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CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT

British Culture Promotion

Mr. Mark Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what funding her Department provides to promote British culture abroad. [73913]

Dr. Howells: The Department does not directly fund the promotion of British culture abroad. However, the British Tourist Authority often features aspects of British culture in its programme to attract visitors to this country and many other institutions and events which receive funds from the Department play a significant part in establishing international awareness of British Culture.

Gambling

Stephen Hesford: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when she will publish her response to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee's report on gambling. [75901]

Mr. Caborn: We have today laid before both Houses a Command Paper (no. 5622) setting out the Government's response to the report of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee—XThe Government's Proposals For Gambling: Nothing To Lose?"

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ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Common Agricultural Policy

Mr. Jack: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what studies her Department has undertaken to assess the impact of the proposed mid-term CAP review; [72358]

Mr. Simmons: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the Government's discussions with the EU regarding the reform of the CAP. [72360]

Alun Michael: Discussions on the mid-term review of the CAP are continuing within the EU. Elements of the package were discussed at the Agriculture Council earlier this week. The Government have submitted evidence to the Select Committee's Inquiry into the reform of the CAP.

Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make a statement about reforming the Common Agricultural Policy. [72375]

Alun Michael: Discussions on the mid-term review of the CAP are continuing within the EU.

Foot and Mouth Disease

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what contingency plans exist for dealing with further outbreaks of foot and mouth disease. [72361]

Mr. Morley: Contingency plans for a future outbreak of foot and mouth disease are set out in Defra's interim contingency plan, which is available on the Defra website with an electronic mailbox for comments.

Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on her assessment of the reports she has received over the last four months on the foot and mouth outbreak. [72373]

Mr. Morley: I refer the hon. Member to the statement my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State made to the House on 22 July 2002, Official Report, column 669.

Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she next expects to meet representatives of the livestock farming sector to discuss the lessons to be learned from the recent foot and mouth epidemic. [72374]

Mr. Morley: I and my ministerial colleagues meet livestock industry representatives on a regular basis. My noble Friend the Minister for Food and Farming chaired a meeting last month with a wide range of interested parties to discuss the Foot and Mouth Disease Inquiry reports.

Livestock Auction Marts

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what future role she envisages for livestock auction marts. [72363]

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Mr. Morley: Livestock auction markets have an important role in the marketing of farm animals between the various stages of production and some markets may be suitable for a range of activities or for more diversified marketing. This issue is of particular importance where large numbers of cross-bred breeding stock and store stock for fattening are sold off the hills to lowland farms such as, for example, in the Northern Uplands. We are in contact with industry interests to help identify and respond to day to day issues as well as to consider together the longer-term marketing framework.

Sustainable Development

Mr. Simon Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the result of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. [72364]

Mr. Meacher: The UK secured good outcomes on many issues including key agreements on:




Rob Marris: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement about the outcome of the World Summmit on Sustainable Development and its follow up. [76116]

Margaret Beckett: The World Summit on Sustainable Development addressed some of the greatest challenges of our times. For over a year I had said the Summit should be about more than just fine words. It should be about a step-change—a move from words to concerted action and implementation. And it was. I also made clear from the beginning that separate fora would take forward discussion on climate change and on trade, including trade in agricultural produce.

So Johannesburg built on the success of last year's Doha talks on the new trade round, the Marrakech accords on climate change and this year's Monterrey conference on financing for development. It reaffirmed and strengthened the international community's commitment to sustainable development, and reinvigorated the Rio Earth Summit agreements as well as the UN Millennium Development Goals on poverty eradication. There are no silver-bullet solutions, no miracle cures. But what we do have is a new political commitment, momentum and energy for the attainment of a sustainable world.

As in all negotiations, we were rightly ambitious, given the agenda we had. I judge the final deal reached between the 180 participating countries—for which the UK, led by the Prime Minister, negotiated hard—to be a successful outcome. We went to Johannesburg to

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make a concrete difference to people's lives. I believe that we succeeded. And, whilst I understand the disappointment of those who pushed us for more, I believe that what was achieved, taken in conjunction with the UN Millennium Development Goals will, if implemented, represent a revolution in the lives of the poorest people on the planet, and the beginnings of a revolution in how we treat the planet itself.

The Summit agreed an impressive plan of implementation. We agreed a new target to halve by 2015 the proportion of people living without basic sanitation. This will save millions of lives in developing countries, and support existing goals on safe drinking water and health. There are also new targets and timetables on chemicals, biodiversity, marine protection and fish stocks. These and other commitments will galvanise action and set standards for the next 10 years or more.

The Summit also agreed joint actions on reliable and affordable energy provision for the poor and to urgently and substantially increase the global share of renewable energy sources. The provision of energy is a prerequisite for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The Summit did not set a global target for renewables, but even those countries which resisted a global target have nevertheless committed themselves to domestic action. At the Summit the Prime Minister announced that the UK's Export Credit Guarantee Department will make available #50m per year to renewable energy exports to developing countries.

And on climate change, Johannesburg issued a ringing call for countries to ratify the Kyoto protocol. Three key developing countries—China, India and Brazil—recently ratified. Crucially, in his positive statement at the Summit, the Russian Prime Minister Kasyanov again signalled that Russia is preparing to ratify the Protocol. The Canadian Prime Minister, Chretien, said that Canada will make a decision on ratification later this year. We are hopeful that the Kyoto Protocol might enter into force in early 2003.

