Deforestation: MPs warn UK is eating too much beef and chocolate - and it's destroying the world's forests

The UK is eating huge amounts of beef, soy, cocoa, and palm oil - and a government committee has warned it's putting enormous pressure on forests across the world.

On Thursday (4 January), the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) called on the government to act with urgency, as it released a new report on Britain’s contribution to the global destruction of forests. The report has revealed that 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.

The report comes after the government announced that four commodities linked to deforestation – 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. More products will be able to be added to the list over time, but the government has yet to give a date for when the legislation will be introduced altogether.

EAC chair Philip Dunne told PA the report should serve as a "wake-up call" to the government, with the committee concerned the lack of timeline and phased approach did not reflect how urgent the issue really was. “The failure to include commodities such as maize, rubber and coffee within this scope does not demonstrate the level of urgency required to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030," the report said.

It made a number of recommendations in the report, including urging the government to address these gaps, by strengthening the existing legal 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 said it heard concerns there was a lack of transparency over how planned investments into nature and climate programmes – including £1.5 billion earmarked for deforestation – would be spent, and MPs were also alarmed to hear from campaign group Global Witness that one person is killed every second day defending land and the environment.

“UK consumption is having an unsustainable impact on the planet at the current rate," Dunne said. “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."

But he said there seemed to be "little sense of urgency" about getting a rapid grip on the problem. “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.”

Commenting on the report, nature charity WWF's advocacy and campaigns director, Kate Norgrove, said: “Despite some progress, this report shows that the UK government needs to do much more to save our forests, which are one of our strongest allies in the fight against climate change.

"Every hectare of forest we lose takes us closer to runaway climate change which will be devastating for us all," she continued. "We urge all parties to take up the EAC’s comprehensive plan of action to end the UK's contribution to global deforestation. We haven’t a moment to lose to bring our world back to life.”