Future Timeline

Wednesday 8 September 2021

Ministers agreed to bow to pressure from Australia to drop binding commitments to the Paris climate change agreement from the UK-Australian trade deal, a leaked government email obtained by Sky News has revealed.

Liz Truss, the trade secretary, and Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, decided the government could "drop both of the climate asks" from the text of the trade deal, according to the email from a senior official.

Among the areas to be removed was "a reference to Paris Agreement temperature goals".

Sky News understands the treaty text will contain a reference to Paris, but the reference to specific temperature commitments is disappearing.

Government sources confirmed that the references to temperature are now "implicit" rather than spelt out in the text of the trade treaty.

Tuesday 21 Sep 2021

Supermarkets are less than two weeks away from running out of British meat, industry experts have warned.

The soaring price of gas has led to major problems in the UK supply chain – which could impact Christmas – and is likely to lead to an increase in household bills and energy companies going bust.

But it has also meant that some fertiliser plants, which account for around 60% of CO2 production, have suddenly shut down.

CO2 is widely used in the meat industry, particularly with chicken and pork, both to kill the animals and refrigerate meat.

Nick Allen, the chief executive of the British Meat Processors Association, said the factories closed at ‘very short notice with no warning’ – leaving manufacturers with between five and 15 days’ CO2 supply left.