Category: Environment

Nicola Sturgeon – 2022 Speech on Scotland’s Role in Tackling the Climate Emergency

The speech made by Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister, on 11 November 2022.

We’ve likely all noticed the unusually mild autumn we’ve been experiencing recently. In fact, some days in October have felt more like summer.

While these warm conditions are certainly unusual in Scotland, scientists are warning that they are going to become more and more common as the years go on and as climate change progresses.

Three months ago, the UK experienced its hottest day on record. Records were similarly broken in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands as an extreme heatwave swept across much of Europe.

Across the world, there is a real concern that the heatwaves we are experiencing more and more often are a direct consequence of the climate crisis, and the indisputable fact that our planet is getting hotter.

The need to act to combat climate change has never been more urgent.

Last weekend, I travelled to Egypt for the UN Climate Change Summit, COP27, which marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

In those thirty years, the world has come a long way in the fight against climate change and its negative impacts on our planet.

We are now able to better understand the science behind climate change, assess its impacts, and develop tools to address its causes and consequences.

But despite that, the situation is graver than ever.

Most of us in Glasgow will remember the COP26 summit taking place in our city last year – with world leaders, scientists, and activists coming together for negotiations to agree meaningful actions to tackle the climate crisis.

Glasgow proudly hosted that summit, and while it did deliver positive progress, there is no escaping the fact that COP26 did not deliver as much concrete action or financial commitments as global south countries, activists and campaigners rightly demanded.

I attended COP27 to do what I can to further collaboration between Scotland and other countries, to build on the agreements that were reached in Glasgow and to continue Scotland’s leadership on tackling the climate emergency, especially on the important issue of loss and damage.

COP27 is taking place against a tense and difficult global backdrop and there is no doubt that the geopolitical landscape has changed significantly in the last year.

The impacts of climate change are being increasingly felt – with, for example, flooding in Pakistan and wildfires across the USA.

At the same time, Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine is forcing countries, particularly in Europe, to rethink long-held assumptions about energy policy and energy security.

However, that does not mean that we can row back on the commitments made in Glasgow.

In fact, it’s more important than ever that we act, and soon, because the answer to many global challenges lies in tackling climate change and nature loss at a quicker pace.

The current energy crisis that is putting so much stress on households and businesses in Scotland is ultimately caused by our dependence on fossil fuels.

The solution is ending this dependence – through a just transition to renewables and energy efficiency.

While some governments, including the UK government, seek to increase their extraction of fossil fuels in response to soaring energy prices, the Scottish Government remains committed to developing our vast renewable energy potential and emerging green technologies.

And Scotland will continue play its part by sharing our own experiences of delivering a net zero target at home, as part of our just transition, and by helping to amplify the voices of people who are being most impacted by climate change but are often also excluded from the debate – including people from the countries of the global south, women and young people.

No nation has all the answers, or the means, to respond alone to the scale of the problem of climate change.

This is why bringing the global community together at COP27 is so vital, as it is only by working together that can we meet the need and urgency of the task that lies ahead.

COP27 must put a renewed focus on the ongoing delivery of the commitments already made in Glasgow and seek agreement for more meaningful action.

The science is clear that we may be approaching a tipping point for the twin crises of nature and climate – with the International Panel on Climate Change warning in April that it is “now or never” to limit global warming.

Unless we act now, we will continue to see an increase in heatwaves, floods, catastrophic storms and water scarcity – a price our planet simply cannot afford to pay.

However, is not too late for governments to act and to take positive actions which will help – including further funding to address loss and damage to help those in countries who contribute the least to global warming, yet suffer the worst effects.

Bluntly, we owe it to future generations to act now.

If the world is to deliver on the Glasgow climate pact, all nations need to continue to increase their ambition and take credible action to reach net zero emissions.

I am determined that Scotland will play our full part.

November 19, 2022
Therese Coffey – 2022 Statement on COP27 Biodiversity Day: UK Action to Support Nature and Climate

The statement made by Therese Coffey, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in the House of Commons on 16 November 2022.

