Watchdog slams government failure to tackle nature decline

Thursday, 19 January 2023

(Business Green) The Office for Environmental Protection delivers damning verdict on a litany of government failings, as it demands urgent action to halt the decline of England's natural world.

Government progress towards its own environmental ambition to halt and reverse nature's decline by the end of the decade has "fallen far short" of what is needed, the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has today warned in a damning new report.

Publishing its annual progress report, the statutory environmental watchdog concluded the government's flagship 25 Year Environment Plan "has so far failed to bring about the changes needed at the pace and scale required", adding that the strategy "lacked clarity and commitment".

The report blames a litany of governance failures, which have been exacerbated by exceptional events such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, for creating "a lack of coherence in environmental strategy and policy within Defra and across government.

"The natural environment in England remains under serious threat," the report warns. "It is characterised by adverse trends in many areas, frequent failure to make progress towards targets, and a lack of progress in addressing existential risks, including from climate change."

It raises the alarm over a "deeply concerning decline in biodiversity" in England, with available evidence pointing to a 17 per cent reduction in the abundance of priority species from 2013 to 2017 "among other adverse trends". However, it also warns that there is a dearth of government data and reporting on the state of the natural world, which makes it difficult to assess progress in many areas.

The OEP found no demonstrable progress from the government across all 23 environmental targets it assessed, with at least 14 off track and "in some cases significantly so". It was unable to assess the remaining nine targets due to a lack of sufficient data or because baselines had been set in the future.

Moreover, of 32 trends assessed across the breadth of the natural environment, the OEP found just nine to be improving, with 11 in a static state, and a further eight deteriorating. However, it again stressed that "our assessment here is especially hampered by a lack of adequate reporting of recent data".

"The situation is poor across the board, with adverse trends across marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments," the report states.

The government has repeatedly stated that it aims to leave the natural environment in a better state for future generations, as set out in its 25 Year Environment Plan. Just this week Environment Secretary Therese Coffey again offered assurances to a Parliamentary committee that the targets would be met.

The government also backed last year's Global Biodiversity Framework, which similarly commits to reverse nature decline at the global level, and has passed a new Environment Act that incorporates a suite of legally-binding targets covering water quality, air pollution, habitats, and other areas.

However, the OEP offered a damning verdict on the government's progress to date, warning that while there were some improvements in air quality and public engagement with nature in the wake of the Covid-19 lockdowns, in most areas the natural world continues on its long-term trend of decline.

Dame Glenys Stacey, chair of the OEP, said "many extremely worrying environmental trends remain unchecked, including a chronic decline in species abundance".

"Using the data and information available, our assessment shows that the current pace and scale of action will not deliver the changes necessary to significantly improve the environment in England," she said. "But there is clear opportunity to change course."

The OEP was established in 2021 as part of a new post-Brexit green governance framework delivered through the Environment Act, which also required the government to establish legally-binding nature targets and draw up a long-term Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) that is refreshed every five years.

The government is expected to publish its refreshed EIP at the end of this month setting out how it is progressing against its ambitions and targets, alongside new plans for boosting nature going forward.

Stacey said the refreshed EIP offered a "key opportunity to make meaningful cross-government plans to protect, restore and improve the environment, with a true focus on delivery".

The EIP should establish clearer commitments, simpler governance, ambitious interim targets, and greater use of robust data in order to improve the state of the natural world in England, the OEP said.

"We urge government to be bold, to prioritise those aspects of the environment most needy of attention, to make sure it is monitoring those aspects closely, and to concentrate on delivery and the governance and organisation necessary to get the right things done in time," said Stacey.

It is not the first warning the government has received from the OEP during its short existence, with the agency raising similar concerns about sluggish progress on Whitehall last May.

Defra did not comment directly on the OEP's assessment today, but in a statement said the upcoming EIP would "soon set out the comprehensive action this government will take to reverse the decline in nature, achieve our net zero goals and deliver cleaner air and water".

"Since the publication of the 25 Year Environment Plan in 2018, we have funded new nature recovery projects spanning over 120,000 hectares, increased our tree planting rates and started work on the restoration of our peatlands at a landscape scale," a Defra spokesperson added. "Our international efforts through our presidency of COP26 and leadership at COP15 also placed nature at the heart of tackling the twin challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss."

However, environmental groups seized on the OEP's findings today as yet another example of government failure to deliver the requisite leadership, funding, policy action, and joined up thinking in order to deliver its own ambition to halt and reverse nature decline.

It follows a debate in the House of Commons yesterday over the government's Retained EU Law Bill, which proposed a deadline of the end of 2023 for all EU-derived legislation - including an estimated 1,000 environmental laws - to be reviewed and retained, or scrapped altogether. A broad coalition of businesses and environmental groups have repeatedly warned that the proposed Bill puts critical environmental protections at risk, and could therefore impose huge costs to the environment, the economy, and human health.

Businesses and investors have also voiced fears that the bill will create huge policy uncertainty as the government moves to revise or scrap thousands of rules and regulations covering everything from water quality and chemicals management to working hours and habitats.

The OEP also itself warned late last year that the proposed Retailed EU Law Bill constituted rushed law making that could undermine the government's environmental commitments.

Richard Benwell, CEO of Wildlife and Countryside Link - a coalition of more than 60 green charities across England, said the OEP's assessment provided a "clear warning that rapid, concerted action and investment is needed across government" to reverse nature decline from 2030.

"To halt the decline of nature, the days of fluffy wish lists, and back-of-the-settee funding for nature policy must end," he said. "The Environmental Improvement Plan needs scientifically sound delivery plans to stop the decline in wildlife, backed by the funding to make it happen."

The whole of government needs to press in the same direction, with clear leadership and mandates for boosting the natural world, rather than pursue current plans that risk removing or watering down critical EU environmental laws still on the UK statute books, argued Benwell.

"Defra can't make a success of restoring nature while DLUHC dallies on planning reform, and while BEIS presses ahead with the destructive deregulatory agenda of the Retained EU Law Bill," he said. "The Prime Minister should sponsor the Environmental Improvement Plan and rally the whole of Government to deliver it."

Conservative MP Philip Dunne, who is chair of Parliament's Environmental Audit Committee (EAC), also demanded more action from government to help tackle worsening threats to the natural world, lamenting that the OEP's conclusions present "a concerning picture".

"In its refreshed Environmental Improvement Plan, due to be published shortly, the government has the opportunity to set clear and ambitious - but achievable - targets to address the worrying decline of nature. I look forward to being able to quiz Ministers on how they intend to deliver on their assurances that they will be leaving the environment in a better state than that in which they found it."