment as well. Again, it is important to note that, on page 278 of his report, the inspector makes it clear that this mine would not cause any unacceptable impacts on ecology or result in a net loss of biodiversity. The inspector also makes it clear in paragraph 22.9 that the proposed development itself would have an overall neutral effect on climate change, and as such there would be no material conflict with Government policies for meeting the challenge of climate change.

    Taking account of all these environmental considerations, we should also bear in mind the impact on employment and on the economy, locally and nationally. As the inspectorate notes on page 279, the mine will directly create 532 jobs, which will make a substantial contribution to local employment opportunities because they will be skilled and well-paid jobs. The employment, and indirect employment, that would follow will result in a significant contribution to the local and regional economy, with increased spending in local shops, facilities and services. In addition, the exportation of some of the coal to European markets will make a significant contribution to the UK balance of payments. It is therefore the case that granting the application is compliant with planning policy, and the social and economic benefits should be afforded substantial weight.

    The inspector’s report makes a strong case, in a balanced way, for the granting of permission. After reading the inspector’s report in full, I am satisfied, in my role as Secretary of State, that it is the right thing to do to grant this planning application.

  • Therese Coffey – 2022 Speech at CBD COP15 Held at Natural History Museum

    Therese Coffey – 2022 Speech at CBD COP15 Held at Natural History Museum

    The speech made by Therese Coffey, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, at the Natural History Museum in London on 7 December 2022.

    Thank you for joining us bright and early and thank you to the staff of the Natural History Museum for hosting us here before they open their doors to the public this morning as they have done for generations.

    We are proud to be backing your important work. And we are fortunate to have this cathedral of nature consecrated to 4.5 billion years of natural history to the pursuit of science and to the study and appreciation of the world’s flora and fauna right here, in our capital city.

    So it’s hard to think of a more inspiring place for us to meet as I call on all of you to help us come together to secure the future of life on earth and a better future for every generation to come.

    When I visited the Museum recently some of the scientists here reminded me that just five years ago, in Hintze Hall a diplodocus would have greeted us.

    But it is right that we are now dwarfed by the awesome, twenty-five-metre skeleton of a blue whale the largest animal that has ever existed bigger even than the biggest dinosaur.

    Forty years ago – following a coordinated campaign from schoolchildren and conservation experts alike – including many of the organisations you represent, sea-going nations from around the world came together at the Metropole Hotel in Brighton and agreed a moratorium on commercial whaling.

    In a global move to bring species back from the brink of extinction and find more peaceful ways of appreciating these wonderful creatures.

    As Environment Minister, a few years ago I had the privilege of watching humpback whales from a boat in Petite Passage, Nova Scotia and it was a profoundly moving experience.

    And while this work is ongoing, we should take heart from what we have achieved and our commitment to seeing it through. Because it seemed impossible until it was done.

    Because with blue whale populations now recovering Sir David Attenborough is right to say that ‘Hope’ is an important emblem of what we can achieve.

    And because sharing success is so important at a time when we need to steel our resolve to work together to solve so many challenges when we need to renew the trust between people and power around the world and when we must make the most of the UN nature conference, CBD COP15 in Montreal.

    For far too long the Cinderella of the story, it’s cinderellas time to shine but now rightly recognised by all of us here – as our best chance yet to secure the decade of action we need.

    I am proud that the UK laid the groundwork for success in Montreal through our presidency of COP26 – the climate COP – in Glasgow.

    Together, we brought nature – land and ocean – and effective, cost-effective nature-based solutions from the margins of the global debate into the heart of our collective response to the causes and impacts of climate change for the first time securing unprecedented investment in nature – land and ocean from all sources, public, private and philanthropic

    , including greater global backing for natural wonders on which the whole world depends from the Amazon to the Congo Basin and accelerating the economic shifts that are already underway to make sure every dollar in our economies takes us closer to our shared goals.

    At COP27 in Egypt, I saw the legacy of COP26 alive and kicking not least in the way countries and companies are now honouring their commitments – including on forests – and building on them as well.

    We are engaging the United Arab Emirates as hosts of COP28 next year to make sure we

    And in all of this, our ability to lead depends on our longstanding, ongoing commitment – across government to identify and then use every lever we have to leave the environment in a better state than we found it

    From the way we work with the private sector, including the financial sector

    – to secure the public good – to the way we use public money to support the production of food. Something I spoke to our famers about last week so we make the most of our newfound freedoms and our landmark legislation to make timely progress on meeting our domestic targets to reach net-zero by 2050 and halt the decline of nature by 2030.

    In support of that target I am delighted to announce that, this spring we will launch a new multi-million pound fund to create and restore wildlife-rich habitats, including on protected sites from scrub, to wetlands and grasslands where each investment will secure multiple benefits for nature, climate, and people and encourage opportunities for private funding by backing underfunded projects that give us the biggest bang for our buck.

