Markus Andrews

A Labour MP has proposed a new law that would ban plastic in all wet wipes. Fleur Anderson launched a campaign to stop the manufacture and sale of any wet wipes that contain plastic, arguing they are behind 93 per cent of blockages in UK sewers and are contributing to an “ecological disaster.”Her bill will have its first reading on Tuesday and has the support from a number of MPs and environmental organisations. An estimated 11 billion wet wipes are sold each year in the UK and roughly 2.5 billion are flushed away. Fleur Anderson MP said she wants to make it easier for the consumer to make environmentally friendly choices. She added: “I know that parents want to do the right things and all I am saying is that we can make it easier on them and on everyone who relies on the use of wet wipes every day. “Everyone should bin and not flush wet wipes, but either way they contain plastic which gets in the environment and kills wildlife. My Bill comes in the same week as world leaders are meeting for COP26 and will show that the UK can take serious action and ban plastic from wet wipes made and sold in the UK.”Wet wipes are made up of non-woven materials that are bonded together using resins, chemicals or high pressure. This means that they do not break down very easily and, as they are designed to be wet, do not come apart easily in water. In a two hour clean-up run by Thames21 in 2019, 23,000 wet wipes were found on the shore of the River Thames in southwest London. According to Ms Anderson, 90 per cent of the wet wipes used in the UK contain some form of plastic which, when broken down, turn into microplastics which can be ingested by wildlife and enter the food chain and water supply. Last month researchers announced they had discovered microplastics in the blood of animals for what is believed to be the first time ever. Microplastics were found in the blood of cows and pigs in a study carried out by scientists at Vrije University in Amsterdam. The researchers believe that the results could have serious implications for public health. Ms Anderson said: “The plastic in wet wipes breaks down into microplastics, which can be ingested by marine and riverine animals, and are entering into our food chain and water supply. The environmental damage caused by plastic waste is causing an ecological disaster with 100m marine animals dying each year from plastic waste alone.”The MP noted non-plastic alternatives to wet wipes are on the market already. She added the labelling for wet wipes was confusing and “there will be thousands of people out there right now using wet wipes every day with no idea that they are using a single-use plastic an with no idea of the harm that it is doing to our water systems and our marine environments”.Ruth Piggin, head of public affairs at Water UK, said: “We wholly support this Bill and the spotlight it shines on an issue central to improving the health of our rivers and cutting storm overflow spills. Legislative action is needed to ensure manufacturers of wet wipes design plastics out of their products, so the negative environmental impacts of wet wipes are prevented at source.”A spokesperson for the WWF said: “We can become the generation that changes our flushaway culture and begins to restore nature instead of destroying it, but we need government police to lead the way.”Environment minister Lord Goldsmith said during the Environment Bill report stage in the Lords that Defra was working on the issue of wet wipes, but could not give a timeline or specific plans. More

Foreign secretary Liz Truss has poured cold water on reports the UK dropped key climate pledges from its trade deal with Australia – despite other ministers, as well as the Australian PM, previously signalling this was the case. This latest twist follows a leaked government email from September, which revealed a decision by Ms Truss, then the trade secretary, and Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, that the UK government could “drop both of the climate asks” from the text of the post-Brexit FTA (Free Trade Agreement).Among the areas to be removed was “a reference to Paris Agreement temperature goals,” the email stated, however Ms Truss has now claimed this is “fake news”.Pushed on the issue, by Sky News’ Kay Burley, at day one of the UN Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, Ms Truss snapped and said “there is explicit mention of [the Paris agreement] in our trade agreement and what’s more, the Australians have committed now to a mid-century net zero target”.What is the UK accused of doing?Back in September, the leaked Cabinet Office email suggested Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng had secretly dropped a series of climate pledges in order to get the government’s post-Brexit trade deal with Australia over the line. The message revealed a binding section that referenced the “Paris Agreement temperature goals”, as well as multilateral environmental agreements, was scrubbed from the accord after pressure from Australia’s government – which has a notoriously weak record on climate action.It came only a few weeks after Boris Johnson told MPs that any trade deal with Australia would, “include a chapter on trade and environment which not only reaffirms commitments to multilateral environmental agreements, including the Paris Agreement but also commits both parties to collaborate on climate and environmental issues”.But, to get around the issue, Sky News, which first broke the story, reported government sources had confirmed references to temperature would be “implicit” rather than spelt out in the text of the trade treaty. This likely explains Ms Truss’ insistence that there is a mention of the Paris agreement in the FTA, only it doesn’t actually include a specific figure – unlike in the UK-EU trade deal, where temperature commitments are laid out in detail.What has the UK previously said about the allegations?Reactions have been a bit of a mixed bag, and completely at odds with what Australia has said. Mr Kwarteng, while claiming reports about the pledges being removed were false, appeared to concede exact temperature commitments had in fact been wiped. Speaking at a New Statesman regional development conference on 9 September, he said it was “pure politicking” to suggest – as Labour MP Nia Griffiths had – the government signed off on a “lesser deal with Australia which lets them off the hook”.