Contribution
My Lords, I declare my interest as chair of the Forestry Commission and my other environmental interests in the register. I have put my name to both Amendments 65 and 90, which I will speak to, and Amendment 97A tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Sheehan. I also add my thanks to the Minister for the time and care he has taken to engage with noble Lords over our concerns.
All these amendments arise from the same issue: the inordinate length of time it is taking government to come forward and fulfil its commitments, which have already been agreed some time before. Others have laid out the reasons for the importance of these amendments in detail, and I will not repeat them. I want simply to say that Amendment 65 is already a manifesto commitment: that UK financial institutions should be mandated to develop and implement credible transition plans that align with the Paris Agreement. The amendment that has been laid today is very gentle. It simply asks for a road map within six months of Royal Assent of the Bill and allows the Government plenty of wiggle room to decide how, when and in what manner it would prevent the drifting along that is so at odds with the urgency of the climate change threat.
Business and investors need clarity to be able to have confidence and to deliver growth and competitiveness. As I said, it is a manifesto commitment, and this summer’s heat has underlined its importance. The public want action and it has electoral salience. This is a “just do” moment. I call on my noble friend the Minister to restate the Government’s commitment to the principle and clarify the pace by accepting the amendment or giving some assurance about the timescale to which the Government will deliver these transition plan commitments.
I had a lovely speech written about Amendment 90, to which I have added my name, and Amendment 97A in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Sheehan. They are about an even more delayed issue and would bring in a requirement for government to make regulations, which were already provided for in the Environment Act 2021 —and I stress 2021, five years ago—but are still not implemented, to prohibit the importation and use of illegal forestry goods.
We are now in the position where the European Union is bringing forward its deforestation regulations. They will come into effect at the end of this year for large and medium companies and in 2027 for micro and small enterprises. Northern Ireland will have to follow these EU regs. The Government say that they want to align the rules across GB. At the time of laying the amendment, I felt that it was reasonable to ask for this to be done and completed within seven months, after a five-year delay period and with some consultation already having taken place. All the while, UK financial systems, including public equity and corporate bonds, are funding and fuelling climate and biodiversity declines directly.
In Committee, I lost the will to live, because the previous Minister described all the stages that had to happen. If they did not stretch into infinity, they at least stretched, I thought, for a couple of years. It is a major international embarrassment for the new Government. We led the change internationally for the forest risk commodities action at COP, and we persuaded umpteen other countries to sign up, yet here we are, five years later, still claiming that we want to demonstrate our leading role in green finance while not delivering this legal commitment that we were a prime actor in.
However, this afternoon, I had a little ray of light. I will read to noble Lords some excerpts from a letter that I received from Defra Ministers about pressing the issue of forest risk commodities forward:
“We are progressing the policy and legal work needed at pace to deliver the approach in GB. Defra is developing the consultation material … There is a statutory duty to consult on these regulations … our plan is to consult during Autumn”—
autumn is almost here. It continues:
“We are planning to deliver the legislation required to implement this regime in Great Britain in 2027 … At the centre of my considerations is the pressing need for us to make rapid progress to address the role that deforestation plays in the climate and nature crises. This summer’s extreme heatwaves have brought home the urgency of tackling climate change, where halting and reversing forest loss is a vital part of that effort”.
I absolutely welcome this statement from Defra that it is moving forward at pace. I hope that we can hear today from the Minister that the Treasury is as one with Defra and that we can confidently expect the regulations to be implemented in 2027.
Of course, once the regulations are in place, there is a commitment in the legislation that the Treasury will review legal deforestation challenges and the extent of the deforestation issues for the UK, including the range of products included. I hope that we can get assurances from the Minister on this issue.