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1,571 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDIndia: Restrictions on FreedomMy Lords, India and the UK have proud democratic traditions, and human rights form part of our dialogue. In December and January, my noble friend Lord Ahmad raised concerns about…15 Mar 2021HANSARDGlobal Population GrowthMy Lords, population growth is clearly an issue, but the bigger factor by far is consumption levels. The average UK citizen, for instance, has significantly higher levels of…11 Mar 2021HANSARDGlobal Population GrowthMy Lords, at COP 26 we will seek to address the steps needed to reduce emissions in line with the Paris agreement. The UK presidency will focus on five campaigns in the areas of…11 Mar 2021HANSARDGlobal Population GrowthThe noble Baroness raises perhaps the most important issue of all. There is no pathway to net zero without massive increase in our support for protecting and restoring nature.…11 Mar 2021HANSARDGlobal Population GrowthMy Lords, I certainly agree, as do the Government, that the greatest challenge that we face is the broken relationship between our species and the natural world around us. The…11 Mar 2021HANSARDGlobal Population GrowthVoluntary family planning programmes undoubtedly empower women and girls to choose whether and when to have children and this in turn supports the health, prosperity and…11 Mar 2021HANSARDGlobal Population GrowthMy Lords, COP 26 is just one staging post this year. It is a significant and major event, but we also have the Convention on Biological Diversity, we are presidents of the G7 and…11 Mar 2021HANSARDGlobal Population GrowthThe principal goal of COP 26—our job, in a sense—is to make real the commitments that were made in Paris under the Paris Agreement. We want countries cumulatively to bring…11 Mar 2021HANSARDGlobal Population GrowthMy Lords, the education of women and girls is a personal priority of the Prime Minister. It is a top international priority in relation to our spending of overseas development…11 Mar 2021HANSARDGlobal Population GrowthMy Lords, like any normal person, I look at the situation in places such as Sierra Leone with horror. I remind the noble Lord of the answers that I have just given about the UK’s…11 Mar 2021HANSARDPandemics and Environmental DegradationMy Lords, the United Kingdom has played a leading role internationally in raising the profile and the importance of tackling nature loss. We co-drafted the unprecedented Leaders’…24 Feb 2021HANSARDPandemics and Environmental DegradationMy Lords, my department has not made an independent assessment of the relationship between the emergence of pandemics and environmental degradation. However, Defra has been fully…24 Feb 2021HANSARDPandemics and Environmental DegradationThe natural world and climate change should certainly be a thread that runs through the educational curriculum, and I think increasingly it is. That is my experience from talking…24 Feb 2021HANSARDPandemics and Environmental DegradationMy Lords, whatever action is taken, it is likely that the global population will be in the region of 10 billion within a generation, so it is incumbent on us to find ways to work…24 Feb 2021HANSARDPandemics and Environmental DegradationMy Lords, there is no doubt that increased risk of pandemics is just one of the many reasons why continued destruction of the natural world is so short-sighted and damaging to our…24 Feb 2021HANSARDPandemics and Environmental DegradationMy Lords, the noble Lord makes an extremely important point. I agree with him; the environment is not a niche concern. Everything we have, everything we are, everything we do…24 Feb 2021HANSARDPandemics and Environmental DegradationThere is no doubt that there is a very clear link between industrialised agriculture—factory farming, if you like—and the emergent risk of pathogens. This is very high on the…24 Feb 2021HANSARDPandemics and Environmental DegradationI can absolutely provide that reassurance—not just through the COP 26, which we are hosting, but via the biodiversity convention and the G7. The noble Lord makes an important…24 Feb 2021HANSARDPandemics and Environmental DegradationThere is no doubt in my mind that every stone needs to be overturned and every avenue explored before we reach firm conclusions—and that has not yet happened. I share many of the…24 Feb 2021HANSARDTreesMy noble friend makes a really important point. It is a huge task, and we need to get it right. There have been many mistakes over recent decades, including the example he just…23 Feb 2021