PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Climate Change: Slavery (3 November 2021)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions her Department has had with (a) other national governments and (b) international organisations on links between climate change and modern-slavery.

Asked by:
Fleur Anderson (Labour)

As hosts of the United Nations (UN) Conference of Parties (COP) 26 climate summit, the UK is leading international efforts on climate change and setting the bar for countries around the world to follow. We continue to advocate for progress to eradicate modern slavery and are proud that under our G7 Presidency we secured the cooperation of G7 leaders to tackle modern slavery in global supply chains.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has engaged leading academic and civil society organisations to better understand the linkages between climate change and modern slavery. The former UK Envoy for Migration and Modern Slavery was a speaker at an event hosted by Anti-Slavery International on Climate Change, Modern Slavery and a Just Transition in April 2021. Through the Human Rights Council, the UK has also worked to raise standards in relation to environmental protection and human rights. The FCDO funded the UN University Centre for Policy Research to produce the report Developing Freedom (2020) which considers how fighting modern slavery, forced labour and human trafficking (Sustainable Development Goal 8.7) can contribute to sustainable development, including tackling climate change. The report can be found at: www.developingfreedom.org.

Answered by:
Vicky Ford (Conservative)
8 November 2021