    By making good on our commitment to double UK international climate finance to 11.6 billion pounds and to spend at least 3 billion on nature, including through our newly established 500 million pound Blue Planet Fund and our 100 million pound Biodiverse Landscapes Fund.

    We are building on decades of experience backing efforts to take on the whole host of threats that now face the world’s flora and fauna – well beyond climate change alone through the Blue Belt programme, protecting an area of ocean larger than India around our biodiverse Overseas Territories, our world-renowned 39 million pound Darwin Initiative and the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund.

    And whether it’s taking on illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing persuading countries to agree a new, legally-binding global treaty to end plastic pollution, by 2040 or supporting efforts to establish a global gold standard for taking nature into account across our economies on the world stage and behind the scenes the UK is leading, co-leading, and actively supporting the global coalitions that are committed to securing the maximum possible ambition and achieving the greatest possible impact.

    That includes our approach to the UN nature conference that kicked off yesterday.

    Our world-class UK negotiating team are in the hot-seat building on four years of talks with the support of our world-class scientists from a range of institutions, including Kew Gardens and JNCC.

    And later this week, I will lead a team of ministers from Defra, the FCDO and the Treasury, working as one to persuade our counterparts from around the world to give their negotiators the political backing they need to build consensus around a robust, ambitious global framework for action that will put nature on a road to recovery, this decade.

    That must include targets to protect at least 30% of the world’s land and at least 30% of the global ocean, by 2030 and to see natural systems restored, populations of species recovering, and extinctions halted by 2050 alongside strengthened reporting and review mechanisms that will hold all of us to account for the promises we make and commitments to work in partnership with indigenous peoples and local communities, who depend on nature most directly and understand it so deeply so we make sure everyone feels the benefit of seeing this through.

    And we know that demonstrating our collective willingness and ability to close the finance gap for nature is key to unlocking the ambition we need in Montreal.

    And that is why the UK has been working with our friends in Ecuador, Gabon, and the Maldives to develop a 10 Point Plan for Financing Biodiversity, an ambitious, credible blueprint for action that increases our chances of achieving consensus by making sure that any government approaching the negotiations in good faith will be able to see a potential solution to their concerns.

    Our Plan commands the confidence of developed and developing countries spanning five continents – and counting.

    We are doing all we can to persuade others to endorse it.

    And I hope that you too will help us to gather further support in this final furlong – and beyond.

    Ultimately, we all know that there is a long road between where we stand today, and where we need to be.

    In national parks in South Africa I have seen how the illegal wildlife trade pits people and wildlife against one another with devastating consequences for all.

    On visits to small island states I have heard what it means for communities when their homelands face an existential threat.

    And the evidence for why this is so urgent is now all around us in the wisdom of indigenous people and local communities, in the science and in events on every continent.

    But I genuinely believe that if we work together to make the road ahead a road to recovery, we stand not just to avoid the worst impacts but to save precious species by securing the diversity, abundance and connectivity of life on Earth that will also help to bolster the peace and prosperity we all want to see and fundamentally to improve the lives of people at home and around the world for generations to come as well.

    The UK is committed to playing our part and to continuing to work with all of you and our friends around the world to see this through.

    The action you take can have a massive impact and you have the power to inspire others to step up as well.

    So once again, I want to thank you for joining us and I urge you to keep up the good work.

    Thank you very much.

  • Therese Coffey – 2022 Speech to the CLA Business Conference

    Therese Coffey – 2022 Speech to the CLA Business Conference

    The speech made by Therese Coffey, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, at the Oval cricket ground in London on 1 December 2022.

    It is a great pleasure to be to here with you today making my first public outing outside of Parliament since returning to Defra.

    I’ve always found the CLA to be a sensible voice at local and national level, and it’s had the great judgement to hiring Sarah Hendry as your director general, who was one of my best civil servants I ever worked with, during my first time at Defra when I spent 3 years there. It’s good to be back.

    The CLA have been at the forefront of thinking imaginatively, ambitiously, and practically about the future of farming for well over a hundred years now never mind since the British people voted to leave the European Union. You’re right Mark to reference your Rural Powerhouse Report. And it’s important that we continue to use documents like that with potential policy ideas and long may it continue.

    I thought it might be worth turning straight away to some of the comments made by Mark Tufnell and Professor Sally Shortall now. Some may not know this, when I was first in the role at Defra as Environment Minister, I asked to do more about rural life, and so I actually created the extra bit of rural life opportunities, and it is important that we have that focus in our department. Lord Benyon is our Rural Affairs Minister but I can assure that we all represent rural areas, we’re very conscious of the points that you’ve laid out. In Cumbria I think is the situation with the 16 plus bought instead of the daily trips to and from the college, recognising the opportunities to have. And indeed, some of the work I did at DWP, when we were in the framing of the levelling up framework that Michael Gove of course, pioneered, former Defra Secretary of State, and is leading once again in Government. One of the things I pointed out to my colleagues is that quite often you see a map of where people are considered to have really low income, and are not very well off and not particularly productive, and it really surprised them to hear that the district council areas with lowest median salary, were all rural, including the Prime Ministers own constituency, his council, was the third lowest median salary in the country. And that recognises quite a lot of the fact that the predominant sectors there are agricultural and tourism. And if you’re working in there rather than perhaps being the owner of one of the enterprises then the salaries are not as high as we’d like I’m sure.

