Kerry McCarthy Labour MP for Bristol East
Parliament is back from recess, and although it’s a new year, sadly, many of the issues we will debate remain unchanged.
That includes devastating deforestation in the Amazon, which is now at the worst level seen since 2006. This is an emergency that requires urgent international intervention if we are to stop the ecosystem collapsing altogether.
I spoke in the debate this week, highlighting the importance of our rainforests as carbon sinks and as habitat for an incredible range of biodiversity. We should be protecting them, not plundering them.
The Government urgently needs to adopt a more ambitious approach to stamping out links to illegal and legal deforestation in UK supply chains. In the meantime, we can all play our part by asking our banks to stop financing deforestation and our supermarkets to stop stocking products linked to it.