Today, I am making a number of announcements on biodiversity day at COP27. This builds on the leadership the UK has shown throughout our COP26 presidency. We brought nature to the heart of COP for the first time in Glasgow—with more than 140 world leaders, representing 91% of the world’s forests, committing to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030. The UK Government are continuing to demonstrate international leadership on nature and climate by:

Committing £30 million of seed finance into the Big Nature Impact fund, a new public-private fund for nature in the UK which will unlock significant private investment into nature projects;

Pledging an additional £12 million to the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance to mobilise investment in coastal and ocean natural capital;

Committing a further £6 million to provide capacity building support to developing countries to increase commitments to nature and nature-based solutions;

Announcing a new UK climate finance contribution of £5 million toward the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) multi-donor trust fund for the Amazon to help tackle deforestation through community-led projects, while providing sustainable business opportunities to indigenous people whose livelihoods depend on them;

Spotlighting the vital importance of mangroves and their role in coastal resilience by endorsing the Mangrove Breakthrough led by the UNFCCC high-level champions and the Global Mangrove Alliance;

Highlighting the climate benefits of blue carbon through continued support for the new Global Ocean Decade Programme for Blue Carbon (GO-BC), which has now launched a new global graduate scheme for early career blue carbon researchers.

Global momentum is now behind plans to halt nature’s decline. I will be urging countries to build on progress at COP27 to renew action on nature and come together to agree a robust global plan for tackling nature loss at next month’s meeting of the United Nations convention on biological diversity (CBD) in Montreal.

November 17, 2022
Simon Clarke – 2022 Comments on Jeremy Hunt’s Financial Statement

The comments made by Simon Clarke, the Conservative MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, on Twitter on 17 November 2022.

The Chancellor rightly commits to more renewable energy, which is economically rational, environmentally responsible and good for our national security. But to those ends, we should also press ahead with ending the ban on new *onshore* wind.

November 17, 2022
Alok Sharma – 2022 Speech at COP27 on Delivering on Ambitious Climate Commitments

The speech made by Alok Sharma, the COP26 President, on 15 November 2022.

Thank you Minister Samuda for your kind words and actually for a great explanation of what this partnership has achieved and continues to achieve.

And it is remarkable.

We’ve got 200 members, 120 countries – developing countries, developed countries – and 80 institutions, all working together.

This is a unique platform and it’s about coordinating between donors and developing nations, ensuring they support the implementation of NDCs [Nationally Determined Contributions] across the world.

Now from a UK perspective, we’ve been proud and honoured to co-chair with our friends and we’ve also put money behind this process. We’ve committed £27 million in core funding from 2019 to 2025.

If I look back a year from now, we had almost 200 countries that came together and forged the Glasgow Climate Pact.

And I was very proud of that. I was very proud of everyone who helped to deliver that.

The Minister talked about the impact of climate change around the world.

But it is the case that the chronic threat of climate change is getting worse.

And that’s why countries came together at COP26, because they understood it was in their common self-interest to act and to deliver on the Glasgow Climate Pact.

And one of the key elements of that was the ratchet.

So, we went from NDCs coming forward every five years, to every country signing up to revise their NDC, to align it with the Paris temperature goal by the end of this year.

Now we’ve had 33 countries that have come forward so far.

We need more.

It was a commitment we’ve all made and we need to deliver on it.

And actually, if you look at the NDCs – that were delivered going into COP26 and those that have come forward since – and if you take into account the net zero commitments we’ve already got from countries around the world, particularly the G20, 19 of the G20 have committed to net zero.

If you take all of that into account, what the IEA [International Energy Agency] and UNEP [United Nations Environment Programme] tell you is that we could be heading towards 1.7°C of global warming by the end of the century.

It’s not 1.5 friends, it is not 1.5.

But it is progress.

And if you’re going to make this progress, you have to deliver on your NDCs and on your detailed commitments as well.

That requires financial support, it requires capacity building in certain nations.

That’s why we should be really proud that this partnership has supported 64 countries to raise ambition and to improve the quality of their NDCs.

More than £1.4 billion in technical assistance has been provided.

Minister Samuda has eloquently outlined a lot of the other things the partnership has done – the need for more finance, the need to double adaptation finance from developed nations that we agreed in Glasgow as well.

This partnership has gone further. It’s about championing easier access to finance and much more transparency as well.

We’ve got the new online hub that has been put forward. That will help as part of this process.

What I would say to you all is that we can’t lose sight of why we are doing this.

Yes, this is about cleaning up our environment. Yes, this is about delivering a better future for generations to come.

