Planet Over Profit Day of Action: Meeting with Shockat Adam

Yesterday was the national Day of Action on the Planet Over Profit campaign, when Friends of the Earth groups across the countries met their local MPs to call for a new Business, Human Rights and Environment Act. The new law would ensure that UK companies are held responsible for environmental harm and human rights abuses in their supply chains.  

We met Shockat Adam, the MP for Leicester South, at his constituency office to hand in our petition and postcards from members of the public calling for a new law. We were joined by representatives of 15 local organisations who have signed an open letter calling for a new law, including Leicester Quakers, Global Justice Leicester, Stoneygate Baptist Church, Unite the Union Community Branch, The Race Equality Centre and Pioneer Parishes.  

Shockat Adam has already signed the Good Business Matters pledge, which so far has the backing of more than 80 MPs and peers and 50 high profile UK businesses, including John Lewis, Sainsbury’s and Aviva. We asked him to act on his pledge and back the campaign for a new law to hold UK companies to account for harm to people and the environment.  

The petition, postcards and open letter demonstrate the strength of local support for a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act (BHREA). Under the new legislation, UK companies would be held legally responsible for preventing harm to people and the planet in their supply chains, no matter where they operate – whether here in the UK or overseas.   

Through the materials they source to make their products, too many UK companies are fuelling environmental damage and endangering communities around the globe. In parts of South East Asia and South America, forests are being cleared, rivers polluted and habitats destroyed as highly sought-after commodities like palm oil, soy and timber are cultivated with little regard for their environmental and social impact. 

Products linked to these abuses then end up on the UK market – whether it’s the food we buy at the supermarket, the cosmetics on our bathroom shelf or the way we furnish our homes.   

Meanwhile, Indigenous communities that depend on and protect these precious ecosystems are being forced from their lands, threatened with violence and denied access to the natural resources they rely on. The new law would provide communities on the front lines of harm a legal route to justice when their rights are violated.  

According to polling by YouGov for the Corporate Justice Coalition , a whopping 80% of people support the demand for a new law to tackle harm to people and the environment. There is overwhelming public support for the government to act. 

Shockat Adam was invited to show his support for the campaign by taking a photo with the group, holding a placard backing the new law.   

 

It’s unthinkable that so many of the products we buy could be linked to horrific environmental and human rights abuses, and that UK companies are complicit. Most people do not want to buy something that is causing harm in another country, but consumers cannot trace what damage has been done in a supply chain. It’s high time businesses were held accountable for their harmful practices here at home and overseas – it couldn’t be clearer that the public wants the government to act.  

We’re really pleased that Shockat Adam is supporting the growing calls for a new Business, Human Rights and Environment Act, which would protect people and planet from harm at the hands of UK companies and give affected communities a legal route to justice. We hope that the other MPs representing the people of Leicester and Leicestershire will support this vital campaign.

Two more Leicester organisations support good business campaign

In the last few months, we have been continuing to work on the Planet Over Profit campaign, calling for a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act to hold companies to account for any harm caused in their supply chain. This would help to end the exploitation of natural resources and human rights. We have now collected hundreds of postcards to local MPs. If you haven't been able to talk to us on a stall and sign a postcard, you can still sign the digital petition. 

We have also been talking to local organisations and Leicester's Unite the Union Community Branch and Leicester Woodcraft Folk have both signed our open letter to MPs supporting a new law, which you can read in full in our previous blog post. 

We will be meeting Shockat Adam, the MP for Leicester South, in early June, to deliver the postcards, petition and open letter and talk to him about the need for a new law. If you belong to an organisation or small business that would like to sign the open letter and come along to the meeting with Shockat, get in touch with us at leicesterfoe@gmail.com.

Failures of Malaysia's timber certification scheme

National Friends of the Earth, alongside partners in Peninsular Malaysia, have published shocking new research that exposes systemic failures in Malaysia's key timber certification scheme, which is used to ensure timber is harvested sustainably. The scheme is known as the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS) and it is endorsed by the globally recognised Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC).

These failures mean that timber linked to deforestation, the violation of Indigenous peoples' rights and the destruction of critically endangered tiger habitats is being certified as "sustainable". UK companies are importing timber from Malaysia under this certification scheme and selling it to unsuspecting UK customers. National Friends of the Earth's Malaysian partners have highlighted that the scheme is flawed, and national legislation in Malaysia protecting Orang Asli Indigenous People and wildlife is weak.

This important research makes clear the case for a robust Business, Human Rights & Environment Act to ensure UK companies prevent harm to communities and the environment in their global supply chains.

Three of the companies named in this research have branches in Leicester: Travis Perkins, Howdens and Latham Timber. We have now written to all three companies to express our concerns and ask if they will sign our open letter to Leicester MPs, calling for a new law. We will update this blog when/if we hear back from them!

People wanting to ensure they are only buying truly sustainable timber might be interested in Friends of the Earth's Good Wood Guide. 

