'Australia deal is a disaster for UK climate policy', 17 December 2021

"The UK has just signed a trade deal with Australia, a country with one of the world’s worst records on tackling climate change. As the first of the UK’s truly independent trade deals, coming just weeks after the COP26 climate conference and as the UK retains the presidency for a further year, this sends a terrible signal.

Australia is well-known for its shocking lack of action on climate change. The Sustainable Development report 2021 gave it last place out of 193 UN member countries on this target. The country only recently signed up to a net zero target and has made slow progress towards the adoption of renewable energy and electric vehicles. It has lost 20% of its tree cover since 2000, a level of deforestation that puts it on a par with Brazil, Borneo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Australia is home to some of the world’s largest energy and mining companies, which even a former Prime Minister has admitted hold huge sway over the Government, to the detriment of positive action on climate.

No surprise then that Australia batted away the UK’s feeble attempt to insert into the deal language on specific commitments to things like net zero. The gold standard for trade deals would be to formally ensure that they are subordinate to climate agreements, for example via a climate waiver - which recently got backing from the UN’s trade arm, so that action on climate change cannot be challenged as being ‘trade distorting’. However, ensuring that there were binding provisions on climate change in the deal would have been a step in the right direction, and particularly important given that whilst climate agreements lack enforceability, trade agreements come with all the necessary infrastructure to enforce them.

One of the reasons that Australia can steer the UK off course so easily is the total lack of trade strategy from the UK Government. It’s unclear what the Government actually wants to achieve with all its newfound trade policy freedom. Ministers have splashed taxpayer money on a shiny trade promotion yacht, but there is still no plan for how trade will support climate action, the Sustainable Development Goals, the ‘levelling up agenda’ or a post-Covid recovery.

The UK urgently needs to produce a strategy that sets out how its approach to trade will support its other objectives, particularly its climate goals. This must involve meaningful engagement with ordinary people and civil society, including farmers and environmental groups, to ensure a range of expertise is taken into account. It should influence the choice of which countries we strike deals with and the way that the UK will use negotiations to support climate action..."