“I didn’t recognise that issue that somehow we’d removed the Paris Agreement language,” he said.However, as he went on there appeared to be some admission that there was no longer an exact figure included in the deal for combatting global warming.“There may have been an issue about specifically putting the 1.5C on the face of the negotiating mandate,” Mr Kwarteng said, “but there was absolutely explicit reference in the Paris Agreement in the negotiating mandate, so I wasn’t quite sure where this story was coming from.”Meanwhile, in a statement issued by a UK government spokesperson, on the same day as Mr Kwarteng’s remarks were made, the opposite was said. “Our ambitious trade deal with Australia will include a substantive article on climate change which reaffirms both parties’ commitments to the Paris Agreement and achieving its goals, including limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees,” it read.“Any suggestion the deal won’t sign up to these vital commitments is completely untrue.”What has Australia said?Scott Morrison, the Australian prime minister, conversely confirmed the reports were true, and told a press conference trade agreements were not the right place for climate targets.Mr Morrison, whose stance on the climate crisis has caused controversy in the past, was asked about the claims the day after they were published by news outlets all around the world.He said simply: “It wasn’t a climate agreement, it was a trade agreement. And I do trade agreements, and in trade agreements, I deal with trade issues. In climate agreements, I deal with climate issues.”“We’re pursuing agreements on clean energy technology with a vast number of countries, and we’ll have agreements about that [at another time,” Mr Morrison added, before insisting other countries should “trust Australia” to abide by its climate commitments.Pressed on the issue by reporters, though, Mr Morrison continued: “The key agreement we’ve made is when we signed up to Paris and the commitments that we made to achieve. Those commitments are clear. And we’ll not only meet them, we’ll beat them.” More

Families of children with severe epilepsy are set to protest outside parliament in a call for greater access to medicinal cannabis.Specialist doctors have been allowed to prescribe medicinal cannabis to patients since 2018, when the government changed its rules over the treatment.But the End Our Pain campaign group says patients are facing an “almost total block” on access to NHS prescriptions and families were being forced to go private. The group said they understand only three children with severe epilepsy have been prescribed whole plant extract medicinal cannabis – which has been hailed as “life-transforming” treatment for paediatric epilepsy – on the NHS since it was legalised. Families are planning to gather outside parliament on Tuesday to call for more accessible treatment, with a digital poster van showing physical changes in children taking medicinal cannabis. Parents are also set to stand outside Department for Health and visit No10 to deliver a petition in the day of action. “Our families are at the end of their tether. We have done everything we can possibly do,” Joanne Griffiths, whose son Ben has not been able to get an NHS prescription, said.“We have marched, petitioned, lobbied parliament and met with health ministers countless times, yet three years on we still cannot access the NHS prescriptions for the medicine our children are reliant on. “The mother said she thought their “problems were solved” in 2018, when it was announced cannabis health products would be made available to patients. “Yet here we are in 2021 struggling both financially and emotionally and continuing to be passed from pillar to post by both the government and the NHS,” Ms Griffithsadded. Hannah Deacon says every child with severe intractable epilepsy deserves access to the same treatment as her son Alfie Dingley.“My son is lucky enough to be one of only three children in the UK with an NHS prescription for the type of whole plant extract medical cannabis that has been life transforming in cases of paediatric epilepsy,” she said. “From having up to 150 life-threatening seizures a week, he has now gone over 500 days without a single serious seizure.”Alfie, who has a rare form of epilepsy, was the UK’s first patient to get a permanent license to be prescribed medicinal cannabis on the NHS when he received one several years ago.Ms Deacon added: “It is a total injustice that three children have access to this medicine, while others do not know when their money will run out.”Alfie’s mother wrote to Boris Johnson this summer, urging him to “make access to medicinal cannabis products on the NHS a reality”.A Deparment for Health and Social Care (DHSC) spokesperson said: “Our sympathies are with all patients and families dealing with rare and hard to treat conditions. The government has already changed the law to allow specialist doctors to prescribe cannabis-based products, where clinically appropriate and in the best interests of patients.”They added: “Licensed cannabis-based medicines are funded by the NHS where there is clear evidence of their quality, safety and effectiveness.”No10 has been approached for comment. More