Support growing in Leicester for Planet Over Profit campaign

Support for the Planet Over Profit campaign continues to grow across Leicester. This national campaign is calling for a new law, the Business, Human Rights & Environment Act, to hold companies accountable for harm caused in their supply chain and to protect habitats, workers' rights and the rights of indigenous people. At the moment, it is too easy for big companies to claim ignorance of what is happening in the places where they source their materials and their goods and this allows them to do enormous harm. We need to hold them to account. (Read more about this campaign using the 'corporate accountability' tag on this blog.)

Five more Leicester-based organisations have now signed our open letter to MPs, bringing the total to thirteen supporting organisations:

• Global Justice Leicester and Leicestershire
• Leicester Quaker Meeting
• Pioneer Parishes
• Christians Aware
• Stoneygate Baptist Church

We are continuing to contact organisations to ask if they would like to sign the open letter. If you know of a place of worship, local business or community group that might be interested in supporting this campaign, please let us know at leicesterfoe@gmail.com . 

We're also continuing to collect support from individuals! Today we've been at the University of Leicester Students Union, as part of their Green Week, talking to students about the campaign and collecting signed postcards to take to MPs. If you haven't managed to come to one of our stalls to talk to us in person, you can still sign the online petition to show your support for fair supply chains. 

Update on our Planet Over Profit campaign: more organisations support good business

We are delighted to be starting 2026 by announcing that four more Leicester-based organisations are supporting the national ‘Planet Over Profit’ campaign by signing our local open letter to Leicester MPs calling for a Business, Human Rights & Environment Act. This new law would hold companies to account for any harm caused in their supply chain and protect important habitats, workers’ rights and the rights of indigenous people. Companies should be responsible for ensuring that their profits don’t come at the expense of people and planet, but existing laws aren’t holding them to account.

The four latest signatories include a Muslim environmental group, a community centre, a small business and a church:

• Green Guardians
• Highfields Centre
• Currant Affairs
• Christchurch Clarendon Park (Baptist/Methodist LEP Church)

You can read the full text of our open letter and see who had already signed in the previous blog post.

We are also still collecting support from individuals, through postcards (which you can colour in!) and a digital petition to MPs. Please sign our petition if you live in Leicester and share with your family and friends! And if you own a business or are part of a community organisation that might want to support this campaign, please get in touch with us: leicesterfoe@gmail.com.

Planet Over Profit campaign stalls

Over the summer, we are getting involved in the big national campaign, Planet Over Profit. This is calling for a new law that would hold companies accountable for harm caused by their supply chains. From the food on our plates to the clothes we wear, global supply chains controlled by corporations are often plagued with harmful environmental impacts and human rights abuses. These can include land grabbing from local communities and Indigenous peoples, when forests are cleared for palm oil plantations or soy crops, for use in processed foods and animal feed. And forced labour and poor working conditions are rife in garment factories churning out fast fashion. Companies should be responsible for ensuring that their profits don’t come at the expense of people and planet. But existing laws aren’t holding them to account. Read more about the campaign and the need for a new law here. 

We are collecting public support in Leicester. We had two stalls at the Green Film Festival at the Phoenix last month and we spent this morning in Knighton Park, talking to passersby. We are asking people to sign a postcard to their MP supporting this new law. People can also colour in their postcard, or we have some that are already coloured in by children who have been helping us! We are also colouring in a large banner, which we will take with us when we go to visit Leicester's MPs in the autumn. Our next stall will be before the Bee Picnic in Humberstone Park on 30th August. If you can't come to a stall to sign a postcard, you can still show your support for this campaign by signing our local online petition. 

As well as collecting support from individuals, we are also collecting letters of support for a new law from local businesses and organisations. If you own a business or are part of an organisation that might want to support this campaign, please get in touch with us: leicesterfoe@gmail.com 

Planet Over Profit campaign launch

We held a campaign launch event for our Planet Before Profit campaign, in Leicester’s Town Hall Square, as part of a national launch of this campaign.  We are calling for a new law to make it much easier to hold companies accountable for environmental damage and human rights abuses caused by their activities, both directly and within their supply chains.  Amongst those attending was Abigail, the Leicester Friends of the Earth orangutan. 

Friends of the Earth are part of a coalition of organizations campaigning for a new UK Business Human Rights and Environment Act, which would require companies to exercise “due diligence” in identifying and preventing both environmental damage and human rights abuses in their supply chains.  This would include things like deforestation, pollution and climate impacts, and things like land grabbing from indigenous communities and forced labour. 

In line with a recommendation by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights the proposed legislation would be based on the UK’s existing Bribery Act.  It would require companies and public bodies to carry out thorough checks on their supply chain, to identify risks and establish measures to prevent harm.  It would incorporate tough sanctions for failing to do this and allow companies to be held accountable in both civil and criminal courts.  It would also give affected communities a right to seek redress and require companies to engage with potentially affected communities.

Malcolm Hunter explains:

“Unrestrained pursuit of profit is driving widespread environmental destruction and human rights abuses world-wide. Many UK companies are contributing towards this, and this proposed legislation is designed to make them act in much more socially responsible ways and allow them to be held to account if they don’t.  Many other countries have already introduced similar legislation, or are in the process of doing so, but the UK currently lags behind and needs to catch up”.