But it is also about economic growth.

This is about millions of new green jobs. It’s about billions, trillions of private sector investment flowing into the sunrise industries of today and tomorrow.

That’s why the work that we do collectively is so vital.

And I just want to end, friends, by saying that I think it is absolutely vital that we keep 1.5 alive.

We cannot lose 1.5 at this COP.

We can’t afford to go backwards.

We cannot accept a weak outcome coming out of COP27.

And I hope you’ll join us in making sure that we have ambition.

Because what I want to see coming out of this COP is progress.

Progress and building on the ambition that almost 200 countries delivered together in forging the Glasgow Climate Pact.

So please join us in calling for more ambition at this COP.

November 15, 2022
Volodymyr Zelenskyy – 2022 Speech at 27th UN Conference on Climate Change in Sharm el-Sheikh

The speech made by Volodymdr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, on 8 November 2022.

Dear colleagues!

Dear Mr. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi!

Ladies and Gentlemen!

At this Conference, like at other summits and high level meetings on catastrophic climate change, there is no lack of words. There is no lack of good definitions and no shortage of prescriptions for what the world should do. I listened to some of the speeches today – and I agree with many of the assessments.

The world is on the brink. And beyond this limit – devastating changes that will forever change the usual life on all continents. Colleagues have described well what this means. No one can stay aside.

And the poorer the person, the poorer the family, the poorer the country – the more painful the effects of climate change will be for them. However, this also applies to all rich nations – it is impossible to buy off the destruction of the climate.

But why do we keep talking about it every year? Why instead of reports on what has been done, the same forecasts and appeals are made every year?

I will be honest – there are still many who do not take the climate agenda seriously. And not only in politics, but also in big business.

There are still many for whom climate change is just rhetoric or marketing or political ritual – whatever, but not real action.

They are the ones who hamper the implementation of climate goals. They are the ones in their offices who make fun of those who fight to save life on the planet, although in public they seem to support the work for the sake of nature in every possible way. They are the ones who start wars of aggression when the planet cannot afford a single gunshot, because it needs global joint actions.

You all know about the war that Russia started in Europe, trying to destroy the independence of my country. But what does this war mean?

This Russian war has brought about an energy crisis that has forced dozens of countries to resume coal-fired power generation in order to lower energy prices for their people at least a little… To lower prices that are shockingly rising due to deliberate Russian actions.

The Russian war brought an acute food crisis to the world, which hit worst those countries suffering from the existing manifestations of climate change – catastrophic droughts, large-scale floods.

The Russian war destroyed 5 million acres of forests in Ukraine in less than six months! Not every country in the world has such an area of forests that were burned in Ukraine by Russian shelling.

We have to check every day the situation at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe. If there is no radiation leaks? The Russian army has turned this nuclear power plant de-facto into a military training ground. They are constantly “playing” with connecting and disconnecting the plant and nuclear reactors from the power grid. This is a direct risk of a radiation disaster.

Who will care, for example, about the amount of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere if part of Europe or the Middle East, and possibly northern Africa, God forbid, are covered by a radiation cloud after an accident in Zaporizhzhia? Last year we could not even imagine that kind of question, but this year Russia has posed dozens of such questions to the world.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

World needs honesty.We must tell those who do not take the climate agenda seriously that they are making a catastrophic mistake.

We must stop those who, with their insane and illegal war, are destroying the world’s ability to work united for a common goal.

There can be no effective climate policy without peace on the Earth. Because, in fact, nations are thinking only about how to protect themselves here and now from the threats created in particular by the Russian aggression.

Russia needs to shut the guns and hide its missiles so the world finally hears what we can all really do together to save ourselves from the climate disaster. All of us – in Europe, Africa, Asia, America, Australia.

I invite you all to support our initiative presented here at the Conference – creation of a global platform to assess the Impact of military actions on climate and environment.

We are all thinking about how to generate hundreds of billions of dollars to help developing countries protect themselves from the climate change. Under these conditions, how can anyone cause additional insane damage to the nature with their invasive military ambitions? Such ambitions deserve only punishment.

Mr. President of Egypt said an important thing in his speech: we must meet expectations of the people all over the world – people who are suffering more than ever. I absolutely support this goal.

