Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support private investment in ocean recovery.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Ocean conservation and the protection of marine biodiversity is a global challenge and one that is critically underfunded. Through the UK’s £500m UK aid Blue Planet Fund and in line with the 10 Point Plan for Financing Biodiversity and the International Development White Paper, we are supporting innovative projects that aim to attract and scale up private investment in ocean recovery. These initiatives include restoration and protection of blue carbon habitats and increasing coastal community resilience, funded through programmes led by the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (£13.9m), the World Bank’s sustainable blue economies programme- PROBLUE (£37.5m), and the Global Fund for Coral Reefs (£33m), amongst others. In June 2023, Lord Benyon hosted a joint UK-GFCR Investors Roundtable event, which showcased the GFCR as a viable investment opportunity and supported investor mobilisation for the GFCR Investment fund. At 28th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP28), the GFCR Coalition announced the mobilisation of more than $200 million USD as an initial direct investment toward the newly established 2030 Coral Reef Breakthrough targets, these include mobilising $12bn for corals and protecting 125,000 km2 of corals (50% of ~250,000km2 global total) by 2030.
As set out in Mobilising Green Investment: 2023 Green Finance Strategy, we are also taking action to meet our target to raise £1bn in private finance into nature’s recovery in England every year by 2030, both on land and at sea.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of classifying all territorial waters as Marine Protected Areas.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has signed up to the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to protect at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030 (30by30 target). Domestically, we have designated a comprehensive network of MPAs covering 40% of English waters, based on recommendations from our scientific advisors (Natural England and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee). Our priority is to ensure all sites are managed appropriately to meet our statutory MPA target.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what environmental projects have been funded through Darwin Plus in South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands since 2019.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Since 2019, Darwin Plus has funded 21 environmental projects of benefit to South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands. These are listed in the table below.
Please visit the Darwin Plus website at https://darwinplus.org.uk/ for full details of funded projects.
Project reference | Project title | UK Overseas Territories involved |
DPLUS146 | Red Listing can protect OT marine biodiversity | British Antarctic Territory, Falkland Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS166 | Improving identification of fish bycatch in the Antarctic krill fishery | British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS092 | Seabird sentinels: mapping potential bycatch risk using bird-borne radar | Falkland Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS175 | Enhancing monitoring and prevention of invasive non-native species across UKOTs | Gibraltar, Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (on Cyprus), South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory, St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Turks and Caicos Islands, British Indian Ocean Territory, Bermuda, Anguilla, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands |
DPLUS174 | A cross-UKOT camera network to enhance marine predator conservation | Montserrat, St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Gibraltar, Falkland Islands, British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS089 | Integrating genetic approaches into sub-Antarctic deep sea research and management | South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS093 | HOT: Hadal zones of our Overseas Territories | South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS109 | Initiating monitoring support for the SGSSI-MPA Research and Monitoring Plan | South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS120 | Spatial segregation and bycatch risk of seabirds at South Georgia | South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS122 | Biodiversity discovery and the future of South Georgia’s seaweed habitats | South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS143 | What goes thump at night: managing bird-strike in South Georgia | South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS144 | Protecting South Georgia’s terrestrial communities from climate change-invasion synergies | South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS149 | Resolving ecosystem effects of the South Georgia winter krill fishery | South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS179 | Characterising pelagic biodiversity at South Georgia through novel sampling methods | South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS186 | Evidence-based conservation of biodiversity in the South Sandwich Islands | South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS187 | Using satellite technology to monitor seabird populations at South Georgia | South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS188 | Hungry humpbacks: measuring seasonal foraging intensity at South Georgia | South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS189 | Evaluating climate change risks to Patagonian and Antarctic toothfish | South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPL00019 | Mapping South Georgia's Plant Biodiversity | South Georgia and The South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) |
DPL00039 | Assessing Terrestrial Climate Change Impacts on a sub-Antarctic Archipelago | South Georgia and The South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) |
DPLUS132 | Monitoring albatrosses using very high resolution satellites and citizen science | St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what environmental projects have been funded through Darwin Plus in Antartica since 2019.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Since 2019, Darwin Plus has funded 22 environmental projects of benefit to the Falkland Islands. These are listed in the table below.
Please visit the Darwin Plus website at https://darwinplus.org.uk/ for full details of funded projects.