    I want to stress that I will be having this important focus, and I know that all our Ministers are similarly engaged, recognising that we want to make sure that the prism of rural life is reflected and considered, particularly in things like levelling up, and the shared prosperity fund as we move forward.

    Turning to what Mark said, as he’s pointed out, overcoming barriers to business success is the main theme of this conference today, and while most of my comments will be about the farming side of your members interests, I think it’s a reflection that it’s absolutely critical that we get growth going again in this country and I do see the rural economy as a part of that. And I like to think that what we have done in the last 12 years, it may not be all complete I get that, but extending internet and broadband access that’s largely done; we still need to improve the mobile phone connection; I know that for farmers they welcome the fact that we’re adjusting taxes so that we can spread over 5 years instead of the annual tax return. And I thought that would be useful towards the cash flow challenges that sometimes come, as we see different outcomes every season.

    But indeed also, we have rightly kept the inheritance tax exemption under agricultural. But I think we’ve also tried to strive to help businesses find more sector diversify. I know that we’ve already changed planning rules and guidance to allow more use of our buildings, and I do want to point out that primarily it is the local government and local councils that make decisions on individual local planning applications, and to some extent the national planning policy framework will of course help guide that, but it is their decision on exactly where and how through their local plans they support the rural economy to thrive.

    And as I say, Lord Benyon is the rural affairs Minister, and I can assure you my time in 12 years as being a member if Parliament for Suffolk coastal where I’ve seen Grade 4 land – I’m not quite sure if Grade 5 land has been used – but Grade 4 land is used for very productive production of much of the food that gets eaten in this country, and indeed extending the seasons to get through crops of potatoes every year I think is particularly special. I continue to learn and I do see the CLA, pretty much every year at the Suffolk Show, and I’m very delighted to go and meet them as well as other my constituents.

    Now turning to the more broad substance, I know that there are many pressures that are coalescing right now that impact your businesses, whether that’s flooding and droughts that we’ve seen, outbreaks of pests and diseases, or indeed the global challenges affecting prices, energy and supply chains and we should be very clear the aftershock of covid I’m afraid will still be with us for some time and I cannot give you any timeline exactly on how long the illegal invasion of Ukraine will carry on but we know there will be consequences and there are consequences right now and that’s why the Government is making changes to its energy strategy to try and mitigate.. Those things will not come straight away apart from some of the support schemes that are already in place.

    But it is why we have set out urgent new measures and change on how we’ve dealt with avian influenza.

    It’s why we hope that the support we’re trying to give to farmers, recognising the rising input costs for feed and energy through a range of measures, whether that’s continuing the mini budget last year reinstated, the fuel duty and VAT cuts, and in terms of action to reduce business rates and indeed the businesses energy support scheme.

    So, knowing cashflow is probably the critical thing that we will help an enterprise keep going or not, it’s why to support farmers’ cashflows we changed BPS payment to twice a year, for the first time ever, and that’s only thanks to leaving the EU that we’ve been able to make those changes.

    We paid out £677 million out to you earlier this year. And a further £620 million will be paid from today. And I want to assure you that the Farming Minister, Mark Spencer, is meeting retailers and processors regularly, to encourage them to recognise that the burden of higher input costs is falling heavily on farmers.

    Thinking of these global impacts, I don’t think anywhere in the world has felt these more keenly than in Ukraine, traditionally the breadbasket of Europe.

    Amidst the turmoil of war, it is truly extraordinary that the farmers of Ukraine have managed to get so much of the harvest in. And at time when Ukrainians themselves are suffering so much I was really pleased that we were able to support this initiative to get grain from Ukraine to some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world. And I genuinely think that what they’ve done is an act of global humanity at its very best.

    That’s why at the weekend I was proud to join the conference and to send a contribution of £5m to Ukraine to support this initiative on behalf of the Government, the British people, and indeed particularly on behalf of farmers.

    Now I’m less than 2 months into the role, there is still a lot that I’m still working through at Defra. And while having spent 3 years in the department before I’m now the Secretary of State and have a much wider range of issues to tackle.

    But I felt it was important for me to be clear about our intentions for the future. So, I’ll cut to the chase.

    As we made clear in our manifesto, one of the biggest bonuses of leaving the EU, was the opportunity to free our farmers from the bureaucratic Common Agricultural Policy and move to a system as we set out in our manifesto based on spending public money in a way that helps us to secure the public good.

