In January 2020 Philip was elected Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC).
The EAC shares with the Public Accounts Committee the remit to look across government, rather than shadowing an individual department. This allows the EAC to scrutinise all government departments, and public and private sector impact on our environment, as well as measures to mitigate climate change. This could well be one of the defining policy areas of this Parliament, as we put in place the policies to enable the UK to reach net zero emissions as soon as possible, and certainly by 2050.
In the past two years, Philip initiated the Committee’s enquiry into one of the largest - yet largely hidden – sectors where modern slavery is prevalent today in Britain, and have pushed for more transparency to encourage Green Finance and greening of UK export finance, in improving biodiversity, air, water and soil quality.
It is clear from maiden speeches that many new MPs are committed environmentalists. They will help keep up the pressure on government to deliver policies for the UK to be a leader internationally in addressing climate change. Not least this November when we host the next UN Climate Change conference (COP26) in Glasgow.
Visit the Environmental Audit Committee webpages here: http://parliament.uk/eacom.
The decisions we make in the coming weeks and months on how the UK economy recovers from covid-19 will shape our economy for decades. It is crucial that we start to phase-out carbon intensive industries and lock-in clean, green innovation.
Philip Dunne welcomes the Government's indication of support for the aims of the campaign to improve water quality by reducing sewage pollution to our rivers and calls on the Government to use the delay in the Environment Bill as a chance to adopt many of the measures in his Private Member's Bill.
Speaking in a debate on the Environment Bill, Philip Dunne calls for greater independence for the Office for Environmental Protection and for the Government to ensure it has sufficient budget to reflect its responsibilities and he backs an amendment to improve people’s enjoyment of the natural environment and build a better relationship between people and nature.
The Environmental Audit Committee, of which Philip is Chair, has written to the Governor of the Bank of England urging it to show continued leadership on climate change by ensuring that its future actions to promote economic recovery from coronavirus reduce the UK’s exposure of climate risk.