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The Prime Minister yesterday at the UN General Assembly in New York outlined over £160 million of funding to help countries transition to cleaner, greener energy systems and support communities affected by climate change.

The UK is a world-leader on clean growth and green finance and is pioneering efforts to build greater resilience to climate change. It has cut emissions by more than 40% since 1990 – more than any other G7 country on a per person basis – and its legally-binding targets will see emissions fall by an average of 57% over the period 2028 to 2032 and at least 80% by 2050 from 1990 levels.

The UK is committed to sharing its expertise and help developing countries in the global challenge of tackling climate change. The government has committed at least £5.8 billion of funding between 2016 and 2020 to help developing countries both reduce emissions and build resilience to the impacts of climate change.

Appearing at the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly in New York, the Prime Minister was clear that it is only through collective effort that we can successfully address the threat of climate change. She joined the UN Secretary General to call for countries to work together and strive towards ambitious outcomes at COP24, at the UN Secretary General’s 2019 Climate Summit, and beyond.

She set out:

• £60 million of technical assistance to share the UK’s world leading expertise on energy market reform, transition to clean growth, green finance and climate legislation
• £94.5 million focused on mitigating the effects of climate change would provide direct support to families most affected by droughts in Northern Kenya, as part of the government’s Kenya’s Hunger Safety Net Programme which will then transition to full government of Kenya ownership and funding
• £15 million will make it more profitable for companies to buy from smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, helping to build resilience against rising food demand and climate shocks

She also said the UK would:

• lead international efforts on climate resilience for the Secretary General’s Climate Summit in 2019
• help gather evidence on the actions needed to adapt to climate change ahead of the 2019 The UK Secretary General’s Climate Summit in 2019 by co-convening the Global Commission on Adaptation
• join the Carbon Neutrality Coalition to support ambitious action in support of the Paris Agreement’s collective goals of net-zero global emissions

Energy and Clean Growth Minister Claire Perry said:

We were one of the first countries to recognise the challenge and huge economic opportunities of the global shift to a greener, cleaner economy – putting clean growth at the heart of our Industrial Strategy.

Now we want to share our world-leading expertise with developing countries. This £60 million programme could provide the boost they need to begin their own clean growth movements, building economies fit for the future.

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said:

When drought strikes in the developing world, it is the most vulnerable communities which are hit the hardest by damage to livestock and crops. I witnessed earlier this year in northern Kenya how the swift support of UK aid and our partners helped households, which would otherwise be at risk of sliding deeper into poverty.

UK aid is supporting the government of Kenya to build systems that will help them to withstand the devastating impact of future climate shocks.

This is good news for Kenya as the country takes another step towards moving beyond aid and this is good news for the UK as we grow our relationship with Kenya, a key trading partner.

The UK will lead global efforts to mitigate and respond to the effects of climate change protecting food, water and jobs for the future, and building resilience to cut the impact and cost of natural disasters. It is well placed to offer this expert advice and support in cutting carbon emissions as a global leader in tackling climate change, playing a vital role in negotiating the Paris Agreement.

The UK was also the first country to introduce domestic legally binding emission reduction targets and has reinforced this commitment by joining the Carbon Neutrality Coalition, an initiative led by New Zealand and the Marshall Islands that will promote long-term planning and ambitious action in support of the Paris Agreement’s collective goals of net-zero global emissions by the second half of this century.

There are huge opportunities to work with like-minded countries to affect global change while building on UK expertise. The UK is a leading country behind the move to incentivize green finance, securing approval to develop a new international standard this week. Development of the Green Finance ISO by the British Standards Institute and its Chinese counterpart comes a week ahead of the launch of the UK’s first ever Green GB Week, raising awareness of the need and economic opportunities of reducing emissions.

