Observations

Declares that the Amazon is the world’s largest rainforest and makes up half of the planet’s remaining tropical forests, home to about three million species of plants and animals and 1.6 million indigenous people; further notes that the forest is the world’s largest natural carbon sinks, absorbing and storing an amount of carbon equivalent to 15 to 20 years of global CO₂ emissions from the atmosphere; and further declares continued deforestation of the Amazon is contributing to the forest’s inability to recover from droughts, fires and landslides.

The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to encourage the Brazilian Government to protect forest land and end large-scale deforestation, to prevent nearly half of the Amazon rainforest from collapsing and that these irreversible consequences for the Amazon and the planet are avoided.

And the petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by Martyn Day, Official Report, 30 April 2024; Vol. 749, c. 230.]

[P002964]

The Government believe we need urgent action to protect and restore forests globally. Forests are essential for the lives and livelihoods of over 1 billion people worldwide, including many indigenous peoples and local communities. Globally, forests harbour 80% of our terrestrial biodiversity and, when sustainably managed, can deliver a significant portion of what is needed to keep global heating within a 1.5° pathway, as agreed under the Paris agreement.

The Amazon rainforest plays an unparalleled role in regulating climate locally, regionally and globally, and provides numerous other benefits for biodiversity, and for the lives, livelihoods, health and wellbeing of people across the region and worldwide.

Brazil and Colombia have made important progress in reducing deforestation in recent years, but there is much more to do globally. Commodity-driven deforestation and continued rates of forest loss in the wider Amazon biome pose risks of crossing key “tipping points”, with significant impacts for people, nature, and climate at local and planetary scales.

The UK has played a central role in efforts to improve the stewardship of global forest landscapes, including by helping galvanise partners behind a commitment to halt and reverse forest loss and forest degradation by 2030. Lasting impacts can only be achieved if we work in partnership with forest countries to find solutions that support their needs and those of local communities. As we approach United Nations framework convention on climate change COP30, we are engaging closely with and encouraging partners, including Brazil, to step up our collective efforts towards delivery of the 2030 goal, including by addressing the significant drivers of large-scale deforestation and forest degradation.

Through our international climate finance programming, we are helping partners across some of the world’s most critical forest biomes to deliver locally led visions of sustainable forest stewardship that works for people, while delivering for climate and wider environmental goals.

In August, UK and Brazil Ministers issued a joint statement on international climate co-operation. This reaffirms our shared commitment to deepening collaboration to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030 in the context of sustainable development, as agreed through the first global stocktake at COP28—an assessment of progress made against global warming since the Paris agreement in 2015.

Declares that reopening the Portishead branch line is necessary to reduce traffic on the congested roads between Portishead and Bristol; further that reducing such traffic would lead to lower C0₂ emissions, thus benefitting the environment and further that this branch line is needed to encourage investment and economic growth in Portishead and the greater Bristol area.

The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Government to recognise the considerable work already performed to reopen the Portishead branch line, to recognise public funding already invested in it, and to consider the resource needs of the Portishead branch line when providing funding for transport in this area—[Presented by Sadik Al-Hassan, Official Report, 11 September 2024; Vol. 753, c. 6P.]

[P003009]

I am aware that the reopening of the branch line to Portishead is a long-standing aspiration of local stakeholders and residents, and recognise the benefits that the project could bring to the local community, as well as the wider environmental and economic benefits the petition has outlined. I also recognise and appreciate the work and funding already invested in the project, noting that this includes £13.8 million of Government funding towards the development of a business case and detailed design.