Project reference | Project title | UK Overseas Territories involved |
DPLUS146 | Red Listing can protect OT marine biodiversity | British Antarctic Territory, Falkland Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS110 | Recognise, protect, restore: driving sound stewardship of Falklands peat wetlands | Falkland Islands |
DPLUS115 | Unlocking Falkland Islands Marine Management: Key Biodiversity Areas for seabirds | Falkland Islands |
DPLUS116 | Falklands wetlands and aquatic habitats: baselines for monitoring future change | Falkland Islands |
DPLUS126 | Advancing Falklands and region-scale management of globally important whale populations | Falkland Islands |
DPLUS139 | Improving Falklands marine management effectiveness for marine higher predators | Falkland Islands |
DPLUS148 | Climate change resilience in Falkland Islands fisheries and marine ecosystems | Falkland Islands |
DPLUS167 | Pathogens as a threat to seabirds in the Falkland Islands | Falkland Islands |
DPLUS168 | Understanding increased FI seal bycatch to inform bycatch Action Plan | Falkland Islands |
DPLUS169 | New Island: completing preparatory steps for restoration against invasive mammals | Falkland Islands |
DPLUS182 | Habitat restoration and species re-introductions on four Falklands island reserves | Falkland Islands |
DPL00047 | Increasing environmental monitoring capacity on FI: a Thermal Imaging UAV | Falkland Islands |
DPL00058 | Fire Contingency Planning for Offshore Islands | Falkland Islands |
CV19RR02 | Establishing wildlife health and disease monitoring in the Falkland Islands | Falkland Islands |
DPL00002 | Restoring native tussac grassland habitat | Falkland Islands |
DPL00006 | Restoring peat soils and tussac grass habitat in the Falklands | Falkland Islands |
DPL00020 | Data driven solutions to land management and climate change adaptation | Falkland Islands |
DPL00025 | Building farm biodiversity planning and monitoring capacity for sustainable management | Falkland Islands |
DPLUS092 | Seabird sentinels: mapping potential bycatch risk using bird-borne radar | Falkland Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS094 | Developing Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) tools for Turks and Caicos | Falkland Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands |
DPLUS175 | Enhancing monitoring and prevention of invasive non-native species across UKOTs | Gibraltar, Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (on Cyprus), South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory, St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Turks and Caicos Islands, British Indian Ocean Territory, Bermuda, Anguilla, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands |
DPLUS174 | A cross-UKOT camera network to enhance marine predator conservation | Montserrat, St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Gibraltar, Falkland Islands, British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what environmental projects have been funded through Darwin Plus in the Falkland Islands since 2019.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Since 2019, Darwin Plus has funded 6 environmental projects of benefit to the British Antarctic Territory. These are listed in the table below.
Please visit the Darwin Plus website at https://darwinplus.org.uk/ for full details of funded projects.
Project reference | Project title | UK Overseas Territories involved |
DPLUS185 | Safeguarding Antarctic krill stocks for baleen whales | British Antarctic Territory |
DPL00008 | Biodiversity Survey and Environmental Management Plan in Antarctica | British Antarctic Territory (BAT) |
DPLUS146 | Red Listing can protect OT marine biodiversity | British Antarctic Territory, Falkland Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS166 | Improving identification of fish bycatch in the Antarctic krill fishery | British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
DPLUS175 | Enhancing monitoring and prevention of invasive non-native species across UKOTs | Gibraltar, Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (on Cyprus), South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory, St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Turks and Caicos Islands, British Indian Ocean Territory, Bermuda, Anguilla, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands |
DPLUS174 | A cross-UKOT camera network to enhance marine predator conservation | Montserrat, St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Gibraltar, Falkland Islands, British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands |
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to (a) improve the welfare of farmed salmon and (b) reduce the environmental impact of salmon farms.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
a) Defra and the devolved governments commissioned the Animal Welfare Committee to update its 2014 opinion on the welfare of farmed fish at the time of killing and this was published in September 2023. We are studying their recommendations carefully to determine next steps.
b) We take all matters relating to the marine environment seriously and are seeking to ensure that the ocean is managed sustainably. Through our membership of North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO), the UK has committed to minimising the impact of salmon farming on wild salmon populations. Within the UK, all marine salmon farming currently takes place in Scotland and Northern Ireland. As aquaculture and marine management are devolved competencies, managing the environmental impact of current salmon farming activity is the responsibility of their devolved administrations.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will include experts on migratory species from the Joint Nature Conservation Committee among the UK delegation to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28 UAE).