Climate finance and developing countries

This is a summary of issues raised in various online reports and COP 26 decisions.

We know that getting climate justice for the nations most affected by climate change, who have contributed little or nothing in emissions, is a huge priority.   The most affected areas include Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands threatened by rising sea levels, parts of sub Saharan Africa and the Arctic and the Caribbean.

The pledge from Copenhagen 2009 to provide $100 billion a year starting 2020-25 has not yet been delivered – figures from 2019 show that poor countries were given $80 billion according to the OECD.

The two main distinctions are between money for projects aimed at mitigating green house gasses, such as developing alternative energy generation using solar panels, hydro and wind farms etc., and projects designed for adaptation, such as early warning systems for extreme weather events, air conditioning to counter extreme heat, resettlement of communities away from coastal areas and changing agricultural practices to crops more resistant to drought. Examples from the November Geographical magazine include creating mangrove seawalls in Indonesia, building amphibious rather than stilted houses in Vietnam and planting salt tolerant crops in Bangladesh.

Both approaches are valid but the key issue for developing countries is that only about 20% of the $80 billion funding allocated is for adaptation projects – Global North countries preferring to sell the type of material on which they can make a profit.

Global South countries are lobbying for the financial allocation between mitigation and adaptation to be 50:50, rather than the skewed distribution at present.

Another problem is the status of the finance provided. In 2019, 71% of the public climate finance took the form of loans rather than grants. This can suck poorer countries into a cycle of debt. They have to borrow money at punishing rates of interest to repair the effects of hurricanes and cyclones and, if they use their loan to pay for a project that gets destroyed in the next extreme weather event, they are left with a debt and no tangible benefit.

Small island states and the least developed countries are now lobbying for a new stream of funding for loss and damage, in addition to mitigation and adaptation projects. Historically, the Global North has been extremely reluctant to buy into this and resists any notion of funding being compensation or restitution.

Antigua, Barbuda and Tuvalu have announced a commission to explore if there might be legal grounds for loss and damage funding from polluting countries. 

COP 26 Decisions

Many developing countries were left very disappointed by the decisions made on issues which were critical for them. It would seem that the conference was a debate between Global North countries about how far they were prepared to go to reduce emissions, having accepted to some extent there was some urgency required to keep within 1.5 degrees Celsius. Some of the developing country decisions appear to be a holding operation to be considered at another day. 

Climate funding

There were new pledges from US, UK, Germany, Japan and others of climate funding which it is estimated would finally achieve $1 billion by at least 2025 or perhaps a little earlier if other funding could be brought in. Some experts are saying that funding in trillions would be more realistic.

There was a recommendation, rather than a requirement, that developed countries should double their collective provision for adaptation projects by 2025, but this would still fall short of the 50:50 provision requested by Global South countries and there was no detail concerning time scales and transparency.

There was a mention of the impact of debt levels carried by poorer countries for the first time but no indication of how this could be reduced. It does provide a marker for future discussion, however.

There was some recommendation about making funds available as grants but also recommendations about making cheap loans which still allowed wide discretion on the part of funders.

Jubilee Debt Campaign claims, however, looking at the small print, that some countries may pay their contributions out of their existing aid budget instead of making new money available which is in the spirit of the funding. This could include the UK.

Loss and Damage Funding

This was a very important issue for frontline island nations and others which was effectively sidelined, with the promise that a “dialogue on loss and damage would begin next year in Egypt.”

To their great credit, Scotland has promised £2 million to a special Loss and Damage Fund, managing this way to provide UK money, but circumventing Boris and the Treasury who have made no such pledge. Wallonia – an area of Belgium has also pledged 1 million euros.

There will be a huge head of steam on this issue by next year, particularly after another year of global warming induced weather events, so we will wait to see what transpires.

Indigenous People Support

Five countries, including the US and UK, and global charities have promised $1.7 billion to support indigenous people and the conservation of their land. How this gets to the grassroots in an effective way will need scrutiny.

Deforestation

A group of countries have pledged £14 billion by 2030 to halt and reverse global deforestation by restoring degraded land, managing wildfires and supporting indigenous people. This has included Brazil's president, who will need detailed supervision on this!

 

The introduction of an annual review of emissions pledges at COPs means we are now in continuous campaigning mode on this issue, which should increase important pressure.

By Alison Skinner

Indigenous peoples conquest and revival

This longer article was written by Alison Skinner, a member of Leicester Friends of the Earth, to give an overview of the history of indigenous peoples. 

Summary

The UN estimates that there are currently around 370 million indigenous people living in over 70 countries. Most of us are aware of the way in which our European ancestors exploited indigenous peoples in the lands they conquered, but we also need to think about the new methods of social and economic oppression which are happening right now. It is also the case that indigenous people in many countries are not just passive victims of this process and where possible are acting individually and collectively to preserve their homes, communities and culture.