The UK is set to host the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) this November in Glasgow. Joanna Macrae spoke to REVOLVE on the steps the UK is taking to counter deforestation and protect habitats around the world.
How is the UK working to counteract forest-loss around the world?
Recognising the rapid rate of forest loss globally, the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan made a commitment to leaving a lighter footprint on the global environment, by enhancing sustainability and reducing the impact of supply chains on the world’s forests. We are taking forward domestic measures and are working with countries across the world to reduce deforestation and its impacts on climate change and biodiversity loss.
No single solution will be able to protect all habitats from conversion. The drivers of deforestation are varied, and so too are the mechanisms best able to address them.
What is the UK already doing to address imported deforestation?
Our new due diligence legislation will target illegal deforestation, requiring larger businesses, who typically use commodities in significant volumes, to make sure commodities they use have been produced legally. Businesses that do not comply with the law would be fined.
This approach will clean up the UK’s supply chains, ensuring there is no place for illegally produced commodities on our supermarket shelves.
We believe that working in partnership with producer countries to strengthen the enforcement of their laws is the most effective solution to protecting forests, which are so crucial to all of us.
What steps is the UK taking to protect habitats from conversion?
No single solution will be able to protect all habitats from conversion. The drivers of deforestation are varied, and so too are the mechanisms best able to address them.
The Government is working with countries across the world to support sustainable agriculture and incentivize the protection of vital ecosystems. One of the ways we want to capitalize on our forthcoming co-Presidency of the UN Climate Change COP26 is to accelerate a global transition to more sustainable supply chains by bringing together producer and consumer countries of forest risk commodities to share perspectives and take action.
Our approach has been designed to avoid a situation where, by protecting forests, producers are incentivized to illegally convert other types of ecosystem. It does this by requiring that forest risk commodities must be produced in line with local laws protecting important natural ecosystems – not just forests.
How will these actions tie into the UK’s presidency of COP26?
The actions support our work making nature one of the main themes for the UK’s COP26 Presidency to help increase investment in nature-based solutions and tackle the drivers of nature loss such as deforestation.
What has the response been?
As President of COP26 we are working to forge a new alliance between governments to ensure global supply chains are sustainable.
Last year, nearly 80 countries signed the Leader’s Pledge for Nature, committing to reverse the destruction of nature by 2030. The UK played a key role in crafting the pledge, and as hosts of the next and all-important UN Climate Conference.
What else is the UK doing to achieve its climate targets?
The Prime Minister recently committed at least £3 billion to climate change solutions that protect and restore nature and biodiversity over five years. Programs supported by the funding will include projects to maintain forests and tackle the illegal timber trade and deforestation.