05 December 2023

Press Release

For immediate release

Supermarkets urge PM to introduce deforestation laws promised two years ago

Seven of the UK’s leading supermarkets, that are signatories of WWF’s Retailers’ Commitment for Nature, are demanding that the Prime Minister steps in to keep the promises the UK Government made at the 2021 Glasgow COP to protect and restore rainforests.

At COP26, the UK Government promised to legislate to remove embedded deforestation linked to commodities in UK supply chains.  

It is now two years since the UK Government passed the Environment Act, but it has not yet passed vital secondary legislation to keep products responsible for deforestation off UK supermarket shelves.

While UK legislative progress has been delayed, 7.87 million hectares of primary forest has been lost in just the last two years.

This week, Aldi, Coop, Lidl, M&S, Sainsbury’s Tesco and Waitrose, who collectively have 70% of the UK market share, wrote to the Prime Minister demanding action.

Tanya Steele, WWF’s chief executive said: “While the Government’s announcements this week of public money to tackle global deforestation are an important commitment, it’s senseless that simultaneously they are allowing products from illegal deforestation onto the UK’s shelves for us to unwittingly buy.

“The signatories of WWF’s Retailers Commitment for Nature want no part in deforestation, and shoppers don’t want it in their baskets, so the Government must step up and deliver on the commitment they made two years ago.”

In their letter, supermarkets restate their commitment to remove goods that are responsible for deforestation from their shelves and say: “As business leaders, we know conversion of natural ecosystems is not required to continue production, and that UK consumers want to see an end to such destruction.” They go on to say, “Regulation is required and we will not succeed without your support”.

The supermarkets also point out that the European Union adopted their own deforestation regulation in June and the supermarkets call on the Prime Minister to align the cut-off date and data requirements of the UK legislation with the EU’s Deforestation Regulation will help further our collective ambition more efficiently whilst reducing cost.

Doing so will protect British companies by ensuring they can provide the deforestation-free products they have committed to and would enable access to export markets for both British producers and retailers.

They also point out that the lack of progress in adopting the secondary legislation on due diligence means there is inadequate legal requirement for British companies to supply the basic transparency UK supermarkets would need to meet the legal trading requirements for operating in Northern Ireland.

Notes to editors

Globally the food system is responsible for 60% of biodiversity loss and accounts for 30% of climate change.

WWF’s Retailers’ Commitment to Nature is at: WWF-Retailers-Commitment-for-Nature.pdf

WWF’s Retailers’ Commitment for Nature is underpinned by the WWF Basket - the overall  goal to halve the environmental impact of UK Baskets by 2030.  

For further information

Please contact Mike Eames
T: +44 (0)1483 412383 E: press@wwf.org.uk