Notes to editors

1. On Monday 15 October, the government will launch the first Green GB week. This will be a week of events and announcements across the UK designed to promote the opportunities that come from clean growth and raise awareness of how businesses and the public can contribute to tackling climate change.
2. Further details of the £60 million Technical Assistance Programme will be released during Green GB Week.
3. The UK has transformed how its electricity is generated with the amount of electricity from low carbon sources hitting 50% in 2018, reducing carbon emissions from electricity faster than any other major country. Joining global efforts to phase out coal power in 2017 the UK has already committed to completely removing dirty coal power by 2025.
4. A third and final phase of UK support of £94.5 million has been committed to the government of Kenya’s Hunger Safety Net Programme with the government of Kenya leading and fully financing the programme from 2024.
5. The Hunger Safety Net Programme provides cash support to help meet the poorest people’s basic needs, such as food and school fees. The support is distributed through an innovative, technology-led system which ensures it reaches those most in need. The programme works in northern Kenya where poverty levels are the highest in the country.
6. An additional £15 million has been approved for Food Trade and Resilience. The project will provide expertise and advice to make it more profitable for commercial companies to buy from smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. This will increase the income of 1.8 million farming families, while helping to build resilience against rising food demand and climate shocks.
7. The UK has also helped establish the Powering Past Coal Alliance today uniting more than 70 members including 28 national governments, states and businesses to accelerate clean growth and climate protection through the rapid phase-out of unabated coal power.

The new route will slash up to 30 minutes off journeys for regular commuters each week. It promises to take around 22,000 vehicles a day from the A460, making that major road less congested.

It will also ease congestion on the A449 and A5 by separating local traffic from long-distance and commuter traffic, and overall the impact on congestion will boost the regional economy.

The route was chosen after a consultation that saw nearly three quarters of respondents give it the thumbs up.

Project Manager Andrew Kelly said:

We want to provide a road that works for both drivers and the local community living nearby.

We were really pleased to have so much feedback during the consultation and this route was the clear winner.

Once completed, it will also relieve traffic congestion on the A460, A449 and A5, improve safety and support economic growth for the Midlands.

Currently, the M54 merges with the M6 southbound at junction 10a. This means northbound road users must leave the motorway network and take other routes to connect with the M6 north at junction 11 or 12 or the toll road at junction T8 to continue their journey.

The A460 currently carries about 26,500 vehicles each day with heavy goods vehicles making up about 10 per cent of this figure.

We consulted on three options for a new route, and will now take forward its preferred route, which is based on ‘Option B West’.

This option is the shortest route, providing the best journey time of the options and could save regular commuters around 30 minutes a week.

Once complete, the new route will include:

• a two-lane dual carriageway link road between M54 junction 1 and M6 junction 11
• an improved junction arrangement at M54 junction 1 and M6 junction 11

The scheme will also support local economic growth for Telford, Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton, Cannock and Tamworth by enhancing east-west and north-south routes.

Sub-national Transport Body Midlands Connect supports the link road. Midlands Connect’s Maria Machancoses said:

This project is a potential game changer for the Midlands motorway network; it will make both long distance and short journeys quicker and less congested, as well as support ambitious economic growth plans for the region. Motorists, the logistics industry and businesses will all benefit, and Midlands Connect is calling for the earliest feasible construction.

The link road is also vital to the success of Midlands Connect’s own long term Midlands Motorway Hub strategy, helping to make sure that east-west and north-south journeys are improved, benefiting not only the region, but the country as a whole.

The link road is a top priority for partners from across the region including Telford & Wrekin, Staffordshire, Birmingham, the Black Country and Shropshire. We will continue to work with them and Highways England as these plans progress, ensuring our road networks serve the future needs of business and people in the Midlands.

We’ll be carrying out further work including completing surveys and investigation work to help design the scheme in greater detail.

Those wishing to find out more about the scheme can attend a series of public exhibitions – full details are available on the scheme web page

There will be a further consultation in 2019 when we’ll ask for further views on this more detailed design before applying for a Development Consent Order which is part of the planning process for the new route.

General enquiries

Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.

Media enquiries

Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer.

DEM (King’s Lynn) Ltd stored too much highly polluting waste in a lagoon and spread too much of the organic waste onto land controlled by Trevor William Sieley, leading to run off and pollution, King’s Lynn Magistrates heard.

Storage and spreading of waste on the land by the company was illegal and magistrates fined both the person in control of the land and the company. Sieley, who had received a warning letter and previous offences for similar actions, was fined £1,920 and ordered to pay costs of £10,041 as well as a victim surcharge of £170.

Sieley had denied knowingly allowing the illegal waste operation but the court found him guilty, deciding that his actions were reckless.