    I like to think we have already started cutting back the red tape that has held you and us back, scrapping the three-crop rule and greening requirements that really did so little for nature, because that actually caused real headaches for you without really much outcome.

    We certainly have guaranteed the annual farming budget over this Parliament but in return we want to support you to farm in a way that safeguards high standards of animal welfare and protects and enhances our natural environment. So we make timely progress towards meeting our vital targets to halt the decline of nature in our country during this decade and ultimately to reach net zero by 2050 – making progress with every carbon budget, securing the clean and plentiful water that we need to build the resilience of our businesses, our food system, and our whole country to the impacts of a changing climate, so that we can secure the strong foundation of our whole economy – and the engine of our rural economy as well.

    Farming is the backbone of our second largest manufacturing sector, it bring jobs to every county, and does play a vital role in rural communities across our country.

    That is why we decided, in good faith, to review our plans, to make sure that we achieve the greatest possible impact for our environment, that we would secure the biggest bang for our buck in the way we spend tax payer’s money, and so that it is easy and attractive for farmers get involved.

    I know you need certainty, you need to plan ahead for future investment cycles. But I also want to be clear we recognise the needs that we may need to be agile and retain the dynamism that we have set in motion so we make sure that we are funding schemes that work in terms of the outcomes and in terms of take up.

    That is why we will continue to work together to iterate and improve our approach over time.

    And I think back to when I was in the role before and I was told how HLS was the best designed scheme in Europe, and the problem was hardly anyone took it up, and that’s something we really need to avoid.

    So turning to the next steps, where decades, even generations of hard-won experience have given us a strong sense of what already works. I’m very clear we don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

    It’s important that we support your stewardship of our shared stock of natural capital across our brilliant landscapes and reflect the immense contribution you make to your communities and also respect the way of life that you cherish.

    I am pleased to tell you that the review is now complete and that we are moving ahead with the transition, on the same timescale and with three schemes.

    All the funding that we are taking out through reductions in BPS over time will continue to be made available to farmers through a combination of one-off grants and ongoing schemes and the advice you need to get your business on the right footing for the future.

    As we make those planned, steady reductions to BPS payments, we will offer payment to you to take action through our three environmental land management schemes.

    And our aim, across those schemes, is not ‘one size fits all’ but a range of options so everyone can find a combination that works for them.

    So whether you’re a commoner, upland farmer, or small family farm, and whether you’re a landowner or a tenant farmer recognising elements of the Rock review.

    As your president said, the choice is not producing food or doing environmental schemes, it’s about making space for nature and that must go alongside sustainable food production.

    They are not mutually exclusive. They can be symbiotic.

    And we need to embrace the complexity that holds the key to getting the critical decisions right on how we can make the most of our land to achieve all the things we want to do from planting forests and protecting peatlands to producing food.

    We can bolster sustainable, resilient food production and protect our shared natural heritage and our rural heritage. We need to build more of the homes that people need while we also get on with tackling the causes and the impacts of climate change as well as improving the state of nature.

    And we will have those honest conversations with you about how we maximise those multiple benefits for land.

    So, turning to our three schemes.

    As we reduce the amount being spent on BPS we will be adding options to our current offer so that by 2024, farmers will have access to the full range of actions they can be paid to take on their land.

    For our Sustainable Farming Incentive – our aim is to get as many of you as possible signed up.

    The initial phase is now live – and is focused specifically on securing the health of our soil that is critical to food production and to reducing inputs so that we support the natural world from the ground up.

    And we will build on that with more standards each year so you can choose more options for your business.

    I’m really pleased that over 30,000 farmers are now involved in our simplified, streamlined, and I hope overall, enhanced Countryside Stewardship scheme – that’s a 94% increase in three years. Something must be working.

    We have listened to your concerns, we’ve learned from your experiences and I hope we’ve made a lot of improvements – but we know there’s a lot more to do.

    I want to build on that success, by developing Countryside Stewardship, so we achieve the same ambitious outcomes that we intended to deliver through Local Nature Recovery but instead to have an enhanced version of the Countryside Stewardship scheme that is already part of thousands of farm businesses rather than introducing a whole new process.

    That is the right thing to do and the smart thing to do with public money as we develop the markets that will draw in finance from all sources.

    With the first 22 Landscape Recovery pilot projects up and running for our third scheme that holds true at scale as well.

    And it seems to me to be common sense that when communities come together locally or businesses come together to create the sort of wildlife corridors that are critical to the connectivity as well as the diversity and abundance of species and to the health of our waterways, the impact that they achieve together will be greater than the sum of its parts and as a consequence you will be rewarded accordingly.

    My priority is to make sure that we make it as simple and straightforward as possible for us succeed and, let’s be straight forward about this, in my view, farmers are the original friends of the earth. You are the stewards; you are the custodians of our countryside.

    I will tell anyone that will listen that our British farmers are outstanding in their field. We produce high quality food that is well-known around the world and working with nature – not against it is the natural instinct of every farmer I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.