We must ensure that suffering does not multiply because the world does not have time to respond to climate challenges. But to do this, we need joint effective actions. And for them to be, we need peace.

And I thank everyone who works for peace! I thank everyone who takes seriously the need to protect life on the Earth for the benefit of all people – all nations, all classes, all cultures.

I thank you for your attention.

Слава Україні!

November 15, 2022
Trudy Harrison – 2022 Speech on Rivers Achieving Bathing Water Status

The speech made by Trudy Harrison, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in the House of Commons on 9 November 2022.

I thank Members for showing such interest in this important subject. In particular, I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Andrew Jones), who has a wonderful career ahead of him as a blue badge guide—or, indeed, in any role in the tourism industry in his area—such was the wonderful picture that he painted. I congratulate Members across the House on championing what DEFRA very much wants to achieve: clean water.

Let me set out how we are going to achieve that. We are absolutely committed to driving up the water quality of our lakes, our rivers and our coasts for the public to enjoy and for the benefit of nature. Designated bathing waters protect people’s health at popular swimming spots across the country. As a Member of Parliament in the Lake district who has enjoyed much wild swimming for many of my 46 years, I know the benefits that that can bring. The water quality at those sites is monitored regularly—much more regularly than previously, as Members noted—and improvements are made if it does not meet the minimum standard.

There are 421 designated bathing waters in England. As my hon. Friend mentioned, the vast majority are coastal, but in the past two years we have designated our very first bathing waters on rivers. It is very much thanks to my hon. Friend the Member for Keighley (Robbie Moore) that we have been able to achieve that in his constituency. I am pleased to say that we have many more applications for rivers to be designated bathing quality areas.

Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)

The Minister will be surprised to hear that I want to talk about a river and not a lake. We are seeking bathing status and clean water status for the River Kent. The “Clean River Kent” campaign has raised over £8,000 to do sampling, lab testing and surveys—massive thanks to it for raising that money, and to the people who sponsored me to do the Staveley trail to help raise a bit of it. Does the Minister agree that the regulator should be driving this work, instead of local groups having to raise the money to do it? Does she also agree that the water companies could come up with some of the money to fund these bids, because, let’s be honest, it is their fault that the rivers are not in a clean state to start off with?

Trudy Harrison

The hon. Gentleman raises an excellent point on the part water companies must play in cleaning up our lakes, rivers and coastal areas. I am a neighbouring MP and will be delighted to meet him to talk about the natural management that could be done—very much part of my portfolio in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs—to assist in cleaning up Lake Windermere in particular and of course the River Kent.

Bathing waters across England are a success story, with almost 95% achieving “good” or “excellent” status last year, the highest rate since the new stringent standards were introduced in 2015. Of these, 70% of bathing waters were classed as “excellent”, the highest quality standard, whereas just 28% of bathing waters met the highest standards in force in the 1990s. That demonstrates the excellent progress the Government are making in cleaning up our waters and holding water companies to account. Over the last 30 years, there has been good progress, following more than a century of poorly regulated industrial practices. A large proportion of the improving trend in bathing water quality can be attributed to improvements in sewage treatment.

Over £2.5 billion has been invested by English water companies to improve bathing water quality since privatisation, and England now has the cleanest bathing waters since records began. We know there is more to do to continue to drive up the quality of our rivers, lakes and coastal areas so people can enjoy them and nature can thrive. Areas used by large numbers of bathers and that have facilities to promote and support bathing are eligible for designation. We welcome applications for bathing water designations for both coastal areas and inland waters such as rivers. We actively encourage applications by writing annually to the chief executive of every local authority in England; we also write to other stakeholders such as swimming associations, because local authorities and stakeholders best know which popular riverside bathing areas may be suitable for designation. Once a site is designated as a bathing area, the Environment Agency will assess what action is needed to improve the water quality so that it can meet the standards that the public rightly expect and which are set by the bathing water regulations.

In 2021, we were delighted to approve the first designated river bathing water on the River Wharfe in Ilkley, and I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Keighley for his superb championing to get that designation over the line—I know he is supporting other Members across the House. That was followed by Wolvercote mill stream on the River Thames at Oxford this year, so it is wonderful to have my hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Robert Courts) here, championing bathing water quality and improving all water quality across the country. The designations are driving action to improve water quality.

