Baroness Sheehan
To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the consumption of forestry commodities in the United Kingdom is not driving deforestation abroad.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Baroness Hayman of Ullock) (Lab)
My Lords, the UK strongly supports global efforts to protect forest and remains steadfast in working with partners to deliver the shared commitment to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030. The Government are currently considering our approach to addressing the impact of the use of forest-risk commodities in our supply chains, and we will update the House at the earliest opportunity.
Baroness Sheehan (LD)
My Lords, the Tropical Forest Forever Facility is a flagship project of Brazil’s COP 30 presidency. It is a global financial initiative designed to provide large-scale, predictable and performance-based payments to tropical forest countries for conserving and expanding forest cover. Can the Minister reassure your Lordships’ House that the UK will show strong support for this important initiative by speeding up pending legislation to ban illegal forest-risk commodities in UK supply chains?
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
My Lords, the UK welcomes the strong focus on forests from the Brazilian presidency at COP 30, and we will continue to shape our approach for putting forests at the heart of the climate agenda at COP 30 in Brazil. We are working at pace to move forward in this area.
Lord Trees (CB)
My Lords, it is not just forest commodities per se that are driving deforestation in, for example, Brazil and Australia; it involves the production of other agricultural commodities such as beef. Beef imports to the UK are rising while our indigenous production is falling, yet we produce 1 kilogram of beef for a fraction of the global average greenhouse emissions, without deforestation. What are we doing to support our British beef farmers? In particular, what are we doing to ensure that imported beef is not being produced from deforested land?
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
We have a new Farming Minister in the other place who is very keen to support farmers. We want to ensure that farmers become profitable, and that includes beef farmers. It is important that we support our food security in this country, and that we work with farmers to help them do so. We also do not want imports that are below our own standards and that have a negative impact on the environment. It is important that we find the balance between providing sufficient choice in the food on people’s plates and supporting local food production and our own farmers.
Lord Deben (Con)
My Lords, I declare an interest as a trustee of Cool Earth, which tries to do precisely this work in the areas of forests. I wonder whether the Minister can help us. There are some things for which only forestry products can be used. If we use them for things for which there are alternative products—for example, the generation of electricity—we will not have enough of this material for the things for which it is uniquely designed. What are the Government doing to ensure that we make the best use of that material which is real waste, from forests that have been properly looked after?
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
It is a very good question. We have to look at what waste from forest is used for. We are supporting the timber industry in this country; that is important, because at the moment we import an enormous amount of timber. It needs to be easier, quicker and more financially viable to grow trees in this country, so that is one aspect of reducing the waste that comes from importing. At the same time, we need to ensure that we manage the waste from our own imports and our own homegrown timber effectively. We relaunched this year the Timber in Construction Roadmap. We need to be able to meet demand, but at the same time manage the waste issues to which the noble Lord refers.
Lord Sikka (Lab)
My Lords, successive Governments have facilitated deforestation abroad. A good example is Drax, which has received billions in subsidies for burning wood pellets to produce electricity that is twice as expensive as electricity produced from gas. Drax has a record of lying about the use of primary forests for burning wood. The company reported a profit of over £1 billion last year, paid out £97 million in dividends and another £300 million in share buybacks to shareholders. Can the Minister explain why this company continues to be subsidised?
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
Electricity generators—and that does include Drax—receive subsidies only for the electricity they generate from biomass which has demonstrated compliance with the Government’s sustainability criteria. We have strengthened the sustainability criteria for large-scale biomass generation by increasing the proportion of biomass that must be obtained from a sustainable source from 70% to 100%, excluding core material from primary forest and old growth areas, and by tightening greenhouse gas emission requirements in line with European best practice.
Lord Roborough (Con)
My Lords, I refer the House to my registered interests, in particular as a forest developer and owner. According to the latest data, this country imports 73% of its forest products, despite having one of the best tree-growing climates globally, and yet we continue to miss the Government’s planting targets. What steps are the Government taking to accelerate the rate of tree planting in the UK to restore our natural environment, reduce our net carbon emissions and reduce that level of imports?
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
We absolutely agree that forests in the UK are part of our critical natural infrastructure. To complement the international efforts I have referred to, we are taking significant steps to protect and expand domestic forests. Key achievements include setting a legally binding target to increase tree cover to 16.5% of England’s land area by 2050. Tree planting in England is at the highest level on record in over 20 years. In 2024-25, the total area of tree canopy established, and the number of trees planted, was over 7,000 hectares, or over 10 million trees. We are also creating three new national forests. The first was announced in March, the Western Forest, which will see 20 million trees planted across the west of England in the coming years.
Baroness Grender (LD)
My Lords, how do the Government plan to address continuing concerns about UK-linked supply chains that drive deforestation? Unlike in the EU, these trades remain legal here in the UK.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
Clearly, as part of our approach to deforestation and trying to reduce our impact on a global level, supply chains are critical—working with supply chains to look at how we can manage that, and how deforestation is promoted by the way purchasing and procurement happens in this country. Supply chains are a critical part of that.
Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe (Lab)
My Lords, scientists in Oxford are producing lab-grown beef and other meats. Do the Government have a view on this, and what assessment have they made in terms of climate change?
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
As part of the good food strategy and other ways to ensure that we have high standards of animal welfare and people eat healthy diets, we are also looking at what are called novel foods. But clearly, we have to ensure that they are properly produced and are a healthy alternative.
Baroness Fookes (Con)
My Lords, while I greatly welcome the Minister’s wish to increase tree cover, what steps are being taken to make sure that this is done sensitively and that appropriate types of trees are planted, whether in forests or in urban areas, and not just any old trees, particularly in the light of climate change? One needs to see that the right sort of trees are planted.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
The noble Baroness asks a very good question. It is terribly important that the right type of tree is planted in the right place. We know the impact that climate change is having on many of our native species, and we have to take a long-term view of that. There is no point in planting an awful lot of trees that are not going to survive the climate changes we are seeing. Getting the right trees planted in the right place is an absolute priority.
Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)
My Lords, given that the UK is the 15th largest contributor to tropical forest deforestation and that the Environment Act was passed in November 2021, can the Minister explain why there is such a delay in bringing in the Schedule 17 regulations? Is this an impact of lobbying from big business or from foreign countries?
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
No, it is not an impact of either of those issues. We need to get this right, so we are looking at the best regulatory approach to address deforestation, including in the supply chains that the noble Baroness referred to. We also need to look at the compatibility and interoperability of the forest risk commodities approach, which is enshrined in Schedule 17 to the Environment Act and the EU deforestation regulation. The issue is that there are significant differences between them, with the EU approach introducing a strict zero-deforestation standard in customs controls, whereas the Environment Act addresses illegal deforestation but would not impose any import or export checks.
There is also uncertainty as to whether the EU is going to introduce further change to its regulation. The DBT is conducting an ongoing review of the UK’s approach to responsible business conduct, including within this context. We are actively working on this to get our final approach and decisions out as soon as we can.