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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to tackle anthropogenic climate change and global warming.

The government introduced legislation for a new net-zero emissions target for 2050, which was passed by Parliament last month.

Defra works closely with the department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the natural resources sector, including agriculture, forestry, land-use, waste and resources, and fluorinated gases, as set out in the Clean Growth Strategy.

The UK was the first country in the EU to ratify the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, which will through reducing the use of hydrofluorocarbon greenhouse gases lead to a reduction of emissions by 85% by 2036.

We support nature-based solutions through our international aid programmes on forestry and mangroves/blue forests that act as effective carbon sinks as well as provide for mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

We will publish the England Peat Strategy to protect existing carbon stores and as part of this we are establishing a Lowland Agricultural Peat Taskforce to develop a more sustainable future for agriculture on lowland peatland in England. Following on from our Resources and Waste Strategy, we are consulting on food waste collection schemes which will divert food waste from landfill.

As the cornerstone of new agricultural policy, the new Environmental Land Management Scheme will pay public money for the provision of environmental public goods, such as the mitigation of and adaption to climate change. This year, we will start developing a new emissions reduction plan for agriculture, in which we will set out our long-term vision for a more productive, low-carbon farming sector.

The action we are taking will continue our tradition in climate leadership.