UK consumption causing massive deforestation

The UK’s consumption of commodities like soy, cocoa, palm oil, beef and leather is putting enormous pressure on forests around the world, MPs have warned.

The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) called on the government to act with urgency as it released a 66-page report on Britain’s contribution to tackling global deforestation.

The committee said the intensity of the UK’s consumption on the world’s forests – when measured by its footprint per tonne of product consumed – is higher than that of China. EAC chair Philip Dunne said this “should serve as a wake-up call to the government”.

Urgency

It comes after the government announced that four commodities – cattle products (excluding dairy), cocoa, palm oil and soy – will have to be certified as “sustainable” if they are to be sold into UK markets.

The government, which plans to gradually incorporate more products into the regime over time, has yet to provide a date for when the legislation will be introduced. But the committee criticised the lack of timeline and its phased approach for not reflecting the urgency of tackling deforestation, adding that the scope should be expanded to also cover maize, rubber and coffee.

The EAC, which outlined a series of recommendations in the report, urged the government to address these gaps and strengthen the existing legislative framework to ban businesses from trading or using commodities linked to deforestation. It also called on ministers to develop a global footprint indicator to demonstrate the UK’s deforestation impact to the public and set a target to reduce it.

The committee pointed to concerns over a lack of transparency over how planned investments into nature and climate programmes – including £1.5 billion earmarked for deforestation – will be spent, and called for more clarity from ministers.

Trade

The MPs said they were also alarmed to hear from campaign group Global Witness that one person is killed every other day defending land and the environment. They said support for indigenous peoples to participate fully in negotiations on deforestation activity is critical.

To fulfil its commitment to put environmental sustainability measures at the heart of global production and trade, the EAC repeated its calls for sustainability impact assessments to be conducted for all future trade agreements. Dunne said: “UK consumption is having an unsustainable impact on the planet at the current rate.

“UK markets must not be flooded with products that threaten the world’s forests, the people whose livelihoods rely on them and the precious ecosystems that call them home. There is little sense of urgency about getting a rapid grip on the problem of deforestation, which needs to match the rhetoric.

“Countries all around the world contribute to deforestation and the international community of course needs to do much more to tackle deforestation.” He added: “To demonstrate genuine global leadership in this critical area, the UK must demonstrate domestic policy progress and embed environmental and biodiversity protections in future trade deals.”