    You look after more than 70% of our land. We cannot make these changes to improve the environment or get to net zero without you

    That’s why we want to work with you to tackle this together so we help the environment, backing the frontrunners and helping everyone to bring up their baseline.

    Sadly, there will still be and still are polluters who let the side down and end up threatening these collective efforts.

    And frankly if they don’t accept our support, we will tackle them head on, but we want to focus on all of you and help you take your businesses into the future.

    So, we are getting you the cutting-edge kit and the expert advice you need to improve productivity, health and welfare.

    We are investing in your connectivity, with new trials confirmed today to beam broadband into the hardest to reach rural areas directly from satellites in space

    As well as tripling the value of vouchers available under the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme from early next year.

    We are funding the Institute for Agriculture and Horticulture so we can create the conditions we need to retain generations of experience, develop promising talent, and indeed attract fresh blood into the sector.

    And of course, we will back the world-class British science and innovation that is key to improving productivity and resilience, and we will make the most of new legislation that will confirm our newfound freedom to make sure British expertise leads the way on the precision breeding that is so important for food security around the world.

    In all of this, I am committed to making sure that we give you the clarity, certainty and support that I know you need.

    So early in the new year, I can’t make the announcements today, we will be saying more about what we’ll be offering to pay you to do in the next phase of all the schemes.

    And with the time it takes to get an SFI application done and dusted, it’s already been slashed from 6 months during the pilot to under 2 weeks for the full scheme – and often much less than that. My hope is that you will find it relatively quick and easy to identify a set of actions that works for your business, sign up for payments and crack on with your plan to make your business more resilient, more sustainable, more profitable, and indeed more productive in the months and years ahead.

    Lastly, I want to thank all of you who are working with us on the development of these schemes and for your continued engagement – as well as for all the other sterling work that you do.

    I can assure you we remain as ambitious as ever – on all fronts and it is essential that we continue to work together to get this done and get it right.

    I know we can do it.

    And we have to make this work, to tackle climate change, improve the state of nature, support our rural communities and to make sure the way we produce food is sustainable and resilient for the future.

    Thank you – and I wish you all the best for the rest of your conference.

  • Therese Coffey – 2022 Statement on Funding for Woodlands and Timber Industry

    Therese Coffey – 2022 Statement on Funding for Woodlands and Timber Industry

    The statement made by Therese Coffey, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in the House of Commons on 29 November 2022.

    Today we announced £20 million of funding to improve tree planting stocks, woodland resilience and domestic timber production, and to accelerate tree planting across England.

    The £10 million has been awarded through the Woods into Management Forestry Innovation Funds and the Tree Production Innovation Fund to support projects that explore new technologies and business models to improve tree planting stocks and woodland resilience.

    In addition, 57 local authorities have been awarded nearly £10 million to accelerate tree planting.

    These initiatives will see hundreds of thousands of trees planted in communities across England. They represent another step forward in the Government’s drive to treble tree planting rates across England by the end of this Parliament.

    The Local Authority Treescapes Fund and the Urban Tree Challenge Fund will reopen for new applications early in 2023.

    Applicant Total Grant £
    Oxfordshire County Council 150,000
    Lancashire County Council 300,000
    Tees Valley Combined Authority 299,996
    Nottinghamshire County Council 149,845
    Kent County Council 299,642
    West of England Combined Aut. 299,738
    Rotherham Metropolitan BC 107,000
    North Yorkshire County Council 150,000
    City of York Council 149,800
    Warwickshire County Council 150,000
    City of Trees 299,880
    Gateshead Council 147,886
    Wakefield Metropolitan DC 147,921
    Gloucestershire County Council 149,853
    Lambeth Council 142,024
    London Borough of Enfield 144,042
    London Borough of Hillingdon 148,712
    East Riding of Yorkshire Council 103,153
    City of Bradford Metropolitan DC 150,000
    Portsmouth City Council 147,116
    Calderdale Borough Council 55,332
    Devon County Council 298,476
    Lincolnshire County Council 283,387
    Doncaster Council 138,108
    Shropshire Council 149,618
    Hertfordshire County Council 148,500
    Halton Borough Council 148,402
    Knowsley Metropolitan BC 150,000
    Newcastle City Council 290,000
    Buckinghamshire Council 144,778
    North Somerset Council 150,000
    Kirklees Council 80,524
    Worcestershire CC 149,708
    North Lincolnshire Council 149,932
    Surrey County Council 150,000
    London Borough of Islington 146,411
    Haringey Council 88,296
    Somerset County Council 296,948
    Sheffield City Council 147,520
    Leicestershire County Council 149,577
    London Borough of Barnett 100,000
    Walsall Council 149,624
    Cheshire West and Chester Council 144,520
    Royal Borough of Greenwich 135,488
    Wirral Council 85,274
    Hampshire County Council 150,000
    Norfolk County Council 148,225
    Leeds City Council 125,176
    Central Bedfordshire 140,028
    Solihull MBC 149,215
    Wiltshire Council 294,800
    Bedford Borough Council 150,000
    Cambridgeshire County Council 300,000
    St Helens Council 149,000
    North Northamptonshire 150,000
    City of London Corporation 88,292
    Peterborough City Council 149,809
  • James Bevan – 2022 Speech at the Institute for Government

    James Bevan – 2022 Speech at the Institute for Government

    The speech made by Sir James Bevan, the Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, on 29 November 2022.

