October 2022
The UK Government had been positioning itself as a global leader on nature over recent years, leading coalitions of world leaders through initiatives like the Leaders Pledge for Nature and the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People. However, the UK Government is now carrying out an Attack On Nature at home, which undermines its international credibility and has real implications for the fate of wildlife around the world and across the whole of the UK.
Abandoning leadership makes a global deal to save the planet – due to be agreed at this December’s CBD COP15 – even harder to achieve. We are urgently calling on the UK Government to reconsider these threats. Beyond this, there are major opportunities but also a huge amount of work needed in all four countries of the UK to protect and restore nature.
In the face of this, the RSPB has released a new report which gives clear recommendations for how the UK Government and devolved administrations can turn this situation around, step up and deliver a world richer in nature.
A global plan for nature: from design to delivery
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP15 summit is just around the corner, at which countries are due to finally agree this decade’s ‘Global Biodiversity Framework’ detailing how they’ll take collective action for nature and people. Given we’re already 2 years into the decade, there isn’t a moment to waste; we need to plan how that global framework will deliver a nature positive world by 2030. The RPSB’s new report spells out just that for the governments of the UK.
The RSPB’s report sets a vision for a transition to a nature positive UK by 2030.
To get steer us onto a nature positive course, we need a suite of actions to be taken by all governments of the UK. The report identifies six areas of focus for action. These are by no means the only areas where change is needed, but they’ll certainly make a good start. For each area of focus, we set out our vision for 2030 (see below), what success looks like, what specific actions are needed by governments across the UK, what the current state of play is, and some inspiring case studies to show what’s possible.
Achieving a vision of a world richer in nature
Across the six focus areas, the below are cross cutting actions which stand out as actions that all the governments of the UK need to take:
1. Shift to a nature positive economy. This means embedding nature into the heart of economic decisions and measuring and costing in nature’s true asset value, to ensure that investment flows back into restoring and stewarding the natural capital of the ecosystems that support us.
2. Strengthen, implement, and better enforce environmental legislation which provides a firm legal basis for the recovery of nature in this decade.
3. Develop, implement, and learn from robust plans and strategies to guide and deliver on the UK’s legally-binding environmental commitments.
4. Take holistic action which brings multiple solutions for nature. This will be achieved by embedding and prioritising nature recovery across governments, recognising its crucial role in our food system, economy, and for tackling and adapting to climate change.
5. Deliver and effectively deploy adequate and effective financing that genuinely drives change.
6. Underpin action with science, and closely, accurately and transparently monitor our progress.
7. Support and empower people to act for nature.
We’ll be watching
Across this Autumn and Winter, we need to keep building the pressure on our governments and leaders to ensure they agree a robust new plan for nature at COP15, which is adequately financed and supported. At the same time, we need to show them we’ll be watching. We’ll be expecting them to actually deliver nature positive action which leads to recovery on the ground. No matter what happens at COP15, we’ll be looking to our governments to take the actions that we set out in our new report. And we’re ready to give our support to turning our visions into reality.
Further reading:
The report – A world richer in nature – can be accessed here: https://www.rspb.org.uk/globalassets/downloads/documents/decade-of-action-report-final.pdf
Welsh version here: https://www.rspb.org.uk/globalassets/downloads/documents/decade-of-action-report-welsh.pdf
For more info about the what we’re calling for in the report, see here: RSPB | Seven steps to save nature by 2030
Look out for a series of deeper dives into the report on the RSPB Twitter account @Natures_Voice
Learn more about the CBD here: https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/rspb-news/rspb-news-stories/what-is-cop15/
Fiona Dobson is an International Policy Officer at the RSPB
The opinions expressed in this blog are the authors' and not necessarily those of the wider Link membership.
Latest Blog Posts