Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on increasing contributions to the Green Climate Fund to support other countries in adopting their own versions of the Green New Deal.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) plays an important role supporting the Paris Agreement, helping developing countries to build their climate resilience and grow in a low carbon way. The UK contributed £720 million from 2015-18 in the GCF’s first phase of operations. Countries are now discussing funding for the next phase – as well as how the GCF could be made more effective. DFID and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) are preparing the case for a UK contribution, consulting HM Treasury as appropriate.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to encourage the restoring of natural capital stock in the Global South.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
DFID is protecting and restoring nature and the environmental services which sustain life and support economic development. Poor people depend most directly on natural resources for their livelihoods and are most directly affected by its degradation.
The UK’s £250m of support to the Global Environment Facility, including £150m from DFID, is helping developing countries to protect around 600 million hectares of land and marine habitats (an area equivalent to 24 times the size of the UK) and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 1,600 million metric tonnes (the equivalent of an average car driving 4 million miles).
DFID directly supports action to tackle the degradation of key habitats, like tropical forests, home to up to 80% of global terrestrial biodiversity. Our bilateral programmes aim to tackle key drivers of deforestation, including illegal forestry practices and unsustainable production of agricultural commodities.
DFID’s Forest Governance, Markets and Climate programme (£250m, 2011-21) is addressing illegal deforestation and tackling the corruption which allows it to flourish. While our Investments in Forests and Sustainable Land Use (IFSLU) Programme (£93.5m, 2015-23) is supporting public-private partnerships with leading companies, helping to turn their commitments to sustainable practice into action. This aims to encourage sustainable economic growth together with the conservation of nature in developing countries.
DFID is co-leading (with Egypt) international efforts on climate resilience, including the resilience of natural ecosystems, at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in September.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of working with her international counterparts to create a standardised code of conduct and expectations for garment factories in developing countries; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
DFID is committed to improving conditions in garments factories, including those which supply clothing to UK stores, through a range of multi-national initiatives, including those to improve codes of conduct. These initiatives include:
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of the of the implications for her policies of the report entitled, Networked but Commodified: The (Dis)Embeddedness of Digital Labour in the Gig Economy, published in the journal Sociology in February 2019.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
DFID is actively supporting global efforts to maximise the opportunities and minimise the risks from the gig economy. Through the Responsible, Accountable and Transparent Enterprise Programme (RATE), DFID supports the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) and its response to the changing nature of work and the rise of digital platforms. We also support social protection programmes – central to the protection of workers in the gig economy – in 23 countries.
DFID is working closely with DWP to influence a proposed International Labour Organisation (ILO) Centenary Declaration. The Declaration will set the strategic direction for the ILO in the context of the future of work. We are pushing to ensure that the ILO addresses job quality issues in the changing world of work.