The DUP will hold back on its threat to collapse Stormont over the Northern Ireland protocol for a few more weeks to enable post-Brexit negotiations between the UK and EU to continue, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said.The party leader has faced questions at to why he has not followed through on his ultimatum to withdraw ministers from Stormont at the start of November – thus collapsing powersharing – if major changes to the contentious Irish Sea trading arrangements had not been secured by that date.It comes as the hijacking and burning of a bus in Newtownards, a predominantly unionist area, was possibly timed to mark the DUP’s missed deadline. Around 6.30 on Monday morning, two masked men boarded a bus and poured fuel over the vehicle before setting it alight.Stormont’s infrastructure minister, Nichola Mallon, said the men who carried out the attack “muttered something about the protocol” while holding the bus driver at gun point.The driver managed to get off the vehicle unharmed, but was left badly shaken by the incident. No passengers were onboard at the time. A nearby bus shelter was also significantly damaged by the fire.Condemning the “paramilitary elements” behind the attack, Sir Jeffrey insisted they would not influence his political strategy to remove the Irish Sea border.He said it would be “churlish” to pull down Stormont at this point, claiming the UK government was making progress in efforts to slash the red tape burden imposed by the protocol. His comments come as negotiations between the EU and UK remain deadlocked.The government has signalled it will move to unilaterally suspend elements of the protocol – by triggering a mechanism known as Article 16 – if an agreed outcome is not reached by the end of November.The oversight role of the European Court of Justice in policing the operation of the protocol remains a key sticking point in the negotiations.Sir Jeffrey said that he was prepared to give a few more “weeks” to enable negotiations to reach an agreement that would remove the Irish Sea border.“If that doesn’t happen, I expect the government, as the prime minister said last week, to take unilateral action. The prime minister has said that the conditions exist to trigger Article 16 and I expect that to happen. If these things don’t happen, then I will act. I’ve made that absolutely clear,” he said.The protocol is the mechanism agreed by the EU and UK to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland post-Brexit, which it has done by effectively keeping Northern Ireland within the EU’s single market for goods – an arrangement that has led to checks on products crossing the Irish Sea from Great Britain.Brexit minister Lord Frost and European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic are due to meet face-to-face on Friday. More

Boris Johnson’s government has been urged to pause the rollout of so-called “smart” motorways until the safety of motorists can be assured.A cross-party group of MPs has called for a halt on motorways which ditch hard shoulders and adopt new, digital traffic management methods.Campaigners have long argued that the scrapping of hard shoulders has put drivers at greater risk of accidents – condemning what they call “death trap highways”.In a scathing new report, MPs on the transport select committee said the government has failed to deliver on promises to bring in safety improvements to stretches of smart motorway.The committee said it was time to stop any further rollout of smart motorways until five years of safety data is available and improvements can be independently evaluated.The use of smart, all-lane running motorways – with the conversion of the hard shoulder into a “live” lane for traffic – were first introduced in 2014.Since then, the stretch of all-lane-running motorways has expanded from 29 miles to 141 miles, prompting campaign groups such as RAC and Smart Motorways Kill to call for the reinstatement of hard shoulders.Some 53 people are thought to have died on smart motorways – with at least four coroners citing the lack of hard shoulder as playing a significant part in the road deaths they were investigating.The Department for Transport (DfT) and Highways England promised safety improvements on these sections of road, but the MPs report concluded those steps do not fully address the risks associated with the removal of the hard shoulder.The government’s decision last year that all new smart motorways will be all-lane-running motorways was “premature”, the report also stated.Conservative MP Huw Merriman, chair of the Transport Committee, said: “The minister for roads described England’s all-lane running smart motorways as ‘the most scrutinised 141 miles of road in the world’.The MP added: “It is right we do [scrutinise] because lives have been lost and many motorists feel unsafe using them. More action is needed to demonstrate their worth.”In the 2016, the government told the committee that new safety technology would be installed to allow “live” traffic lanes to be closed more quickly – but the report found it had not yet been introduced on all smart motorways.The committee has called for emergency refuge areas to be retrofitted to existing smart motorways at a maximum of one mile apart, and for the Office of Rail and Road to be handed new powers to evaluate safety measures.Mr Merriman said: “Only when these safety measures have been brought in, when enough time has been afforded to assess the safety of smart motorways over a longer period … should we move to roll out more miles of smart motorway.”Jim McMahon, the shadow transport secretary, said the report confirmed the Labour Party’s longstanding position that ministers had been “wrong” to press ahead with smart motorways.He added: “Reinstating the hard shoulder while full investigations are carried out need not be costly – the transport secretary could do so with a single phone call. The government must finally listen to what it is being told by countless victims’ families, or we face more tragedy on our roads.”The Department for Transport was contacted for comment, More