My Department has received a lot of interest this year, and clearly society is paying a lot of attention to cleaning up our water. Our aim is to announce which new sites will be eligible to be designated before the start of the next bathing season, which is officially 15 May 2023, so get your Speedos ready—other outfits are available. We look forward to receiving the application for the River Nidd in the very near future, and I will be delighted to work with my hon. Friend the Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough, as will the Minister responsible for this area, my hon. Friend the Member for Taunton Deane (Rebecca Pow).

Guidance to assist applicants with their applications is already available on the Government website, and we plan to update this next year. To respond to the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough, that will make it easier for community groups to understand the criteria for bathing water and ensure that only the necessary information is requested, to save such a lot of time and effort. In addition, we are reviewing the Bathing Water Regulations 2013 to ensure that they reflect changes to how and where people use bathing waters.

My hon. Friend the Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough raised the subject of wet wipes. There is absolutely no doubt that wet wipes cause huge damage to sewers and to the environment when they are incorrectly flushed away. In fact, they make up 90% of the material that causes sewers to block. Let me take this opportunity to remind everybody across this House and across the country to bin it, don’t flush it.

Blockages can cause pollution and surface water flooding, and cost the water industry in England and Wales £100 million a year. The case for action is very clear. We are considering various options to tackle the issues caused by wet wipes. In November 2021 we launched a call for evidence that included questions on those options to help us build our evidence base and to inform our approach. That call for evidence closed on 12 February, and the Government will publish a response later this year.

Once again, I thank all Members, in particular my hon. Friend the Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough, for championing the best quality water we can possibly achieve, to support people to enjoy bathing and so that nature benefits from clean water, which we will all benefit from. I also agree, as has been said across the House, that water improvement is a team effort. We can all play a part. That is why we will continue to take action to require water companies and industry to achieve the necessary improvements to reduce pollution. I am pleased that water companies have committed £56 billion to be spent over the coming years to clean our water and improve storm overflows.

We recognise that healthy and well-managed water is key to our wellbeing and an important part of the Government’s pledge to hand over our planet to the next generation in a better condition than we inherited it.

Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)

I hope the Minister is reassured that my speedos are at the ready for about May, I should imagine, no sooner.

November 14, 2022
Robbie Moore – 2022 Speech on Rivers Achieving Bathing Water Status

The speech made by Robbie Moore, the Conservative MP for Keighley, in the House of Commons on 9 November 2022.

I start by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Andrew Jones) on securing this important debate. I know how passionate he is about securing bathing water status for parts of the River Nidd in Knaresborough and I thank him for allowing me to make a short contribution.

In December 2020, a stretch of water on the River Wharfe in Ilkley in my constituency was granted bathing water status—the first stretch of river in the UK to be awarded such a designation. I know how important that is, having heard my hon. Friend’s points about sewage getting into rivers. I put on record my thanks to the Ilkley Clean River Group, which did such a good job in getting our application off the ground in the first place and continuing with its efforts. I hope that my hon. Friend’s campaign is a success.

Why does this matter? Simply, we all care about improving water quality and ensuring that our rivers are clean, healthy and thriving environments. Of course, achieving bathing water status on rivers provides an additional mechanism to ensure that a river ecosystem is as healthy as it can be. The River Wharfe in Ilkley has had, and continues to have, problems with pollution being discharged due to inadequate sewage infrastructure. When it rains, Yorkshire Water’s sewage treatment works in the surrounding area often spill into the River Wharfe. Residents along Rivadale View will be familiar with that, as will residents downstream of the Ashlands sewage plant. Even more damaging are storm overflows, which are frankly inadequate to deal with the high percentage of rainfall we receive. My hon. Friend has already commented on our challenges with the combined sewer system.

Let us be clear: until now, no Government have had the willpower to tackle sewage discharge. I was pleased to vote for the Environment Act 2021, which will help tackle and put a stop to sewage discharge. I must say it was disappointing that the Opposition parties did not, like us, vote for that Act.

Of course, having secured bathing water designation, we are provided with an additional mechanism, which will help clean up our river system by putting additional pressure on water companies—in my case Yorkshire Water. Regular testing is now required. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that has resulted in the River Wharfe being classified as poor, but the data that is collected will put additional pressure on Yorkshire Water and other water companies to secure investment in infrastructure and additional apparatus to ensure that the stretches of water where bathing water designation is secured are clean.