    Introduction: the story so far

    Climate change is real and it isn’t to be taken lightly: on the contrary, it’s the biggest threat there is. But it’s often talked about in the same way in the same (rather techie) words, which can cause people’s attention (including mine) to drift off elsewhere. So today I want to tell you about climate in a different way, by using a fairy story – Cinderella – as an analogy. To be honest I’m not sure this really works, because as you’ll see it requires a fairly tortuous use of the story. But despite or maybe even because of that, I hope you will remember the message.

    Cinderella is not a real person. But let’s start with someone who is, the UN Secretary General. “We are on the highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator”. Those are his words at COP27 a couple of weeks ago. Not too cheery I know, but don’t worry, I’m going to get the positive bit in a minute.

    First though I wanted to point out that many people are already living in climate hell. In the past two decades, climate-related disasters have nearly doubled compared to the preceding 20 years. They have killed thousands of people and forced hundreds of millions to flee their homes.  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change now estimates that nearly half of humanity is living in a climate-related danger zone. And it’s not just us humans – the species that caused climate change – who are in danger. More than 1 million other species are at risk of extinction.

    And this isn’t just an issue for other people in faraway countries. 4,000 heat-related deaths have been recorded in England since 2018, drought has threatened our water supply this year (and continues to threaten it next summer if we don’t get good rainfall throughout the winter), sea level rise and coastal erosion are putting many British communities at serious risk, and flood events previously predicted to happen once a century are now nearly annual occurrences.

    I’m not telling you all this to shock you into a state of helpless paralysis. In fact, despite everything I have just said, I am a climate optimist. Let me explain why.

    Why the story can have a happy ending

    I am a climate optimist because it’s clear that this story can have a happy ending. Tackling the climate emergency is not rocket science. We know what the problem is: greenhouse gas emissions from human activity are warming the planet, changing the climate and producing higher seas and more extreme weather. And we know what the solution is: we need to stop the emissions of the gases that are changing the climate (for which the technical term is mitigation) and we need to reshape our places, our infrastructure, our economy and our lifestyles so we can live safely and well in a climate-changed world (for which the technical term is adaptation). So the good news is that we know what we need to do. We just need to do it.

    Writing a good story: mitigation and Prince Charming

    And in many respects, we are starting to do it.

    We have begun to make substantial progress on the first side of the climate coin: mitigation. That is happening at international, national and individual level.

    We are seeing the global cooperation we need to tackle what is quintessentially a global problem, through the UN COP process, under which all countries are committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and to trying to keep global temperature rise to no more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Is that process perfect? No. Is it going as far and as fast as we would all like? No. But is it essential and is it making progress on reducing the causes of climate change? Yes and yes.

    We are seeing many countries take action at national level to bring down their carbon emissions. The UK deserves credit for its own leadership here. In 2019 the UK became the first major economy in the world to legislate to reach net zero emissions by 2050. And since then we have cut our emissions by more than any other G20 country. That didn’t happen by accident. Planning, innovation, policies, prioritisation and resourcing the right things at the right time, actions that are being driven by many of you in the room today, have made securing a net zero future look both attainable and attractive, which is why many other countries are now doing what the UK is doing.

    The Environment Agency plays a big part in helping mitigate the UK’s climate impact. We:

    • regulate the carbon and other emissions of most industries, businesses and farms in this country. Since 2010 we have cut the emissions of greenhouse gases from the sites we regulate by 50%.
    • administer the UK Emissions Trading Scheme, which caps and will over time further reduce the emissions of heavy industry, aviation and other significant producers of greenhouse gases.
    • are walking the walk ourselves with our own commitment to make the Environment Agency and our whole supply chain a Net Zero emitter by 2030.

    So the mitigation side of tackling the climate emergency is getting a lot of attention and airtime. Getting to Net Zero is popular with most people. It is something that almost everybody knows about. You could say that mitigation is the Prince Charming of the climate emergency.

    Where we need a different story: adaptation

    But there is a Cinderella in this story too: adaptation.

    Even if we stopped all emissions of greenhouse gases tonight, those that have occurred over the last two hundred or so years since the Industrial Revolution mean that the climate will still continue to change. Which is why the other side of the climate coin – adaptation to make us more resilient in a climate changed world – is just as important as the mitigation which Net Zero provides. And here the story is less good.