The UK government has accused Brussels of “wilful misrepresentation” of its position on Northern Ireland, in the continuing row over the territory’s Brexit agreement.Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission’s vice-president, had warned that “not one” of the business representatives he had spoken to in Northern Ireland had asked him to “scrap the protocol” – the treaty that gives the area a special status.Mr Sefcovic said he was “increasingly concerned” that the UK government would “refuse to engage” with this fact “and embark on a path of confrontation”.The feeling was apparently endorsed by the Irish government, whose foreign minister Simon Coveney shared the quote on social media on Monday.But the comments provoked anger in Westminster. Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis said: “The UK government is not arguing to scrap the protocol, and never has. This is a wilful misrepresentation of the position outlined in our Command Paper in July.”Mr Lewis argued that the UK was actually “seeking is to make changes with the sole purpose of finding more durable arrangements that work best for the people of Northern Ireland”.Lord Frost, the UK’s Brexit minister, blamed the agreement for causing disruption to trade between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain.It imposes extra controls on trade across the Irish Sea as a flipside to keeping the border open with the Republic of Ireland – which all sides agree is necessary for the peace process.The EU has offered a package of measures that it says would reduce checks and paperwork. The plan was welcomed by the UK but No 10 says it does not go far enough. The UK also wants the protocol to ditch any reliance on the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to settle disputes – despite having signed up to exactly that just two years ago. The UK argues separately that the role for the ECJ is a breach of sovereignty and does not appear to blame it for any of the economic problems. The EU wants the ECJ to have a role because it is the only body that can interpret EU law under the bloc’s treaties – and EU law applies in Northern Ireland by virtue of it effectively being in the single market and customs union. Talks are ongoing between the two sides in Brussels, with the latest read-out from officials suggesting both sides have made some progress but are still far apart.The UK’s latest missive was met with scepticism by some observers. David Henig, the UK director of European Centre for International Political Economy think-tank, said: “Is retention of something called a Northern Ireland protocol but removal of all of its substantive provisions to scrap it or not?”Mr Henig suggested that the UK’s claim was “the sort of position that encourages the EU view of UK negotiating as being akin to gangster politics”.The UK has warned that it could trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol, effectively suspending it unilaterally within the rules of the treaty. The row is running in parallel to a dispute about post-Brexit fishing rights off the Channel Islands. French fishermen are accusing the UK of infringing on their right to continue fishing the area, in line with the Brexit deal. France has threatened retaliation including potentially banning UK vessels from landing fish in French ports. More

India’s pledge to slash carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes has lifted some of the gloom over Cop26, experts say, after it opened to stark warnings of the terrible price of climate failure.The world’s third-biggest carbon emitter disappointed Downing Street by naming 2070 as its target date to reach net zero – 20 years later than the summit’s aim – but won praise for its first climate plan nevertheless.Hailing “real leadership” that suggested India’s emissions will peak by 2030, Professor Nicholas Stern, of the London School of Economics, said: “This was a very significant moment for the summit.”After China’s refusal to budge on its CO2-cutting plans, India’s announcement offered hope of keeping the Glasgow summit “on track”, The Independent was told.It came as Boris Johnson was criticised after revealing he plans to fly home to London on Tuesday – because it would take him too long to travel by train, according to No 10.Meanwhile, world leaders were told to begin annual reporting of actual progress made towards their climate promises, because a gap of five years will be too late.The call came in a blistering speech in Glasgow by Antonio Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, who told the presidents and prime ministers: “Enough of brutalising biodiversity.