Food and Drink Federation (FDF) director general Ian Wright said that the about 30% budget cut, announced this week, would very significantly reduce the activities of the government department.
“That is enormous. For DEFRA – with responsibility for about half the environment agenda in this country – that is going to be a very significant change and we need to think about that,” he said.
In a speech at the FDF sustainability convention yesterday (November 10), Wright said he suspected that the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) would face budget cuts of a similar scale.
View from FDF
“That is enormous. For DEFRA – with responsibility for about half the environment agenda in this country – that is going to be a very significant change and we need to think about that.”
- Ian Wright, director general, Food and Drink Federation
‘Profound impact’
“There will be a profound impact on climate change policy from these changes, as well as the fact we have a Conservative secretary of state,” he told the convention.
He said the issue of climate change was in the “melting pot at the moment” as a result of the public spending review and the election of the Conservative only government this year.
On Monday the chancellor revealed the 30% average budget cut across DEFRA and three other departments as part of efforts to control public spending and reduce national debt.
The same day a leaked letter, from energy secretary Amber Rudd, revealed that the UK was set to miss a mandatory EU energy target for renewable power.
Leaked letter
On the sidelines of the convention, DECC deputy director for industrial energy use Paul van Heyningen referred questions about the leaked letter and spending review to the press office.
In a speech, van Heyningen said the government was hoping to secure an “ambitious deal” and legally binding rules at the forthcoming United Nations climate change conference in Paris.
“There’s a strong commitment from all major players to getting a deal in place,” he said, adding that 156 countries had made pledges on climate change.
“It’s definitely not a done deal, it’s not in the bag. There is a vast amount to be agreed. This is not an end in itself, it is a beginning.”
The talks in December have been branded as “the last chance” to avert the dangers of climate change and limit temperature rises.