Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department plans to take account of the conclusions of the United Nations/World Health Organisation Second Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety when preparing the UK's response to the next set of Sustainable Development Goals.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
Road traffic injuries cost developing countries an estimated 1-2% of their gross national product, equivalent to over US$100 billion annually, with a widening of the disparity between advanced and developing countries. Road accidents kill an estimated 1.3 million people and injure up to 78 million people each year.
We are pleased that the burden of road crashes has been recognised in the Sustainable Development Goals and we are committed to supporting the international community to achieve the target of halving the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2020.
DFID recently increased its funding to the Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) hosted at the World Bank and will contribute £4.5 million between 2013 and 2017. The GRSF provides funding, knowledge, and technical assistance that lever road safety investments into transport sector programmes.
We also focus on road safety through our research and evidence portfolio. For example our programme on High Volume Transport and the programme “Research for Community Access Partnership” (ReCAP) both have strong road safety research components. DFID also supports a programme in Nepal working to improve road infrastructure for road safety on a critical section of Nepal’s national network.
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment her Department has made of the importance of trees and tree planting to achieving carbon capture.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
Forests play an important part in mitigating climate change (as well as in adapting to its impacts). Domestically, forestland is a net sink in the UK, removing 17 Mtonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2013) and the amount of carbon stored in UK trees increased from 1990-2013. Forestry inventory projections indicate an increasing trend in net removals by UK forests and then a decline towards mid-century as forests mature (in mature forests carbon uptake is reduced) and more trees are harvested. Nonetheless, forests will remain a net sink in the UK, at least beyond the middle of the century.
Forestry policy is devolved, and all four countries have established policies for woodland creation, co-financed through the EU Rural Development Program. The revised UK Forestry Standard, published in November 2011 provides that ‘forest management should contribute to climate change mitigation over the long term through the net capture and storage of carbon in the forest ecosystem and in wood products’. The Committee on Climate Change has estimated that by 2030 an additional 1 megaton of carbon dioxide a year could be abated through afforestation activities.
Internationally, deforestation causes 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Reaching the goals of the New York Declaration on Forests – ending forest loss by 2030 and restoring 350 million hectares – is estimated to reduce between 4.5 and 8.8 billion tonnes of CO2 per year in 2030. Over 1 billion poor people depend on forests for their livelihoods, they provide essential ecosystem services and support up to 80 per cent of terrestrial biodiversity. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has taken a number of steps to mitigate forests emissions and enhance sequestration. In the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (2013-2020), all countries with emissions reductions commitments (including the European Union) are required to account for all forest related emissions and removals, and are therefore incentivised to sustainably manage their forests.
For developing countries, the UNFCCC has established ‘REDD+’ as a mechanism to reduce emissions from deforestation and promote the conservation of forest carbon stocks, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks by rewarding countries who protect their forests with a payment based on verified emissions reductions. The UK’s £3.87 billion International Climate Fund supports developing countries address deforestation, including programmes which support REDD+, governance and market reforms, curbing illegal and unsustainable use of forest resources, and investments in sustainable forestry, agriculture and land management.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the main humanitarian and technical objectives that they will be promoting at the forthcoming United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction to be held in Sendai, Japan in March 2015.
Answered by Baroness Northover
The UK is an active supporter of the current Hyogo framework. The Department for International Development (DFID) and Cabinet Office have a joint lead in shaping the Government’s policy and technical objectives ahead of the 3rd UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction to be held in Japan on 14-18 March, where a new post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction will be finalised. Negotiations are still on-going, and it will not be possible to confirm final outcomes until the meeting in Sendai itself.
The Government’s main objectives build on the priorities set out by the UK representative at the May 2013 Global Platform meeting in Geneva. These are:
The UK has engaged actively in the negotiation meetings on the successor to the Hyogo framework for action. In shaping its approach, the Government has drawn heavily on the UK’s own experience of disaster risk management, which has demonstrated the importance of a multi-agency and multi-sectoral approach.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what international action they are taking to press the case for global re-afforestation in order to act as a carbon sink.
Answered by Baroness Verma
The UK supports protection and conservation of global forests through our £3.87 billion International Climate Fund (ICF). To date, over £500 million has been committed to support a range of initiatives, including supporting forest governance; sustainable forestry, agriculture and land management, community forest management, and developing knowledge and evidence that can contribute to effective and coordinated policies and strategies. The UK also supports REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, and Conservation, Sustainable Management of Forests, and Enhancement of Forest Carbon Stocks), through investments in pilot REDD+ projects through the ICF, and through decisions supportive of the development of REDD+ through the international climate change negotiations.
