Global Feedback v Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement)

Global Feedback is a campaigning organisation concerned with a sustainable food system. In July 2023, it brought a challenge on public law grounds against the UK government’s assessment of the environmental impacts of the UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement. The free trade deal gives Australian producers significant access to the UK market to sell meat. The government’s impact assessment concluded it was not possible to assess the impact of carbon leakage on the basis data on relative carbon emissions associated with cattle meat was too “variable”. Challenging this, Feedback relies on evidence that it says consistently shows that the emissions intensity from Australian beef is substantially higher than that from the UK. It argues the UK government is bound by various legal and international obligations to take climate change, biodiversity and emissions reduction into account when setting trade policies, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement of 2015. Feedback also argues that the government’s impact assessment failed to quantify the carbon impact of any changes to domestic UK meat and dairy consumption because of tariff-free imports of Australian food. It is said the greater availability of cheaper meat on the UK market will increase consumption, and undermine recommendations from both the independent review of the National Food Strategy, commissioned by the government in 2019, and the UK Climate Change Committee (CCC), that substantial reductions in meat and dairy are essential to tackle climate change. In February 2024, it was reported that the High Court has granted permission for the claim to proceed to a full hearing.