Let me finish by making a couple of points about what I have learned from our experience. It is not good enough just to have a single monitoring point on a river; we must consider a stretch. I have concerns about the term “bathing water status”; I think “clean water status” would be much more apt, because that is what we are all trying to achieve, and there are some difficulties with rivers and it being safe to swim. In addition, the guidance from DEFRA needs to be updated to deal with rivers and not just coastal areas.

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough and wish him all success in his campaign on the River Nidd. If he has the success that we have had in Ilkley, that will put more pressure on the utility companies to clean up our rivers, which is what we all want to see.

November 14, 2022
Andrew Jones – 2022 Speech on Rivers Achieving Bathing Water Status

The speech made by Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, in the House of Commons on 9 November 2022.

I am delighted to have been successful in securing this debate to cover such an important subject, and it is very good to see my hon. Friend the Minister in her place at the Dispatch Box. She has led many Government initiatives on improving our environment, which of course I strongly support.

There are many elements to the work to improve our water quality, but I am only going to focus on one specific element in this debate. As colleagues will have seen from the title of the debate, I want to see more rivers achieving bathing water quality status. Specifically, I want the River Nidd at the Lido Leisure Park in Knaresborough to achieve bathing water status. Even more specifically, that is a pinpoint location rather than a stretch of river, because that is the process we have to engage in.

My hon. Friend the Minister is a knowledgeable and well-travelled lady, but I should detail for the House a bit more about the Nidd. It is a tributary of the Ouse, rising in the high dales on Great Whernside and flowing down through Nidderdale, skirting Harrogate and going through Knaresborough before joining the Ouse. The upper section is in the Nidderdale area of outstanding natural beauty, then the Nidd gorge, and when it reaches Knaresborough it forms part of one of the most famous Yorkshire views. I cannot distribute pictures, but I ask hon. Members to imagine a castle on a crag, a viaduct over the gorge and homes cascading down the valley side—Knaresborough is a very beautiful town.

Just downstream from that famous viewpoint is the lido, a leisure home site owned and run by Meridian Parks and the Maguire family. It is also a popular location for wild swimming. Of course the issue of water quality is not confined to one area, and while we have many designated bathing areas around our coast, there are very few inland areas and those few are overwhelmingly lakes, not rivers. Indeed, looking at the data from the Outdoor Swimming Society, 98% of areas with bathing water status are coastal.

There is one river in our area of Yorkshire that has achieved that status, and it is the River Wharfe in Ilkley. It is good to see my hon. Friend the Member for Keighley (Robbie Moore) in his place, and I know he intends to say a few words and share some insights from his excellent work there. The purpose of seeking this debate was to highlight that many more rivers must be awarded bathing water status right across our country and to promote our campaign for the River Nidd in Knaresborough.

Philip Dunne (Ludlow) (Con)

Inadvertently or not, my hon. Friend is making almost precisely the points that the Environmental Audit Committee made in its inquiry into water quality in rivers: that bathing water quality status should be an objective of every water company over the next pricing period, so that we can radically improve the quality of our rivers and allow more people to take great pleasure from swimming in all weathers in more and more rivers around the country.

Andrew Jones

My right hon. Friend is absolutely spot on. I have to say that I had not picked up all the output of his Select Committee, so apologies for that, but I strongly agree with everything he has said this evening. He is right that it should be an objective, but to achieve that objective, a team approach is needed, and one that involves the local community, local businesses, Government agencies, local government and national Government.

Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)

I thank the hon. Gentleman for bringing this debate forward. I spoke with him before in the Tea Room, so he sort of knows what I am going to ask, and I am sure he is well prepared for it. To achieve bathing water status, it needs the efforts and the input of councils for a start, as well as that of local communities. It also means that the local councils and agencies should look at safe swimming in rivers. It is important that if the waters are right, they have to be safe for swimming. Does he feel that there should be legitimate signage and information posts to make strictly clear that if there is no information, individuals should not swim in any section of that river? It is about the quality of the rivers, but it is also about the safety.

Andrew Jones

Well, it would not be an Adjournment debate if the hon. Member did not intervene. These things should become proprietorially known as “Shannon moments”. I obviously agree with his point that water safety is critical, but also his point about informing people about where it is safe and not safe. There is a role for local government in signage. I certainly agree with him.