DEM, which pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to spreading the waste illegally, was fined £3,667, ordered to pay £7,666 and a victim surcharge of £170.

Mr Gurjit Bdesha, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, told the court the company had deposited and stored waste at the site for almost two years under an exemption, which did not cover the level of operations. There was no environmental permit which would have set out conditions to protect the environment.

Waste vegetable washings were stored and spread on 3.99 hectares of land at Poplar Farm in Outwell. The exemption allowed for waste produced only on the farm to be spread but waste potatoes and washings were brought from two companies onto the site. During 20 months it is estimated that 7,700 tonnes of waste was taken to the farm and deposited or spread.

Sieley had registered an exemption to spread waste on agricultural land to improve soil quality but failed to comply with its conditions. A lagoon, used to store some of the waste, over-spilled and was too close to a ditch and there was too much spread on the land.

Environment Agency officers visited the site in April 2015 after reports from Nordelph Internal Drainage Board that a slurry pit was polluting nearby watercourses. They found heaps of potatoes stored in the field, straw bale walls of the lagoon decomposing and effluent leaking from the lagoon into the ditch.

In June they told the company to stop work and clear up the site by 1 October but no action was taken.

Mr Bdesha said:

In November 2015 the lagoon looked the same, potatoes around the site were in various states of decay and the soil in the field gave off a decaying smell. The lagoon was also over-spilling into a ditch that flowed to the IDB drain.

The court heard that in 2007 Sieley was the sole director of another company that was involved in a similar incident on land at Outwell which resulted in his previous conviction and in 2005 was issued with a warning letter for the disposal of potato wash water on to land/into a soak-away pit at Walsingham Fen, Outwell without a waste management licence.

After the hearing Environment Agency team leader Chris Tate said:

This company was not complying with the agricultural exemption and was also taking waste illegally from other businesses.

By not having the right environmental permit, illegal waste activities pose a threat to human health and the environment by contaminating land and polluting rivers. Anyone who produces, carries, keeps, treats or disposes of waste has a duty of care to make sure it is managed correctly.

Trevor William Sieley was found guilty of:
Between 8 November 2013 and 16 June 2015, on land at Poplar Farm, the Aqueduct, Outwell, in the County of Norfolk, you knowingly permitted the operation of a regulated facility, namely a waste operation for the deposit and storage of waste, without being authorised by an environmental permit granted under Regulation 13 of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010. Contrary to Regulation 12(1)(a) and 38(1)(b) Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010

DEM (Kings Lynn) Ltd pleaded guilty to:
Between 8 November 2013 and 16 June 2015, on land at Poplar Farm, the Aqueduct, Outwell, in the County of Norfolk, you did operate a regulated facility, namely a waste operation for the deposit and storage of waste, without being authorised by an environmental permit granted under Regulation 13 of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010. Contrary to Regulation 12(1)(a) and 38(1)(a) Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010

New rules for farmers have just been published:
(https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-requirements-for-farmers-to-improve-environment-for-all)

For all media enquiries please contact 0800 141 2743 or email Southeastpressoffice1@environment-agency.gov.uk

In a review of a sample of charities, 38% of charities with incomes below £25,000 per annum were found to be submitting inaccurate data.

Small charities make up two thirds of all charities on the register and basic information on income and expenditure is the only financial information most are routinely required to provide to the Commission.

In the sample of charities with incomes over £25,000, income and expenditure figures were 90% accurate.

Larger charities, with incomes over £500,000, must provide more information and in this sample, the Commission found a 95% accuracy rate for their balance sheet figures, but income and expenditure analyses were just over 80% accurate.

The Charity Commission, which regulates charities in England and Wales, has concluded that many charities task someone with insufficient knowledge of their organisation’s accounts with completing their annual return figures, resulting in errors.

Nigel Davies, Head of Accountancy Policy at The Charity Commission, said:

“Not providing accurate financial information is misleading and can have an impact on public trust.

“People want to know how charities spend their money; so this result is clearly not good enough.”

The Charity Commission checked the accuracy of financial information provided by its samples of charities in their annual returns by comparing it with their accounts.

The charity register holds information on all registered charities’ income and expenditure.

There are almost 12 million views of the register each year and this information is used to create data for the charity sector as a whole.

The full report is available on GOV.UK

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