“Enough of killing ourselves with carbon. Enough of treating nature like a toilet. Enough of burning and drilling and mining our way deeper. We are digging our own graves.”Outside the summit, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg told campaigners that only their pressure would save the planet, as she attacked the “blah blah blah” of the leaders behind the security fences.Joe Biden apologised for Donald Trump withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on cutting emissions, saying: “We will demonstrate to the world the United States is not only back at the table but hopefully leading by the power of our example.”India’s role in Glasgow is seen as crucial if the summit is to “keep 1.5C alive” – the limit on the global temperature rise since industrialisation if runaway climate change is to be averted.With the leaders of China, Russia, Brazil, Japan and Turkey absent, all eyes were on Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, as he pledged that 50 per cent of the country’s energy would come from renewable sources by 2030.He also announced that the carbon intensity of the economy – a measure that relates to the amount of goods produced per unit of energy – would be reduced by 45 per cent, not 35 per cent, by 2030.However, Mr Modi said that rich nations must cough up more climate finance to turn pledges from developing nations into reality, after a three-year delay to a long-promised $100bn annual fund.In his response, Mr Johnson made clear he was listening, promising to “work with India” through a new £3bn “clean green initiative” he unveiled yesterday.The prime minister tweeted: “India has today announced ambitious plans for half its energy to come from renewables by 2030. This will cut carbon emissions by a billion tonnes, contributing to a worldwide decade of delivery on climate change.”Climate experts agreed that India’s announcement was potentially “a big deal”, although the details of the pledge were yet to be examined.Shri Rashmi, of the Energy and Resources Institute, said: “A 1 billion tonne reduction in absolute terms is massive. This shows tremendous leadership.”Arunabha Ghosh, chief executive of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, said: “India has clearly put the ball in the court of the developed world. This is real climate action.”And Dustin Benton, of Green Alliance, said: “For India, the big deal is its 2030 commitments. If this means it peaks its emissions in the next 10 years, then the world can stay on track.”Mr Johnson will fly out of Glasgow on Tuesday afternoon, at the end of the leaders’ summit that opened Cop26, leaving open the option of a return next week – if the summit appears to be heading for success. More

Boris Johnson will fly back to London from the Cop26 summit, despite pleading with fellow leaders to act now to save the planet.The prime minister cannot take the train from Glasgow tomorrow because it would take too long, his spokesperson claimed.He defended the decision on the grounds that his plane uses “sustainable” fuel – and said the emissions produced will be offset.It comes after fierce criticism of the government for making flying and driving cheaper in last week’s Budget, widening the gulf with sky-high train fares after a decade of inflation-linked price rises.Mr Johnson is only attending the first two days of the two-week summit, before returning to Westminster for Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons on Wednesday.Asked to justify the decision to fly back, his spokesman said: “The fuel we use for the flight is sustainable and the emissions are offset as well.“It is important that the prime minister is able to move around the country and we have obviously faced significant time restraints.”The spokesman did not set out the nature of the “time constraints” that prevent Mr Johnson from taking a four-and-a-half-hour train journey on Tuesday afternoon.He added that the charter plane to be used emits only half the carbon dioxide of other aircraft, but was unable to say what type of plane it was.However, critics of flying internally – in a small country such as the UK – point out that a plane still emits seven times the carbon dioxide, per person, than a train journey.Mr Johnson has refused to set out what personal sacrifices – if any – he is making to cut his own carbon footprint, declining to say if he is eating less meat for example.Just hours earlier, setting out the Cop26 challenge, he told the opening ceremony: “The people who will judge us are children not yet born – and their children. We mustn’t fluff our lines or miss our cue.“If we fail they will not forgive us. They will judge us with a bitterness and a resentment that eclipses any climate activist of today. And they will be right.”Explaining the flight, the spokesman added: “The plane is one of the most carbon-efficient planes of its size in the world. It produces 50 per cent less CO2 emissions than, for example, the larger Voyager plane [often used by Mr Johnson].“We use a specific type of fuel which is a blend of 35 per cent sustainable aviation fuel and 65 per cent normal fuel – which is the maximum amount allowed – and, obviously emissions, will be offset.”Denying the charge of “hypocrisy”, the spokesman said the UK is “leading the way in the in the commitments needed and investment required in order to get to net zero”.Meanwhile, chancellor Rishi Sunak defended his decision to cut air passenger duty on domestic flights on Monday, claiming it would be “offset” by raising the duty on long-haul flights abroad.Grilled by MPs on the Treasury Committee, the chancellor dismissed the idea of using aviation taxes to help achieve net zero – arguing that investment in sustainable aviation fuel was more important.“I assume people will be flying for years to come all over the place,” Mr Sunak told MPs.“The best way to solve emissions from that problem is trying to figure out what a sustainable aviation fuel looks like. The duties are not, one way or another, going to do anything.” More