Source · Select Committees · Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 46
46
Accepted
Paragraph: 169
Extend UK engagement to major consumers in other markets to halt deforestation
Recommendation
Ending commodity-driven deforestation requires decisive action by all major consumers. While the UK and EU markets represent a relatively high proportion of global consumption of some forest risk commodities, such as cocoa and coffee, they account for a relatively small proportion of others, including soy and palm oil, compared to other large markets such as the Asia Pacific market. In order to have maximum impact on efforts to halt and reverse deforestation, the UK’s engagement must therefore extend to major consumers of forest-risk commodities in other markets.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government acknowledges the importance of working with international partners and explains its approach through trade negotiations to uphold environmental standards and address deforestation. It also highlights its leadership in the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration and the Forest, Agriculture and Commodity Trade (FACT) Dialogue to engage major producer and consumer countries.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
169
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government · verbatim extract
Accepted
As part of our consultation in 2021–22 we asked respondents for their views concerning the number of forest risk commodities that should initially be included in due diligence legislation. The majority of non-campaign responses (including businesses, industry associations, NGOs, and private individuals) thought that between 2 – 4 commodities should be included in initial legislation. These respondents preferred that the government prioritise those commodities with the largest environmental impact if it meant that the regulations could come into force more quickly. We decided to include four commodities initially in secondary legislation based on the consultation feedback, an assessment of each commodity’s role in global deforestation, the UK’s contribution to that deforestation, and the UK’s ability to effectively regulate that commodity. We believe that this approach will enable efforts to eliminate the UK’s deforestation footprint to be focused initially on those commodities responsible for driving the most deforestation. Using new data, the revised estimated proportion of UK linked deforestation (both tropical and non-tropical) caused by its consumption of the four commodities (cattle, cocoa, palm oil and soy) was 52% in 2021 (c15,000 hectares from a total UK deforestation footprint of c28,000 hectares). A further 22% of the UK’s estimated footprint is caused by consumption of timber and timber products, which is regulated separately by the UK Timber Regulations. No other commodity is estimated to account for more than 4% of total UK deforestation footprint in 2021.
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