Speeches by Creagh.

“We were disappointed that agreements were not concluded on mobilising quality and accessible nature finance, nor on agreeing the final details of the monitoring, reporting and review framework. There was a big agenda, and the meeting became inquorate at about quarter to 8 Cali time on Saturday morning. Even on the outs…”

“The four nations of the UK, the overseas territories and Crown dependencies have been working collaboratively to produce a UK-wide NBSAP. We did submit our national targets to the convention on 1 August, which commit us to meeting all 23 of the GBF targets at home. That contribution was part of the first global assessm…”

“Oh my—oh no: I was thinking you were going to say in Armenia in two years’ time; it will definitely be before then. Before Rome, I cannot say.”

“I think we are going to have a new statutory plan to protect and restore our natural environment, and we will have delivery information to help to meet each of the Environment Act targets. We are working with civil society, business and local government to do that. That will play its part in framing how we will meet ou…”

“We have set out that at least 7% of England’s land has already met that criteria. We are going to confirm with you the key delivery levers, like how we are going to do that, and set out the pathways and our action plan to meeting these targets. We hope to finalise and publish the strategy next year. At sea—because of c…”

“I would say yes. The question is what are the protections within them? Given that 94% of the UK’s biodiversity is in our overseas territories, the overseas territory work is very important—those protections are incredibly important. It is about making sure that we have proper protections within those MPAs. There has be…”

“We had a stakeholder event on the UK’s NBSAP, which was hosted by JNCC—our Joint Nature Conservation Committee—with participation from the four UK nations, in November 2023. So that has happened. We are working with civil society, business and local government in the review of the environmental improvement plan. It is …”

“We have a new cross-sector stakeholder strategic advisory group set up to ensure that DEFRA sectors can collaborate with DEFRA on key strategic questions, and co-create that EIP revision, so we are trying to bring other people in. It is dependent on the EIP, and as you rightly say, on the land use framework, which I be…”

“I hope so.”

“On all these philosophical questions, I am going to hand over to Dr Lockhart.”

“Was the was the response from me or Minister Hardy?”

“Ah, well, I had not seen the question, so I was genuinely thinking, “Did I answer that?”, because I had no memory of that. That does not mean it did not happen. On the MMO, marine regulators have assessed all fishing activities on the protected species and habitats in our MPAs, and they have identified bottom-towed fis…”

“Sixty per cent of MPAs are protected by byelaws that limit the use of damaging fishing gear. The MMO is continuing its work to strengthen protections within the offshore marine environment. Can I say one other thing, hopefully to satisfy you? After gathering evidence last year on the impacts of fishing on seabed sedime…”

“I will consult Stephen Doughty, who is the Minister in this area, and we will certainly endeavour to get him to write to you or to get you a joint letter.”

“I do not think they have been encouraged to do so.”

“I will bring in Dr Lockhart on this. I would say that it extends to agrifood businesses too. As we go forward to the Belém COP in Brazil next year, we will see an increased focus on bringing the climate and nature pieces together, and a big focus on the bioeconomy. It is propitious timing for those discussions to begin…”

“My understanding is that one of the reasons why this process was put in place is that they were having to negotiate IP with individual member states, and they found it was taking three, four or five years. One of the things that has come out of DSI is that they get certainty with this process. I think there is a bit of…”

“COP16 did not happen in isolation. We had a triple COP year, and I feel for people who attended all three. We also had the UNFCCC taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan, and the desertification COP meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which has just concluded. It was great to see that you, Mr Gardiner and Ms Heylings, attended C…”

“Not so much on that, but it would be remiss of me if we were to conclude without mentioning the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee meeting in Busan, which was trying to conclude the global plastic pollution treaty. It finished on 1 December, and 170 countries were there. That is another convention that stems from …”

“I have no script here on this, so I am just doing it from memory—officials will all get nervous now—”