    While the 2015 Paris COP established a Global Goal on Adaptation, progress has been slow. And the complexity of articulating, measuring and implementing good adaptation means it has been largely ignored in favour of focussing on the easier to understand and measure mitigation targets. Which is one reason why in 2020 only about a third (36%) of global climate projects were related to adaptation. And why the UK Committee on Climate Change described adaptation as ‘The Cinderella of climate change, still sitting in rags by the stove: under-resourced, underfunded and often ignored’. And that has consequences.

    Parliament’s Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy has said that the UK has so far largely failed to adapt much of its critical infrastructure to the climate emergency, threatening the country’s security and prosperity. Unless we can start closing the widening gap between adaptation action and worsening climate risk, various ugly sisters will rear their heads. We will see significant and growing threats to our habitats, our soil health, our crops, our power systems, our physical and mental health, and our economy.

    And the longer we leave it to adapt, the bigger the bill we are handing to our children. Because it will be them who are forced to pay for the deterioration of our climate-vulnerable infrastructure and the disruptive consequences of climate impacts. Today flooding causes £670m worth of damage every year to non-residential properties across the UK. Unless we take further action to adapt, under a very plausible 2°C by 2100 warming scenario, those damages will be 27% higher by 2050 and 40% higher by 2080. This is not what the next generation need on top of the rising cost of living.

    Writing a new and better chapter: adaptation and resilience

    Luckily, Cinders may get to go to the ball after all, because a new chapter is in sight – one in which we do put as much emphasis on adaptation and resilience as we do on mitigation.

    Last year’s COP26 in Glasgow started the process of transforming the Global Goal on Adaption into concrete actions. The agreement at the recent COP27 in Egypt on a new funding arrangement for loss and damage will help those countries most affected by climate disasters. And the COP27 negotiations prompted new commitments from the rich world to help, including from the UK which pledged to triple its international funding for climate adaptation.

    Meanwhile here in the UK the government is gearing up to publish its third five-year National Adaptation Programme next year. This will set out the actions that the government and others will take to adapt to the challenges of climate change in England from 2024 to 2029, and there’s widespread agreement that it needs to be the most ambitious yet.

    My hope is that the people in this room and others in government and the wider public sector will help shape and deliver that plan because, done right, it will benefit all of us. No Whitehall department, no public sector organisation and no private sector business is immune to the climate challenge: we all conduct activities or deliver services that need to be climate resilient, we all have or depend on assets and systems which need to withstand climate impacts, and we all have a duty to help protect the people we serve from the natural disasters and other consequences of a climate changed world.

    The UK government has a leading role to play in this, and it is playing it. But in one sense governments, here and elsewhere, can only be the fairy godmother of climate adaption, because while governments can change some things, including by giving political leadership, setting standards and addressing market failures, they cannot change everything. For that, every section of society needs to play a part in making us resilient to a climate changed world: from businesses, to NGOs, to each one of us personally.

    The cost of adaptation will always be an issue, especially at a time of pressure on public expenditure and people’s own cost of living. So let me make two points about the money. First, adapting to climate change is excellent value: every £1 invested produces up to £10 in net economic benefit. Second, most of the money we need to adapt to climate change won’t come from the government (which means the taxpayer) but from the private sector. That’s because only the private sector has the scale of the resources we need to tackle a challenge of this magnitude, and because private sector companies increasingly recognise that mitigating their own impacts on the climate and adapting their business for a climate changed world is not just the right thing to do but good business. Companies that do so will thrive, and those who don’t will not survive.

    The Environment Agency is also playing a leading role in helping the UK adapt to the impacts of our changing climate.

    We build, own and operate most of the nation’s flood defences, including the Thames Barrier which is keeping us in this room safe right now. Those defences – thousands of them now all over the country – are a practical example of how to adapt to the changing climate. And they work – over the last decade or so hundreds of thousands of people, homes and businesses in this country have been spared the trauma and loss of flooding because of those defences. Which is why we will keep on building and maintaining them, and why we are already planning now for the replacement of the Thames Barrier around 2070.

    We are helping the country adapt to another risk that climate change is bringing: the opposite of flooding – bigger and more severe droughts. We’re working with the water companies to help increase supply, including by designing new reservoirs and water transfers, and to reduce demand, including by adjusting the licenses we issue for water abstraction so that only sustainable amounts are taken from our rivers and aquifers.

    The EA is also playing a major part in helping create more resilient communities across the country through our statutory planning role, where we work with developers and local authorities to design and deliver places which are not only better adapted to a changing climate but better places for people and wildlife to live.

    When the clock strikes 12: incident response

    The EA is also helping the country to cope with the impacts of climate change in one other way: responding to the more extreme weather incidents and the growing threats to communities that climate change is bringing.

