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International Renewable Energy Conference

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the outcome of the International Renewable Energy Conference held in Bonn from 1 to 4 June. [181129]

Mr. Morley: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State led the UK delegation to the Bonn Renewables Conference, which was attended by over 3,000 delegates, from 154 countries, whom of around 60 were Ministers. My hon. Friend the Minister for Energy, E-commerce and Postal Services also attended. The Prime Minister made a pre-recorded video address to the opening session of the ministerial segment of the Conference.

Overall, the Conference successfully built on the commitments made at the World Summit on Sustainable Development at Johannesburg and heightened international attention on the crucial role of renewable energy in addressing climate change and providing access to energy in the developing world.

The Conference had three key outcomes: a Political Declaration, a set of Policy Recommendations and an International Action Programme.

The Political Declaration adopted by acclamation at the close of the Conference sets out common political objectives for promoting the role of renewable energies. Reflecting the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, the Declaration restates the importance of the multi-lateral process to promote both renewables and energy efficiency.

The Policy Recommendations for Renewable Energies offers a menu of practical advice on how to develop policies to promote the development of the market for renewable energies in both the developing and developed worlds.

The International Action Programme is a collection of, to date, over 160 voluntary commitments on the part of governments, business, NGOs and other stakeholders to concrete action to deliver increased use of renewable energy. The UK submitted a series of actions to the programme, including the extension of the renewables obligation to 2015, renewable obligation certificates, the European Marine Energy Test Centre, round two of the off-shore wind farm development and the Energy Efficiency Action Plan. As one of the founders of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), we also submitted the REEEP Future Work Programme as an important contribution to the Action Programme.

The full text of all three documents can be found at: www.renewables2004.de

The adoption of an effective framework to follow up these outcomes and ensure that the commitments made in the International Action Programme are delivered will be crucial. The Political Declaration envisages "an appropriate arrangement" for measuring progress and the establishment of a multi-stakeholder "global policy network", taking into account the work already being undertaken by existing partnerships in order to promote a sharing of experience in the development and application of renewable energy.
 
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The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership launched last year by the Secretaries of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Trade and Industry will have a key role to play in this Policy Network. The Partnership, with partners from governments, business, finance and civil society across the globe, aims to share knowledge and experience in order to spread best practice and overcome barriers to the development of renewable energy and energy efficiency. The Partnership has grown considerably over the last year and generated a considerable amount of interest at Bonn, with the Governments of Senegal, Yemen and Australia all signing up as Partners at, or shortly after, the Conference.

Ivory

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what her policy is on the proposed ivory stockpile sales from (a) South Africa, (b) Botswana and (c) Namibia. [182249]

Mr. Morley: The Government will continue to insist that the very strict conditions governing the proposed one-off sales of ivory are met in full before any trade is allowed to proceed. In particular we want to be assured that the potential importing country/countries are able to regulate effectively their domestic ivory markets and that the one-off sales will not lead to an upsurge in poaching.

Landfill

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she is taking to minimise the amount of surplus food that is sent by supermarkets for disposal in landfill sites; and what her latest estimate is of the volume of food sent by supermarkets for (a) disposal in landfill sites and (b) incineration. [180384]

Mr. Morley: The Government are working with the food and drink industry to produce a joint strategy to improve the industry's economic, environmental and social performance. The new strategy will tackle waste as one of its issues together with litter, food miles, transport and energy use.

As well as the strategy the Government, through the waste minimisation programme being run by the Waste and Resources Action Programme, are working with retailers to reduce waste through better design of products.

We do not hold estimates on the volume of surplus food sent by supermarkets for disposal in landfill sites, incineration or other permitted disposal routes.

Richard Ottaway: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment (a) she and (b) the Environment Agency has made of the (i) impact and (ii) financial impact of its draft guidance on (A) monitoring landfill gas engine emissions, (B) the management of landfill gas, (C) monitoring trace components in landfill gas and (D) gas treatment technologies for landfill gas engines on generating renewable energy from landfill gas; and what assessment has been made of the impact of each on (1)
 
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the financial viability of operating a landfill site and (2) small and medium enterprises generating renewable energy from landfill gas. [181219]

Mr. Morley: The Environment Agency commissioned an independent impact assessment of costs and benefits associated with the introduction of its landfill gas guidance. The impact assessment was developed with input from the landfill industry and has been published on the Environment Agency's website at

www.environment-agency.gov.uk

The impact assessment demonstrated that the environmental benefits outweigh the costs, even when conservative assumptions were made on potential environmental benefits. The Landfill Directive requires that the full cost of landfilling be provided for within gate fees, and the Agency has publicly stated on a number of occasions that the cost of landfill needs to increase to reflect the real costs. Implementation of the Agency's landfill gas guidance will necessarily form part of these costs.

The Agency holds regular liaison meetings with the relevant trade associations specifically to keep under review the implementation and consequences of its landfill gas guidance. This liaison group has agreed to review the guidance formally, two years after the date of issue: this will provide a timely opportunity to verify the predictions contained in the impact assessment.

Richard Ottaway: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when the Environment Agency will publish its final guidance on (a) monitoring landfill gas engine emissions, (b) the management of landfill gas, (c) monitoring trace components in landfill gas and (d) gas treatment technologies for landfill gas engines. [181222]

Mr. Morley: I understand that the Environment Agency intends to publish these four guidance documents in August this year.

Nitrogen Dioxide Target

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when her Department plans to reach the 40 micrograms per cubic metre target set out in the 2003 Air Quality Strategy for the yearly average amount of nitrogen dioxide in the air. [181697]

Mr. Morley [holding answer 1 July 2004]: Our current assessment is that most areas in England will meet the Air Quality Strategy objective for nitrogen dioxide of 40 micrograms per cubic metre annual mean by the target date of 31 December 2005. We are looking at possible further measures as part of the current reviews of the Air Quality Strategy, the 10-Year Plan for Transport and Climate Change Programme.

Pharmaceutical Industry

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) if she will take steps to ensure that the pharmaceutical industry implements the Environment Agency's recommendation to review its products with reference to low level residues that are likely to cause harm to the aquatic environment and human health; [180622]
 
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(2) if she will take steps to ensure that the pharmaceutical industry implements the Environment Agency's recommendation to demonstrate that low level pharmaceutical residues are unlikely to cause harm to the aquatic environment and human health. [180623]

Alun Michael: The Environment Agency's position statement on human pharmaceuticals includes a number of actions for the pharmaceutical industry, including work to determine if exposures to low levels of pharmaceuticals over long periods of time are having an impact on aquatic life. These actions are being pursued through constructive dialogue between the agency and the industry and the intended development of an industry led work programme.

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she is taking to determine the (a) levels of fluoxetine and norfluoxetine residues in UK aquatic environments and (b) impact on the environment and human health. [180624]

Alun Michael: During 2002–03 the Environment Agency carried out a desk-based ranking exercise on the 500 pharmaceuticals most commonly used in England and Wales in order to rank them in terms of environmental significance. This exercise included fluoxetine. Norfluoxtine was not included as it is a breakdown product of fluoxetine and the study concentrated only on parent compounds. A short-targeted monitoring programme was then set up for 12 pharmaceuticals. Fluoxetine was not included within the programme because it was established that no analytical method suitable for use on environmental samples existed and that development of one would be difficult.

The Environment Agency's position statement on human pharmaceuticals includes a number of actions for the pharmaceutical industry including an action on the pharmaceutical industry to do more on the analytical methods for environmental monitoring. These actions are being pursued through constructive dialogue between the Agency and the industry and the intended development of an industry-led work programme.

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