I have met Nidd catchment anglers, the owners of the lido, residents and businesses, and they are all on board with the proposal for the Knaresborough site. So how do we reach that important water quality standard? The answer is to improve the actions and inputs on water quality from so many stakeholders.

One key concern for river water quality is the Victorian design of our sewerage system. This system mixes foul water—sewage—and rainwater run-off in the same sewer system. Combined sewer overflows were installed to enable sewers to cope with the additional volume during periods of heavy rain. That enabled the sewers to discharge into rivers. If the CSOs did not exist, it would back up into our homes when the system is overloaded, and that would be worse, but we have seen them operating more frequently due to increasing population and in particular due to changing weather patterns, with more intense rainfall.

Robert Courts (Witney) (Con)

I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for letting me intervene on him. He speaks with total passion on this issue, and it is a passion that West Oxfordshire feels, too, about the Evenlode and the Windrush, which we have. He is right that this challenge must be overcome with a team effort, but does he agree that sooner or later the Victorian infrastructure he has spoken about will need to be upgraded and water companies’ investment will be key to that?

Andrew Jones

My hon. Friend is as wise as ever. I happen to know the Windrush a little bit, and it is a very beautiful part of our country. He is most fortunate to have it in his constituency. While it is a team effort, it will have to be backed by investment. It is one of a number of policy areas where our requirement for infrastructure has not kept pace with modern demands, so he is absolutely correct, and I do agree with him.

One area where we have seen significant progress is with the increased monitoring of CSOs, and that has contributed to greater awareness of the number of discharges. In 2016, only 5% were monitored—next year it will be 100%. That is very good progress. Information from the House of Commons Library, based on monitoring data supplied by the Environment Agency, shows that 97% of CSOs are monitored in Yorkshire, which is ahead of the national picture. In 2021, each CSO in Yorkshire discharged on average 34 times, with the average duration at 5.8 hours. While that is the second-best performance for the duration of discharges in England, it is still way too much and it shows just how far there is to go.

In terms of progress on this issue by my local water company, Yorkshire Water has recently announced an additional £100 million investment, funded by its shareholders, on top of its existing five-year business plan, aimed at reducing average bills by a minimum of 20% a year by March 2025, and that is compared with a baseline in 2021. In addition to the increased extreme weather and flash flooding events that cause CSOs to operate, a change to what we put into the system has been occurring over the past decade or so, particularly with wet wipes, but also with nappies being the main new entrants alongside fat from cooking.

Wet wipes are responsible for 90% of sewer blockages and contribute to the formation of fatbergs—all hon. Members probably know what fatbergs are; they are truly grim. When the sewers are blocked, the CSOs operate and flush the wet wipes, and anything that is backed up behind them, which obviously includes human waste, into waterways. The hon. Member for Putney (Fleur Anderson) has done good work with her Plastics (Wet Wipes) Bill to remove plastic from wet wipes. I support that work and think it is right, but even removing plastic from wet wipes is not guaranteed to make the problem go away. Consumer behaviour can change, however, which could help; the UK currently flushes 11 billion a year.

I raised the issue of new building standards at business questions last week. Rainwater run-off from new housing estates contributes to the volume of water that can overwhelm sewers and trigger a CSO to operate. In terms of building standards, developers must ensure that water is retained on site for longer before it is gradually released into the system. Attenuation tanks and ponds have a role to play. We have just had an important debate on levelling up rural Britain, and agricultural practices are also involved. Rainwater can cause fertilisers, pesticides and animal waste to enter rivers and lower water quality, which is highly significant in many parts of our country.

We as legislators also have a major role to play. The Environment Act 2021 contains a variety of measures, but at its heart is transparency. It makes it a legal requirement for companies to provide discharge data to the Environment Agency and make it available in near-real time to the public. That increase in monitoring and transparency has already led to more enforcement action, and in some cases fines, for water companies where breaches have been found—and quite right too.

I view water improvement as a real team effort; it is not for a single actor to take the actions. It means improved targets, vigilant monitoring, enforcement action, increased investment from water companies, and behavioural change. Achieving bathing water status is a significant step to implementing the changes needed to improve river water quality more widely because, if achieved, the Environment Agency will develop a bathing water profile and put plans in place to monitor and protect the bathing water.

