Lords
Proceedings
25 June 2026
Waste Management Carriers: Regulation
My Lords, the Makerfield by-election seems to have speeded up action on the horrendous illegal waste dump in Bickershaw, Wigan. First, can the Minister say when it will finally be gone and at what cost to the taxpayer? Secondly, surely it makes sense to turn the taps off at source so that producers …
Lords
Committee Stage
15 June 2026
Digital Waste Tracking (England) Regulations 2026
It is a pleasure to follow my noble friend, if I can refer to my erstwhile colleague on the Environment and Climate Change Committee as that, so I thank the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, for her contribution. I would be very interested to hear the Minister’s response to those points, and I thank he…
Lords
Proceedings
15 June 2026
World Ocean Day
My Lords, the Blue Belt is the Government’s programme to assist the UK overseas territories in protecting and enhancing ocean health and enabling sustainable growth through evidence-based marine management and protection. Last week, I had the pleasure to meet the representative of the Cayman Islands…
Lords
Proceedings
21 May 2026
Offshore Oil and Gas: Venting and Flaring
My Lords, I am sure the Minister is very aware that rapidly reducing methane emissions can help us to rapidly cool the planet, effectively buying time for longer-term carbon reduction efforts. Will the Government mandate independent third-party verification of all offshore methane emissions by 2027 …
Lords
Oral Questions
23 April 2026
Sustainable Farming Incentive: Flood Prevention and Drought Resilience
The SFI26 offer has 71 separate actions, of which 35 are designed to support flood and drought resilience. It is incredibly important that we recognise the huge damage that drought can cause to our farmers. The new SFI offer, in looking very carefully at both flooding and drought, recognises the lon…
Lords
Oral Questions
22 April 2026
Plastic Pollution Reduction
I am sure the noble Baroness is aware that we published our PFAS plan in February. That sets out, for the first time ever, how government is going to minimise the harmful effects of PFAS. We need to look at how we can move to safer alternatives while continuing to monitor any detrimental effects. It…
Lords
Oral Questions
16 April 2026
Data Centres: Energy Demand
The noble Baroness mentions waste heat and electricity waste, and that is precisely the sort of area that needs to be optimised in terms of making sure that we can deal with this growth in AI without building huge new resources. It is by optimising the system that we can get quite a lot of this new …
Lords
Oral Questions
15 April 2026
Marine Protected Areas: Bottom Trawling
One of the reasons for bringing in this proposal to extend the protections to 41 more areas is entirely to support our ambition of delivering on 30 by 30. As I have said before, it is much more complex to deliver that in a marine environment, which is why it is so important that we get it absolutely…
Lords
Oral Questions
2 March 2026
2 contributions
Forest-Risk Commodities
My Lords, the UK strongly supports global efforts to protect forests and remains steadfast in working with partners to deliver the shared commitment to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030. The Government are currently considering their approach to addressing the deforestati…
I assure the noble Baroness that the UK remains absolutely committed to providing international climate finance, both now and in the future, and to play our part alongside other developed countries and climate finance providers to deliver on our international commitments. There is a real economic be…
Lords
Oral Questions
23 February 2026
Global Biodiversity Loss and National Security
We are doing a number of pieces of work right across the department that will come together to try to have the outcomes that we want. It is important that the role that Defra plays in national security and resilience planning is better implemented and recognised across government. We are working rea…
Lords
Oral Questions
12 February 2026
2 contributions
Environment Agency: Waste Crime
My Lords, as chair of the Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee I am delighted to have an opportunity to debate our inquiry into waste crime. I begin by thanking all noble Lords who will be contributing to this debate, particularly as it is the last business before our February Recess.
The…
I have been talking rubbish for many years; more accurately, I have been talking about waste crime and disposal for many years. I first got interested when I was the chair of public health in Newcastle in the 1990s. As the Member of Parliament for North Durham, I took a particular interest in this b…
Lords
Oral Questions
5 February 2026
Construction Industry: Timber
The road map was an important document on increasing the use of timber. As we go forward with our ambitious housebuilding programme, we need to ensure that the houses we build are as sustainable as they can be. The noble Baroness’s question about reusable timber has to be part of the discussion with…
Lords
Oral Questions
14 January 2026
2 contributions
Large-scale Waste Crime
My Lords—
The Environment Agency’s exceptional decision to progress works to entirely clear the site at Kidlington of waste followed new information and advice from the fire and rescue services that indicated that there was an increased possibility of a fire at the site, which is why it moved in to do it. It …
Lords
Committee Stage
6 January 2026
4 contributions
Nitrogen Reduction, Recycling and Reuse (Environment and Climate Change Committee Report)
My Lords, it is my pleasure as chair of the Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee to open this debate on its report Nitrogen: T ime to R educe, R ecycle, R euse . I convey my thanks to our committee clerk Andrea Ninomiya, our policy analyst Lily Paulson and the operations officers Farhan Ri…
Before democracy so rudely interrupted us, we were hearing from the noble Baroness, Lady Sheehan.
