Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on forests and land use. what steps he has taken to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030.

At COP26 in Glasgow, over 140 world leaders committed to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030. This commitment was reiterated at COP28, marked by the conclusion of the first Global Stocktake of the world’s efforts to address climate change under the Paris Agreement. The UK Government committed to tackling illegal deforestation in UK supply chains through the Environment Act in 2021 and announced further details of the secondary legislation at COP28 in December 2023.

This law will make it illegal for organisations with a global annual turnover of more than £50m to use key forest risk commodities produced on land illegally occupied or used. Initial secondary legislation will focus on four commodities identified as key drivers of deforestation: cattle products (excluding dairy), cocoa, palm oil and soy. Organisations in scope will also be required to undertake a due diligence exercise on their supply chains and to report on this exercise annually. Organisations using 500 tonnes or less of each regulated commodity in the reporting period will be able to submit an exemption. Businesses in scope that do not comply with these requirements may be subject to fines and other civil sanctions.

The secondary legislation, which is part of a wider package of measures, will be laid in the near future.