That is why I wanted to bring this complex and long-standing issue to the House to ask the Minister what more can be done to promote the quality of inland waterways. Bathing water status in the UK has mainly been a coastal issue up to now, but rivers must be included far more in future. I also wanted to highlight, of course, our campaign to secure bathing water quality status for the River Nidd at the lido in Knaresborough to make one of Yorkshire’s best even better.

November 14, 2022
Alok Sharma – 2022 Speech at High-Level Ministerial Round Table Conference

The speech made by Alok Sharma, the out-going COP President, on 14 November 2022.

Thank you, Minister Jorgenson.

Can I just remind all of us friends, that at COP26 we did resolve collectively to peruse efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees.

I have always said what we agreed in Glasgow and Paris has to be the baseline of our ambition.

We’ve got to stick to that commitment. We cannot allow any backsliding.

But we are already at 1.1 degrees global warming and I know I don’t have to remind all of you the impact of that around the world.

Even at 1.5 degrees we are still going to have devastating outcomes for many millions. As our friend from Bangladesh reminded us 1.5 needs to be a red line.

And this cannot be the COP where we lose 1.5 degrees.

So, we’ve got to fight for this and every fraction of a degree absolutely makes a difference.

And it’s the difference, for very many, including each of your countries, between a tolerable existence and an impossible future.

Let me remind you a year ago what Mia Mottley said – in Glasgow she said 2 degrees “would be a death sentence” for very many nations around the world.

I believe we can keep 1.5 alive – we’ve got the business community on our side.

We all would have seen on Saturday, 200 international businesses signing up a to an open letter in defence of 1.5.

We are seeing impressive sectoral impacts – renewables, zero emission vehicles.

We’ve heard about that this morning.

Yes, there is a serious work going on with our finances. We need to be in a place where we can see more in terms of MDB reform, we need to do more on JETP. Yes, we need to include more on finance.

But on the 1.5 we need to make sure that we reaffirm our commitments to that.

We’ve got a G20 leaders meeting going on right now.

They’ve showed leadership last year. They need to show that again.

They need to, coming out of that G20, to reaffirm their commitment to Paris and to Glasgow.

In terms of mitigations outcomes here, really quickly there are four things we need to have.

One is for those countries that have not set out their revised NDC to do so aligning with 1.5, we’ve got 33 countries that have already done so including the UK.

Secondly let’s make clear our commitments to the science, no rowing back on the science, we heard from the science this morning.

Thirdly, further steps to phasing out coal phasing out fossil fuel subsidies.

And fourthly we need to agree the legalities on the Mitigation Work Programme to shift the dial on implementation and ambition.

The reality is without progress on mitigation we are going to beyond our ability to adapt and of course I want to see progress made on loss and damage here but unless we stick to the mitigation piece all of that is going to be a lot more difficult.

So, friends in conclusion, we’ll either leave Egypt having kept 1.5 alive or this will be the COP where we lose 1.5.

You need to work out how you want future generations to look upon this COP and each of us individually as countries.

It’s really up to us to decide, I hope we will decide to keep 1.5 alive, thank you.

November 14, 2022
Sammy Wilson – 2022 Question on “Obsessive Pursuit of Net Zero”

The question asked by Sammy Wilson, the DUP MP for East Antrim, in the House of Commons on 9 November 2022.

In the relentless and obsessive pursuit of net zero, the Government are now adopting policies that are contradictory and, in some cases, dangerous. We are going to import billions of pounds-worth of natural gas from countries who frack that gas, yet we are turning our back on the natural resources we have in our own country, sacrificing revenue, jobs and energy security. We are going to rely more on wind and solar power, the earth metals for which are in the hands of autocratic regimes, especially China. We are importing wood from America to burn in a power station in the United Kingdom at a cost of billions to electricity consumers. Those policies might be welcomed by the chattering classes, but does the Prime Minister understand the bewilderment, frustration and anger of those who struggle to pay their electricity bills and worry about energy security?

The Prime Minister

I agree with the right hon. Gentleman about importing liquified natural gas, which is why I am keen to encourage more exploitation of our domestic oil and gas resources in the North sea. He and I are aligned on that. We have conducted a new North sea licensing round, leading to about 100 new licensing applications. That will increase jobs in the UK and our energy security, and that is the right thing to do.

November 11, 2022