Speeches by Creagh.

“Absolutely. Buying the statutory credits is the option of last resort for developers, and the Secretary of State may use that income for the purpose of habitat enhancement, for the purchase of land with a view to carrying out habitat enhancement, or for the administration of the credit sales services. That income is he…”

“In the planning context?”

“I mentioned some of the things we are doing to address the integrity of nature markets, to set standards for nature markets, and to ensure a good supply of projects from farmers and landowners to generate ecosystem services credits to those markets. The last bit of that equation is the demand side. There are limited in…”

“We have talked about setting out the principles, so guiding those who want to be early adopters, and there are two or three businesses—the BBC I think has adopted them—”

“Oh, that is TNFD, which is a separate thing. We have supported the BSI around the standard setting. We also launched the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits framework with former French Finance Minister Sylvie Goulard in Cali, Colombia. It was co-chaired by Britain and France, so we had Dame Amelia Faw…”

“What we have to do, to protect and restore nature, whether nationally or internationally, is to make sure that every pound works really hard. We know that every pound invested in climate has a 20% benefit for nature, and 80% of all the pounds invested in nature give you something for the climate. We could argue against…”

“We are big supporters of TNFD, and I met its co-chair, David Craig, just last week. We are going to consult on how the UK intends to adopt the International Sustainability Standards Board’s standards. ISSB is basically taking all the voluntary standards in this space that lots of companies have developed in two differe…”

“I agree, because what you need is an international framework within which this happens. Otherwise, we are doing the right thing and then everyone else can be—”

“Oh dear. Have I fallen into it? It is quite possible that I did.”

“I will start by finishing off with the TNFD and the green taxonomy, because I was in one headspace and now we are in a different one. First, the TNFD is about transparency, consistency and reducing burdens for cross-border companies. We have also said that ESG ratings providers will be regulated once legislation is agr…”

“Let me move on to the targets under the Environment Act.”

“I have found some answers to the previous question, but I am a bit worried that we are going all over the place. We have 60 companies that are voluntarily choosing now to adopt TNFD, which is important. Greensphere Capital is aiming to invest up to £100 million in commercialising and scaling up research in biodiversity…”

“Exactly.”

“It is about increasing demand, isn’t it? It is about giving farmers and landowners the confidence that this is an activity that they can have confidence in doing. It is about making sure, for the people who are purchasing that—whether that is house builders, pension funds or whatever—that it is a genuine, sustainable a…”

“Absolutely, yes.”

“I am trying to remember the timings of it, but maybe we had DEFRA questions a week or two later. I do not know why. There was a written ministerial statement, but no oral statement; you are right.”

“Dr Will Lockhart is sitting to the right of me. At the request of the secretariat, he had really been in the driving seat around the adoption of the agreement on digital sequence information, or DSI. We set up a new fund at Cali—the Cali Fund—and there were really complicated negotiations, which came after two years. D…”

“It felt pretty massive, from where we were sitting. It is a big deal. Setting up a new fund for nature that channels private sector capital is a world first. Allied to that, for the first time ever, is a new permanent body for indigenous peoples and local communities. It was created to recognise their role and integrat…”

“I think we need to look now at the modalities of how that fund will be set up and established. We obviously have to wait for the COP to conclude, but we are thinking about how we can take it forward. It is always challenging to get agreements between 196 countries. Another thing that happened is that we launched an upd…”

“Perhaps I can ask Dr Lockhart to respond. He was in the thick of it all.”