In reply to Rob Parsons:
This is the text of the Australia/UK deal in principle from .
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-australia-free-trade-agreemen...
The disconnect is the laws of Australia allowing for ecological destruction and the UK assenting to a government's own defintiton of "sustainable". We see the argument in the EU now raging to tighten up the concept of carbon neutral and sustainable based on more scientific information. As we know Politics and science do not wed up necessarily.So we could come to accept Scott Morrison's definition of "sustainable". As the opening statement showed, the Caldera Environment Centre in New South Wales Australia has highlighted the change of laws in that state to enable environmental destruction of native ecosystems on an industrial scale.
"4.2 Environment
Australia and the United Kingdom commit to a chapter on trade and environment that will contain provisions affirming commitments under multilateral environmental agreements including the Paris Agreement, and to maintain and effectively enforce domestic environmental laws and policies across a broad range of issues. Both countries commit to undertaking cooperative activities, including those targeted at key technologies in the transition to a low carbon and climate resilient economy. The chapter will also contain provisions to encourage trade and investment in environmental goods and services that support shared environmental objectives.
Commitments in the environment chapter will include:
provisions that commit the UK and Australia to maintain and effectively enforce their domestic environmental laws and policies
provisions that affirm commitments under multilateral environmental agreements
provisions to encourage trade and investment in environmental goods and services which support shared environmental objectives
provision which affirms commitments by each country to tackle climate change, including under the Paris Agreement and acknowledges the role of global trade and investment in these efforts
provision recognising the right to regulate of each country, based on the language used in the CPTPP environment text with the addition of a reference to climate change, that confirms the right of each country to establish its own levels of domestic environmental protection and its own priorities relating to the environment, and the right to establish, adopt or modify its environmental laws and policies accordingly
provisions that affirm commitments to combating illegal wildlife trade, conservation, marine pollution and protection of the Ozone Layer
provisions with commitments on several areas of environmental protection including fisheries, biodiversity, combatting illegal logging and wildlife trade and conservation
provisions that recognise the importance of, and to cooperate on, sustainable forestry management, circular economy, marine litter and air quality
all substantive commitments in the chapter to replicate the CPTPP formulation to the greatest extent possible unless otherwise decided by the UK and Australia
new areas proposed by the UK that are not in the CPTPP environment text to contain no new substantive commitments
replication of the CPTPP consultation and enforcement provisions with minor amendments, including to ensure alignment with the dispute settlement provisions of the whole agreement
Post edited at 08:37