The UK played a key role in developing the New York Declaration on Forests, endorsed by over 150 governments, private sector stakeholders, civil society, non-governmental and indigenous community organisations at the United Nations Secretary-General’s Climate Summit on 23rd September 2014. The Declaration highlights the importance of reducing deforestation and increasing forest restoration to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius and calls for action. It sets out an ambitious restoration goal of restoring 150 million hectares of degraded landscapes and forestlands by 2020 and significantly increasing the rate of global restoration thereafter, which would restore at least an additional 200 million hectares by 2030.
There are a number of important international processes in 2015 that can also encourage more ambitious outcomes for global re-afforestation and restoration. The UK will press the case for ambitious, quantitative forest conservation targets for 2030 in the post-2015 new sustainable development goals, and supports the inclusion of ambitious outcomes for forests as part of the post-2020 new international climate agreement. The Bonn Challenge 2.0 will also be an opportunity for countries to bring forward ambitious forest restoration targets.
Asked by: Jim Murphy (Labour - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will support the inclusion in the Sustainable Development Goals of a standalone goal on climate change, in addition to targets on environmental sustainability integrated across the framework, accompanied by a measure to keep the rise in global temperatures at 2ºC on pre-industrialisation levels.
Answered by Justine Greening
The UK supports a target to hold the increase in global average temperature below a 2°C rise in accordance with international agreements.
The final targets in the post-2015 development framework will however be subject to international negotiations in the United Nations, in which the UK will play an active role.
Asked by: Jim Murphy (Labour - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make it her policy to support the adoption of a target to co-operate globally to reduce substantially international tax evasion and avoidance in the Open Working Group negotiations on the Sustainable Development Goals.
Answered by Justine Greening
As we have already made clear, the UK supports a target to cooperate globally to reduce substantially international tax evasion and avoidance. This language is included in the most recent draft goals and targets list released by the co-chairs of the Open Working Group (OWG) on 2 June.
At last year's Lough Erne G8 summit, leaders agreed to introduce a new international standard of automatic exchange of information to help countries combat tax evasion. We are working in the G20 to develop a roadmap that identifies obstacles to developing country participation in this new global standard. We are also working in the G20 to identify Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) issues most relevant to developing countries and to recommend actions to address them.
The final targets in the post-2015 development framework will however be subject to international negotiations in the United Nations, in which the UK will play an active role.
Asked by: Jim Murphy (Labour - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make it her policy to support the adoption of a target to retrofit existing industries on global level based on energy and resource-efficient technologies and environmentally sound industrial processes by 2030 in Open Working Group negotiations on the sustainable development goals.
Answered by Justine Greening
As we have already made clear, the UK supports a target to double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency. This language is included in the most recent draft goals and targets list released by the co-chairs of the Open Working Group (OWG) on 2 June.
The final targets in the post-2015 development framework will however be subject to international negotiations in the United Nations, in which the UK will play an active role.
Asked by: Jim Murphy (Labour - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make it her policy to support the adoption of a target to reduce to five per cent or below the transaction costs of migrants' remittances, including regulatory and administrative costs in Open Working Group negotiations on the sustainable development goals.
Answered by Justine Greening
As we have already made clear, the UK supports the target of reducing the average global cost of remittances to 5.0%. This language is included in the most recent draft goals and targets list released by the co-chairs of the Open Working Group (OWG) on 2 June.
The final targets in the post-2015 development framework will however be subject to international negotiations in the United Nations, in which the UK will play an active role.
Asked by: Jim Murphy (Labour - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make it her policy to support the adoption of a target to enhance global co-operation to facilitate orderly, safe, responsible migration and mobility of people, including through implementation of planned and managed migration policies that facilitate migrants' contribution to sustainable development in Open Working Group negotiations on the sustainable development goals.
Answered by Justine Greening
As we have already made clear, the UK recognises that the potential for migration to be a positive force for developing countries is increased when migration is safe, legal and through regular channels; and as such global migration can contribute to sustainable development. This language is included in the most recent draft goals and targets list released by the co-chairs of the Open Working Group (OWG) on 2 June.
The final targets in the post-2015 development framework will however be subject to international negotiations in the United Nations in which the UK will play an active role.
Asked by: Jim Murphy (Labour - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make it her policy to support the proposed target to hold the increase in global average temperature to a specified temperature to be determined in accordance with international agreements in the upcoming Open Working Group negotiations on the Sustainable Development Goals.
Answered by Justine Greening
The UK supports a target to hold the increase in global average temperature below a stipulated, though but yet to be agreed, rise in accordance with international agreements. Language on this is included in the most recent draft goals and targets list released by the co-chairs of the Open Working Group (OWG) on 2 June.
The final targets in the post-2015 development framework will however be subject to international negotiations in the United Nations, in which the UK will play an active role.