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Toothless Government policy and targets insufficient to stem the tide of UK biodiversity loss, says EAC
The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has urged the Government to conserve and restore UK biodiversity and ecosystems amid grave concern that of the G7 countries, the UK has the lowest level of biodiversity remaining.
by Matthew Appleby
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A committee of MPs has lambasted the UK government s approach to nature, saying it is failing to stem huge losses of plants and species.
Their report says that the UK has the lowest remaining levels of biodiversity among the world s richer nations.
The MPs say the government spends far more on exploiting the natural environment than it does conserving it.
They re calling for legally binding targets for nature similar to the UK s climate laws.
According to the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC), the UK reflects this international picture, with 15% of species under significant threat.
Government moves to stem nature losses “lack teeth” and are not enough to reverse declines in wildlife in the UK, MPs have warned.
The Environmental Audit Committee said plans by ministers to improve the natural environment within a generation and halt declines in species were a welcome start.
But they will not deliver the “transformative change required to bend the curve of biodiversity loss” in their current form, the parliamentary committee said in a new report.
It calls for the ban on peat products to be brought forward, better management of marine protected areas, reform of subsidies that harm nature to redirect money to conservation, and investment in skills and training for ecologists.
The EAC found that existing Government policy and targets were inadequate to address plummeting biodiversity loss. This is made worse by nature policy not being joined up across Government, nor is nature protection consistently factored into policy making.
The Government is not on track to improve the environment within a generation, and due to a lack of clear statutory targets, its 25 Year Environment Plan does not provide sufficient direction to change this. Further, the recent biodiversity net gain policy, while welcome, in its current form with the potential for a lack of compliance monitoring and non-implementation of mitigation measures, does not go far enough.