    The EA is a Category One responder under the Civil Contingencies Act to flooding and other environmental incidents, which means that we – along with the emergency services and local authorities – are at the core of the response. We warn and inform communities when flooding is threatened. We operate our flood defences and deploy other hardware to reduce the risks and protect communities. And we put our people on the ground to help those communities when flooding happens. In February this year we helped manage the combined impacts of Storm Dudley, Eunice and Franklin by warning 60,000 properties of the potential risk of flooding, deploying 1,700m of flood barriers, and coordinating the on-the-ground response 24 hours a day, for ten days straight.

    Services like this enable people to live with the risk of environmental disasters whilst helping to retain the value of places by protecting them from the worst that nature can throw at them, as well as enabling a quick recovery after an incident.

    They also help keep the country going. For example, our warning and informing services enable other critical national infrastructure providers to continue their operations through an incident and help them plan for potential disruptions to reduce the time their services are offline. This helps to ensure things like our power supply and our rail lines are stable, reliable and safe during weather disruptions: a lifeline for growth, productivity and wellbeing.

    And like all other climate resilient activities, investment in our incident management service provides excellent value for money. For every £1 spent on managing flood incidents there’s £6 of benefit to the nation. Plus, it helps keep people alive: priceless.

    Putting Prince Charming and Cinderella together

    How will the climate story end? Like Cinderella and Prince Charming, mitigation and adaptation need to go hand in hand if we are to have a happy ending. And the best interventions on climate change do both mitigate its future extent and adapt to its impacts.

    That is why the EA favours nature-based solutions whenever possible, such as planting trees to prevent flooding by slowing the flow of water rather than building concrete walls, and to keep rivers cool and so protect freshwater habitats and the wildlife in those rivers. These sort of interventions don’t just deal with the consequence of climate change – more violent weather, higher rainfall, hotter temperatures – they also help reduce its extent, because they are carbon sinks.

    Future fairy-tale or horror story?

    I think I’ve probably stretched the Cinderella metaphor way beyond what it or you can bear. So let me conclude by bringing this back to the real world, to COP26 in Glasgow last year and a leader who is always worth listening to: Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados. In her powerful speech at the summit she said: “Our world stands at a fork in the road; one no less significant than when the United Nations was formed in 1945. But then the majority of countries here did not exist. We exist now. The difference is we want to exist a 100 years from now.”

    We in the Environment Agency share that ambition for the world. We too want a happily ever after ending: a climate resilient world that is not just still here but better than the world we have now, for all of its inhabitants. The Cinderella story does have a happy ending, and if we do the right things, so can we.

    And with that, I will stop and take some questions before I turn into a pumpkin…

  • Alok Sharma – 2022 Speech at the COP27 Closing Plenary

    Alok Sharma – 2022 Speech at the COP27 Closing Plenary

    The speech made by Alok Sharma, the outgoing COP26 President, at Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt on 20 November 2022.

    Thank you Mr President to you and your team for all your work. And I also want to thank the secretariat and the Chairs of the subsidiary bodies.

    It hasn’t been easy. But I want to begin by recognising the progress on loss and damage. This is historic.

    The decision that we have taken here has the potential to support and increase that support for the most vulnerable.

    And I very much welcome that.

    And the scale and the range of needs will require contributions from the widest range of sources and parties.

    Of course the critical work now lies ahead to ensure that potential is realised.

    But friends, and I have to say this, this is not a moment of unqualified celebration.

    Many of us came here to safeguard the outcomes that we secured in Glasgow, and to go further still.

    In our attempts to do that, we have had a series of very challenging conversations over the past few days.

    Indeed those of us who came to Egypt to keep 1.5 degrees alive,

    and to respect what every single one of us agreed to in Glasgow,

    have had to fight relentlessly to hold the line.

    We have had to battle to build on one of the key achievements of Glasgow.

    The call on all Parties to revisit and strengthen their Nationally Determined Contributions.

    We have ultimately reiterated that call here.

    And it is critical that commitment is delivered by all of us, including by the major emitters in this room who did not come forward this year.

    But we also wanted to take a definitive step forward.

    We joined with many Parties to propose a number of measures that would have contributed to this.

    Emissions peaking before 2025, as the science tells us is necessary.

    Not in this text.

    Clear follow-through on the phase down of coal.

    Not in this text.

    A clear commitment to phase out all fossil fuels.

    Not in this text.

    And the energy text, weakend, in the final minutes.

    Friends, I said in Glasgow that the pulse of 1.5 degrees was weak.

    Unfortunately, it remains on life support.

    And all of us need to look ourselves in the mirror, and consider if we have fully risen to that challenge over the past two weeks.

    Colleagues, I will not be in this chair at COP28, when our ambition, and our implementation, is tested in the Global Stocktake year.

    But I assure you, indeed I promise you, that if we do not step up soon,

    and rise above these minute-to-midnight battles to hold the line,

    we will all be found wanting.

    Each of us will have to explain that, to our citizens, to the world’s most vulnerable countries and communities,

    and ultimately to the children and grandchildren to whom many of us now go home.

    Thank you.