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Animal Welfare (Greyhounds)

Mr. Best: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will include provisions to increase protection for greyhounds within the greyhound racing industry in the Animal Welfare Bill. [132231]

Mr. Bradshaw: Yes. Defra officials are discussing possible measures to improve welfare with the racing industry and welfare organisations.

Biodiversity

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs who will represent the Department at the 7 Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Kuala Lumpur, in February 2004. [131978]

Mr. Morley: The composition of the delegation has yet to be decided. It will be determined in the light of the agenda. I am planning to attend the High Level Segment from 18 to 19 February 2004.

Climate Change

Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much carbon dioxide was produced per person in the UK in 2002. [131063]

Mr. Morley: The average production of carbon dioxide per person in the UK, due to activities such as electricity generation and use, travel and industrial production, is estimated to have been almost 10 tonnes in 2001, the year for which latest published data on greenhouse gas emissions is available.

Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she is taking to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide from industry into the atmosphere. [131079]

Mr. Morley: Reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide from industry are being achieved through the Climate Change Levy, Climate Change Agreements the UK and EU Emissions Trading Schemes and the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) regime.

The Climate Change Levy applies to energy used in the non-domestic sector. Revenues are recycled to levy payers via a 0.3 percentage point cut in employers'

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National Insurance Contributions, and receipts from the levy, administered by the Carbon Trust, provides additional support for energy saving measures.

Climate Change Agreements enable energy intensive business sectors to receive an 80 per cent. discount on the climate change levy in return for agreeing to meet challenging targets for improving energy efficiency or reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 44 sectors have signed agreements with the Government, including major energy intensive sectors like steel, chemicals, paper and non-ferrous metals.

The UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) enables target holders in this voluntary participation scheme to meet their emissions reductions targets through their own efforts, by buying surplus emissions allowances from those who have found it cheaper to reduce emissions, or if they over achieve, by selling their surplus allowances. 32 organisations are committed to delivering reductions of 1.1 MtC by the final (fifth) year of the scheme. Climate Change Agreement holders are also able to use the UK ETS to achieve their targets.

An EU Emissions Trading Scheme is due to start in January 2005 and will be mandatory for certain industrial sectors.

The Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) regime introduced by a 1996 EC Directive, and which is being phased-in through regulations produced under the Pollution Prevention and Control Act 1999, applies an integrated environmental approach to the regulation of certain industrial activities. In determining the conditions of an IPPC permit the designated regulator must take energy efficiency into account, which in turn contributes to reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the research being undertaken on the effects of carbon dioxide on environmental sustainability. [131090]

Mr. Morley: Carbon dioxide emissions threaten environmental sustainability since they are the main cause of climate change. Defra funds a significant programme of research on climate change worth approx. £12.7 million in 2002–03. This figure includes £8.4 million for the Climate Prediction Programme at the internationally leading Hadley Centre, which underpins the UK's research on assessment of the potential impacts of climate change on the UK, partly through the provision of a consistent set of climate change scenarios published in April 2002.

Research on the effects of climate change is also commissioned by the Department, other Government Departments and the Research Councils. Defra provides a focus for such research in the UK through the ground-breaking UK Climate Impacts Programme, which provides a link between researchers and stakeholders in industry and the public sector to enable them to assess the risks to their activities from climate change and to develop adaptation strategies to minimize such risks.

Defra also funds research on the global effects of climate change and is developing a programme to assess the effects of different levels of greenhouse gases in

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the atmosphere. This will help us to contribute to the debate on identifying levels which avoids dangerous anthropogenic change and thereby contribute to environmental sustainability.

Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the Government's plans to tackle climate change. [131066]

Mr. Morley: Tackling climate change is a high priority for the Government which will continue to show international leadership by taking effective action to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

Policies outlined in the UK Climate Change Programme (CCP) will ensure that the Government are on course to meet its Kyoto commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 12.5 per cent. below base year levels by 2008–12 and move towards the domestic goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent. below 1990 levels by 2010. The Government are committed to monitoring the effectiveness of the policies and measures in the CCP and will be reviewing it formally in 2004. In addition, as announced in the Energy White Paper, the UK is putting itself on a path to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by some 60 per cent. by 2050, with real progress by 2020.

The UK works closely with international partners to ensure that effective efforts to combat climate change are taken by all Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and that the Kyoto Protocol enters into force as soon as possible.

Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the average temperature in England was in (a) August 1993 and (b) August 2003. [131067]

Mr. Morley: Observations analysed by the Met Office show that the average Central England temperature was 14.6oC in August 1993, and 18.0oC in August 2003. The average Central England temperature in August during the period 1971–2000 was 16.2oC and over that period the average trend in August temperatures has been a rise of about 0.3oC per decade.

Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs by how much she aims to cut greenhouse gas emission by 2010. [131091]

Mr. Morley: The UK's commitment under the Kyoto Protocol is to reduce emissions of a basket of six greenhouse gases by 12.5 per cent. below base year levels by 2008–12. Base year levels are 1990 for carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, and 1995 for the F-gases (hydrofluorocarbons, perflorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride).

The UK has also set itself a domestic goal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent. below 1990 levels by 2010.

Data for emissions of the basket of six greenhouse gases for 2001, submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in April 2003, show that emissions fell by 12.3 per cent. between the base year and 2001. Provisional data for 2002 shows that emissions fell by around 14 to 15 per cent. between the base year and 2002.

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Flooding

Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the number of homes damaged by flooding between January and June; what measures are in place to prevent flooding; and if she will make a statement on her objectives for flood defence. [131061]

Mr. Morley: I understand that 1,209 properties have been flooded in the period between January and June 2003 based on Environment Agency figures. In the most serious flooding incident in the Thames Valley over the new year, it is estimated that some 400 properties were protected from flooding and disruption to a further 1,000 properties was prevented by the Jubilee River flood alleviation scheme. In other areas of the country, flood defences have of course also reduced flooding.

The Department's policy is to reduce risks to people, property and the environment from flooding and coastal erosion through the provision of defences, flood forecasting and warning systems, increased flood resilience of property, beneficial land management changes and discouragement of further development on the floodplain. The Government invests significant sums of money each year to reduce risk and this investment profile is rising steeply with plans to spend approximately £1.5 billion between 2003–04 and 2005–06.

Defra has agreed Service Delivery Agreement (SDA) targets with Treasury to implement the outcome of the Funding Review and reduce risk to houses, infrastructure and environmental assets from the Department's capital programme over the spending review 2002 period. Delivery plans for these targets are available from the Defra website: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environ/fcd/policy/aim.htm. We are also developing a new Strategy for Flood Management and Coastal Protection which will be a cross-Government update to our 1993 Strategy. A Stakeholder Forum is being established, partly to inform this Strategy work.

Defra's flood management programme includes High Level Targets for operating authorities, encouragement of Shoreline Management Plans and Coastal Groups, a joint research and development programme with the Environment Agency and funding of the Agency's flood plain maps, Catchment Flood Management Plans, Public Awareness Campaigns and the National Flood and Coastal Defence Database and associated risk assessment methodology.

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