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
9 December 2025
2 contributions
Tropical Forest Forever Facility
My Lords, the UK has had a long-standing role in protecting forests and supporting efforts to halt and reverse deforestation. While the Government did not announce an investment in the Tropical Forest Forever Facility at COP, we very much remain supportive of the TFFF and are proud to have substanti…
The decision on whether to invest in the TFFF, as it came up, following the intense work that the UK did in developing it with the Brazilian Government, was very much part of the question of our fiscal position around the time of the Budget. That does not mean that this is necessarily gone for ever;…
Lords
Oral Questions
4 November 2025
Energy Market Reforms
As I have said, one of our key priorities is to reduce bills for consumers, particularly for vulnerable customers. We will look at all aspects of how best to do that.
Lords
Oral Questions
28 October 2025
Offshore Oil and Gas: Venting and Flaring
The answer to that question is that we are expecting it very, very soon. Not very soon—very, very soon. We will see it in the coming days.
On our record on methane, I will repeat what I said to the noble Baroness earlier. The North Sea Transition Authority estimates that absolute methane emissions …
Lords
Oral Questions
14 October 2025
West Papua: Deforestation
I thank the noble Baroness for raising the Tropical Forest Forever Facility; it is a very important part of the direction of travel on this subject and we welcome Brazil’s leadership on global forest finance, climate and nature, particularly in the lead-up to COP 30. We do need to find new ways to l…
Lords
Oral Questions
17 September 2025
2 contributions
Deforestation
My Lords, the UK strongly supports global efforts to protect forest and remains steadfast in working with partners to deliver the shared commitment to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030. The Government are currently considering our approach to addressing the impact of the …
My Lords, the UK welcomes the strong focus on forests from the Brazilian presidency at COP 30, and we will continue to shape our approach for putting forests at the heart of the climate agenda at COP 30 in Brazil. We are working at pace to move forward in this area.
Lords
Debate
9 September 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I start by apologising for not being able to take part at Second Reading; I just plead other parliamentary responsibilities. I find myself in a position where everything that needs to be said has already been said but not yet by everyone, so I will take that little proviso and carry on any…
Lords
Oral Questions
3 September 2025
Nitrous Oxide Misuse: Drivers
The noble Baroness can be assured that the Government are taking this matter seriously. As I have mentioned, we are looking at further drug and driving offences, and there is now—following the previous Government’s initiative—a ban on nitrous oxide being used for drug purposes. We need to widen the …
Lords
Oral Questions
8 July 2025
2 contributions
Forest Risk Commodities
My Lords, the UK strongly supports global efforts to protect forests and remains steadfast in working with partners to deliver the shared commitment to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030. The Government are currently considering their approach to addressing the impact of t…
I can confirm that we are ambitious and committed to delivering on a shared commitment that was reflected by the parties to the global stocktake at COP 28, so we have ambition in that area. Regarding the EU regulation, the UK and the EU share a common commitment to tackling deforestation in supply c…
Lords
Oral Questions
30 June 2025
Deep Sea Mining in International Waters
In my meeting with the civil servants this morning, I spoke about our participation in next week’s meeting of the council of the ISA. We will ensure that we take into account all the expert advice, not restricted just to that from this country but in working with our allies in the council of the ISA…
Lords
Committee Stage
13 May 2025
3 contributions
Methane (Environment and Climate Change Committee Report)
My Lords, it is indeed a pleasure, as chair, to debate the findings of the Environment and Climate Change Committee’s report, Methane: Keep Up the Momentum, about a devastating greenhouse gas 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide and one that is responsible for about 30% of global warming to date…
I open my remarks today by thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Sheehan, for the excellent way in which she chaired the committee throughout a rather tricky period over the election and change of Government last summer. The committee also changed its policy adviser and support clerks during this inquir…
+1 more contribution in this session