Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the potential impact on greenhouse gas emissions of global adoption of the Bridge to Busan Declaration approach to the Global Plastics Treaty.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has signed the Bridge to Busan Declaration - a political declaration which makes the case for an ambitious treaty that includes upstream measures to ensure sustainable consumption and production of primary plastic polymers.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has modelled different policy scenarios for reducing plastic pollution to 2040, including a Global Ambition scenario, which simulates global action across the whole lifecycle of plastic, including on the production and consumption of plastic. This scenario could achieve a 41% reduction in plastics-related greenhouse gas emission levels compared with levels expected in 2040 under a business-as-usual policy course (1.7 GtCO2e in 2040 versus 2.8 GtCO2e in the baseline).
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with international counterparts on setting a target in the Global Plastics Treaty for reducing plastic production that aligns with the UK's climate targets.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK is working closely with international counterparts to secure an ambitious treaty which covers the full lifecycle of plastics. Action to reduce the consumption and production of plastics will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The UK is a member of the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution, a group of over 60 countries calling for an ambitious and effective treaty that will end plastic pollution by 2040, and is one of 42 countries that have signed the Bridge to Busan Declaration, a declaration which makes the case for an ambitious treaty that includes upstream measures to ensure sustainable consumption and production of primary plastic polymers.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the highest hourly rate paid for legal advice was by (a) his Department and (b) each of his Department's arms length bodies in 2018.
Answered by George Eustice
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.