Minister for Environment and Climate Change John Cortes, who is Chair Council of Environment Ministers of the UK Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, recently chaired the latest virtual meeting of the Council. 

A statement from the Government follows below:

These meetings, which are held twice a year, bring  together Ministers and senior Environment officials from all the Overseas Territories (UKOTs) and  Crown Dependencies (CDs) to discuss matters of common interest and exchange experience. 

This meeting was attended by over 30 representatives from these territories from around the  globe, as well, for some items by officials of DEFRA (the UK Department for Environment, Food and  Rural Affairs) and the FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. 

The meeting was also joined for part of the session by Rebecca Pow MP, Parliamentary Under  Secretary at DEFRA. Minister Pow spoke about the draft UKOT Biodiversity Strategy currently in  its final stages of preparation, and made particular emphasis on the problem of plastic  pollution. Together with the DEFRA officials, Minister Pow also gave an outline on progress on  international agreements on plastic pollution and called on the territories to contribute to the  discussions on a forthcoming treaty. 

Other topics covered in the meeting included the challenges of dealing with waste, including  Lithium-ion batteries and disposable vapes. There were presentations on the various agenda items  from the St Helena National Trust, DEFRA and the Zoological Society of London on plastics, the  Government of Sark on nature conservation targets, the FCDO on the Blue Belt Programme, and  Oxford University on Lithium-ion batteries. 

Minister Cortes commented: “These Council Meetings, which began about a decade ago in  Gibraltar, are probably the best example of how this family of territories across the world can work  together, and exchange experience and expertise. This helps us all progress the environmental  agenda. We all learn a great deal from each other, as we all face similar challenges that we have to  deal with”.