Over 300 new partnerships were also launched at the Summit representing in excess of $235million in resources. We are familiar with the idea of partnerships at home. But this is a bold new idea for the UN. These partnerships will be the unique inheritance of Johannesburg—they are not a substitute for multilateral commitments, but they will provide additional and complementary resources. For example, the EU ''Water for Life Initiative'' and the UK-led multistakeholder partnership for water and sanitation will support the delivery of the new sanitation target and the existing goals on safe drinking water and health.

Johannesburg has given the global community a strong mandate for intensified action at global, regional and national levels. More fundamentally, it has forged close links between development and environment policy, in the service of sustainable development. There is now a widespread agreement that development assistance should be directed at helping the poor and that it needs to be sustainable if it is to be of lasting benefit. Sustainable management of natural resources and of the environment are essential for poverty

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eradication. This now needs to be reflected in the poverty reduction and sustainable development strategies of developing countries.

We shall work with our partners in the international institutions—the UN, the G8 and the OECD—to ensure that development and environment policy are mutually supportive. We need to ensure that the follow-up to Johannesburg, Monterrey and the Millennium Development Goals is coherent.

International trade, and climate change issues already have dedicated international processes of their own. On both, the UK Government is taking a lead role.

The Prime Minister has hammered home the case for trade reform, especially of agricultural subsidies. Developing countries need improved market access, so they can sell their produce fairly, without being hampered by trade-distorting and environmentally-damaging subsidies in the developed countries. This is the single most important issue we need to follow up after Johannesburg. Improved market access and subsidy reform are a joint concern for development and environment policy. Currently OECD countries give around $55billion in overseas aid, but subsidise their agricultural industries by around seven times that amount. CAFOD have suggested that through the CAP the average European dairy cow gets a $2 subsidy a day—the same as the daily income of half the world's population. We will continue to push for reform of agricultural subsidies both within the WTO and, within the EU, on the Common Agricultural Policy.

On climate change, later this month I shall be in Delhi for the next stage of the UN negotiations on implementation of the Kyoto Protocol.

The implementation of the EU's Sustainable Development Strategy will be a driver for change in Europe. In particular, it will need to reflect the Summit agreement to develop a global ten-year framework of action programmes to accelerate the shift towards sustainable production and consumption. We need to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation—to get more from less. The industrialised North has agreed to take the lead on this and it must be central to the EU's Strategy. This means action on a whole range of issues such as energy efficiency, waste minimisation—a real challenge for us in the UK—and integrated product policy.

But equally important is action we will take at home. We will integrate the Johannesburg agreements and relevant follow-up into UK policy and action, with a sharp focus on the use of technological innovation to deliver sustainable development. If, as a nation, we achieve greater resource efficiency, this will not only help our environment but also improve our competitiveness.

On energy, we are working towards our 10 per cent. renewable electricity target by 2010. We are making great strides in both energy efficiency and tackling fuel poverty. On climate change we have been leading globally in the Kyoto process. We are on track to meet our Kyoto target of a 12.5 per cent. reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and have put in place a

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comprehensive programme of measures to meet our more ambitious domestic goal to reduce our emissions of carbon dioxide by 20 per cent.

The Government will shortly publish an Energy White Paper that addresses how to set the UK on the longer term path to a low carbon economy, as the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution and others have recommended. In particular, the Commission has recommended we put ourselves on the path to 60 per cent. reductions in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. We will respond formally to that recommendation at the time of the White Paper, but already it is clear that action on that scale—in the UK and internationally—is what is necessary.

This Autumn we shall be taking receipt of, and later responding to, the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit's report on how we manage waste, stemming growth, and promoting recycling and re-use.

Last week I hosted a meeting with leading UK stakeholders, to discuss the follow-up action by government and stakeholders at UK level. This provided a useful forum for us to discuss the proposals developed by stakeholders and within government, and to establish some shared conclusions on the implications of the Summit.

Our next review of progress toward sustainable development, which will be out early in the new year, will include further details on how we intend to take the Johannesburg outcomes forward. Over the course of the next year, we will also be reviewing the UK Sustainable Development Strategy and meeting our Summit commitments will form a significant part of this.

Perhaps the most innovative feature of the Summit was the emphasis on partnerships between governments and civil society; particularly NGOs and business. The UK delegation therefore included Members of this House, representatives from the devolved administrations, local government, the UK Sustainable Development Commission, from business and NGOs. And since this was a Summit on the future, 4 youth representatives. Besides the formal government negotiations there was a wealth of other events and initiatives. UK participants were active everywhere and made a huge contribution to the overall outcome. Governments must take the lead in setting the framework for sustainable development, they cannot deliver it alone.

Johannesburg demonstrated that it is possible to reach agreement on practical steps towards a more sustainable world. We must, and will, keep moving forward. In the words of the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan; ''This Summit will put us on a path that reduces poverty while protecting the environment, a path that works for all peoples, rich and poor, today and tomorrow. We have to go out and take action. This is not the end. It's the beginning.''


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