UK Government fails to publish legally required nature recovery targets

Are we surprised?

How can the UK Government possibly be taken seriously on the climate emergency and the biodiversity crisis?

We need a General Election and a new progressive Government committed to protecting, restoring and rewilding nature and the environment.

 

The Wildlife Trusts have joined other nature conservation charities in asking the Office for Environmental Protection to investigate the UK Government's failure to publish required nature recovery targets by the stipulated deadline of Monday 31st October 2022.  

 

The Government has broken the law by failing to set the targets .... the Secretary of State, Therese Coffey, has acknowledged that DEFRA is unable to do so despite the fact that the Government has been developing these targets for more than 3 years and has had 4 months since the public consultation closed.  

 

These targets were stipulated in the Environment Act 2021 and promised in the Conservative Party's 2019 election manifesto. They are the legal foundation for nature's recovery requiring action to turn the tide of nature's extreme declines.  Without the targets, the Government also risks missing the legal deadline to publish a new Environmental Improvement Plan.

 

Draft Government proposals published earlier this year were notably unambitious. They suggested aiming for just 10% more nature in 2042 than 2030 levels, by which time the state of our natural world is expected to have declined even further. This would mean that England will have even less wildlife in 20 years time than it does now.   

 

Craig Bennett, Chief Executive of the Wildlife Trusts, said:

"The Government rightly trumpeted the Environment Act as a world-leading piece of legislation – so it's dismal that they've fallen at the first hurdle. We need a highly ambitious plan for nature's recovery on land and at sea as a matter of extreme urgency – without it we cannot tackle the wildlife and climate crisis.  

 

"Powerful, legally binding environmental targets should provide the long-term certainty needed to drive investment in environmental restoration and ensure that future governments are held accountable for their action on nature.   

 

"The Government risks major embarrassment if it doesn't publish the missing targets in time for the global biodiversity conference, COP15, in December. How can this country appear on the world stage to talk about international commitments – such as protecting 30% of land and sea by 2030 – if we've failed to set targets at home?"

 

The Wildlife Trusts are calling for a stronger species abundance target (to increase the abundance of marine and terrestrial species by at least 20% by 2042 compared to 2022 levels), a target for the condition of protected wildlife sites and an overall target for improving water quality.

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