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Joint Nature Conservation Committee staff, including experts on migratory species, are not part of the UK Government delegation to United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28. Joint Nature Conservation Committee staff will remotely provide scientific advice in advance and in real time as requested by the delegation and support side events online in the US Pavilion and the Virtual Ocean Pavilion. Joint Nature Conservation Committee staff have also provided pre-recorded videos to the UK Overseas Territories Association to support their side event in the UK Pavilion.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with non-governmental organisations on the British Indian Ocean Territory Marine Protected Area; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) Administration is responsible for the management of the Marine Protected Area.
Officials have had discussions with several non-governmental organisations, including the Zoological Society of London, on the protection and conservation of the unique marine environment in Chagos Archipelago.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has been made of the impact of deep-sea mining on the UN Convention on Biological Diversity target to protect 30 per cent of the world's oceans by 2030.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The UK is a global leader in protecting the ocean and our marine life and works with stakeholders in the UK and partners overseas to help achieve these aims. The Blue Belt Programme continues to support the British Overseas Territories to enhance marine protection and sustainable management. We also continue to help developing countries around the world to protect their marine environments to the benefit of people and livelihoods through our £500 million Blue Planet Fund. And as Ocean co-chair of the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People and chair of the Global Ocean Alliance, a group of 75 countries, the UK is committed to the target to conserve and manage at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030, a target agreed under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
As a part of our support for strong multilateral action on the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean and effective ocean governance across international forums, we will continue to push for the highest possible environmental standards in regulations developed at the International Seabed Authority, the international organisation through which States Parties organise and control deep-sea mining activities. This includes the need for Regional Environmental Management Plans to be in place before any future exploitation takes place.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether there has been any increase in the volume of plastic and polystyrene pollution washed up on the UK’s beaches (1) in the last 12 months, and (2) over the last five years; and what steps they have taken, together with international partners, to mark World Ocean Day on 8 June, particularly with regard to tackling plastic waste in the world’s oceans.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK Government funds the Marine Conservation Society to record litter from sections of our coast which helps us monitor the levels and trends of plastic pollution. We monitor the current status of beach litter abundance over a three-year period for data reliability, so we cannot provide an accurate trend for the last 12 months. Over the last five years, the total litter count on British beaches has decreased by approximately 7 items / 100m per year. However, we know that plastic and polystyrene fragments are the most commonly found items, with an average of 45.5 pieces found on every 100m of coastline for the period 2020 – 2022. This data is used in combination with other monitoring data to measure the impact of our policies and inform our decisions about how to tackle marine litter.
We have already banned microbeads in rinse-off personal care products, reduced the use of single-use carrier bags, and restricted the supply of plastic straws and plastic-stemmed cotton buds and banned the supply of plastic drink stirrers. From October 2023, we will ban the supply of certain types of polystyrene food and drink containers, single-use plastic cutlery, single-use plastic balloon sticks and ban the supply of single-use plastic plates, bowls and trays to the end user, working towards our ambition to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste by 2042.
We are also playing our part internationally. One of four themes of our £500m Blue Planet Fund, launched in 2021 to support developing countries protect and enhance the marine environment and reduce poverty, is to tackle marine pollution and litter. Under this fund we're supporting countries to accelerate the transition towards more inclusive circular economies, working with the Global Plastic Action Partnership to establish diverse, multistakeholder platforms across the world, and we’ve supported over 500,000 young people worldwide to become leaders in the fight against plastic pollution through the Tide Turners Plastic Challenge. UK ODA funding has also supported several waste management projects including in Fiji where the local partner is working with private sector businesses on the only international standard landfill in the South Pacific. This aims to ensure 80% of waste is recycled and put back into the circular economy and includes development of a new sanitary landfill to improve waste collection and prevent harmful pollutants that are detrimental to Fijian mangroves and coral reefs entering these ecosystems.
On World Ocean Day Defra hosted leaders from the private sector for a roundtable on investment strategies and opportunities for a thriving sustainable blue economy. It showcased the Global Fund for Coral Reefs (GFCR) to investors, financial institutions, corporations and philanthropies as a commercially viable and scalable investment opportunity for the ocean, reefs, and climate-vulnerable communities. Since first contributing to the GFCR in 2021, the UK has maintained its position as the largest public donor with our total commitment now £33m from the UK’s Blue Planet Fund programme.