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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government plans to take to minimise negative ecological effects on carbon-rich, biodiversity-rich ecosystems throughout the world of UK imports of (a) soft commodities including (i) palm oil, (ii) soy, (iii) cocoa, (iv) rubber, (v) beef, and (vi) timber and (b) hard commodities including (A) minerals, (B) oil and gas, and (C) other products of mining; and if he will make a statement.

The Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan sets out our ambition to support and protect the world’s forests, support sustainable agriculture and work towards zero-deforestation supply chains. As part of this plan we are establishing a Global Resource Initiative (GRI) that will identify actions the UK can take across commodity supply chains to improve the sustainability of products and reduce deforestation.

The GRI builds upon the Government’s work convening commodity-specific roundtables on palm oil and soya, two of the largest drivers of deforestation. The Government established the UK Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in 2012 to improve reporting, traceability and understanding of supply chains to ensure continuous improvement and increased use of certified palm oil. The Roundtable’s latest annual report indicates that the UK achieved 75% certified sustainable palm oil in 2017, increasing from 16% in 2010.

Our Resources and Waste Strategy sets out how we will preserve our stock of material resources by minimising waste, promoting resource efficiency and moving towards a circular economy approach, including by providing consumers with better information on the sustainability of their purchases. It also aims to minimise the damage caused to the natural environment by managing waste safely.