October 2024
The Government has a legally binding target to halt the decline of wildlife in England by 2030. There’s absolutely no way this national target will be met unless it is passed down from the Secretary of State to business and decision-makers on the ground.
At the moment, that chain of responsibility is completely missing. In fact, it cracks at the first link: not even the main public bodies like Ofwat, National Parks and the Forestry Commission have defined responsibility for contributing to nature-recovery. By the time it comes to business, the chain is completely broken. Some take voluntary action to reduce their impacts on nature, but the big polluting sectors have no collective responsibility for wildlife.
No surprise at all, then, that biodiversity continues to decline, only 3% of land is properly protected for nature, and the OEP has said the UK is offtrack for all its nature targets.
In a brilliant report published today, WWF makes the case for Government to develop “nature-positive pathways”, setting out how different economic sectors should contribute to halting and reversing nature’s decline by 2030.
It argues that Government should decide how much each sector must contribute to solving the key causes of nature-loss, based on how much that sector contributes to the problem, the cost and opportunities of change, and the impacts on people and businesses. Overall, the effort allocated to each sector should add up to meeting the targets. From there, the Government should work with businesses to set out the big policy levers needed for change in each sector, giving certainty for investment as well as clear accountability.
Critically, nature-positive pathways should be integrated with climate-positive pathways, so that trade-offs can be managed, and these two critical environmental challenges can be solved in tandem.
The Environmental Improvement Plan
Luckily, the Government has a perfect opportunity to swing into action on developing nature-positive pathways. It is reviewing the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP), intended to help deliver the legally binding target to halt nature’s decline by 2030.
Unlike a carbon budget, the EIP has no sector-by-sector break down of specific changes needed to meet its targets. Committing to a rapid process to agree nature-positive pathways for key sectors like agriculture, development, energy and water would help transform the EIP from an unprioritised narrative document to a focused delivery plan.
Many of the actions that will be necessary are already known. In agriculture, for example, we know that we need to shift from intensive agriculture to nature-friendly farming by reducing nutrient loads, chemical-use and intensive livestock, and boosting regenerative land-management techniques. We know that this must be achieved with a combination of regulatory enforcement and investment. A nature-positive pathway will help define the scale and speed of change by attributing responsibility for target-delivery to each sector.
Although the EIP itself will be too soon to publish pathways, the Government should use the review to set out its intention to set Nature-Positive Pathways for all relevant sectors: attributing clear targets and measurable action plans, which together will add up to target delivery.
Public bodies
WWF’s logic that international targets need to be passed down for delivery also applies to public bodies. Amazingly, even the “Defra family” of public bodies doesn’t have a dedicated duty to contribute to meeting nature and climate targets.
As a result, many public bodies routinely undervalue the environment. Think of Ofwat’s failure to crack down on river pollution. Think of road and rail authorities carving lines through sensitive habitats. Even National Parks and Landscapes don’t have clear duties to restore nature. By contrast, almost all public bodies have economic growth, competition, or even shareholder profit duties.
Perhaps it’s no surprise. Many were established long before we knew the urgency of ecological action. Ofwat, the water regulator, was set up in 1989. The Rural Payments Agency in 2001. The Forestry Commission has been around since 1919. They’re old and sometimes they act like it.
This month, Lord Krebs is introducing the Environmental Targets (Public Authorities) Bill in Parliament, which would give a host of relevant public bodies duties to contribute to nature and climate recovery. That would rebalance thousands of daily decisions, from planning and permitting to regulation and enforcement, to ensure public bodies play their part in cascading the targets down into delivery.
A Nature Recovery Obligation
On 30 October, the Chancellor is expected to make spending cuts, including for DEFRA. Significant cuts, especially to wildlife-friendly farming payments, would be ruinous for nature. This is especially so in the context of a multi-billion-pound annual funding gap for nature’s recovery in England.
At Wildlife & Countryside Link, we have proposed a “Nature Recovery Obligation”, requiring big polluting sectors to disclose their impacts on nature, plan to become nature-positive, and for businesses to pay a pollution levy proportionate to their ongoing impacts on nature. These payments could contribute to a strategic Nature Recovery Fund, designed not just to minimise the harm businesses cause to nature, but to help pay for the large-scale habitat creation and restoration needed to turn round biodiversity losses in England.
In appropriate sectors, WWF’s Nature Positive Pathways could be combined with a levy, which would reward progressive businesses, and much-needed revenue for the Treasury to fund nature-recovery at scale.
Colombia
With these three steps—an EIP pledge for Nature-Positive Pathways, a new obligation on public bodies, and a business levy proportionate to pollution—the Government could forge a chain of action from Government to the ground. Instead of isolated national goals, targets would be integrated in decision-making at every level that matters.
This clear delivery plan is exactly what was missing from previous international efforts to halt biodiversity loss.
If the Government were to announce Nature Positive Pathways at the COP16 nature talks in Colombia later this month, it would be a hugely important step in planning for achievement of the UK’s nature targets and wonderful standard for the world in developing credible nature-recovery plans.
Richard Benwell is Chief Executive at Wildlife and Countryside Link. Follow @WCL_News
The opinions expressed in this blog are the authors and not necessarily those of the wider Link membership.
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