Response from The Wildlife Trusts
Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts says: “News that the Government’s flagship Environment Bill will suffer yet more delays is deeply troubling. When he introduced the Bill, the Prime Minister said it was ‘the huge star of our legislative programme… a lodestar by which we will guide our country towards a cleaner, and greener future’. The fact that the Government plans to end the Parliamentary session over a year on without having delivered the ‘star’ of the programme will raise questions over its commitment to leaving the environment in a better state for the next generation. Recently, the Prime Minister explicitly committed to taking urgent action to put nature on a path to recovery by 2030 as part of the UN ‘Decade of Action’. But over a year into the decade, very little progress has been made. To make up for lost time, the Government must substantially ramp-up its environmental ambition. This must start with putting a legally-binding target to reverse nature’s decline by 2030 on the face of the Environment Bill when it returns, and proper funding for landscape recovery to deliver it.”
RSPB's reaction to Environment Bill delay: Beccy Speight, the RSPB's Chief Executive, said: “The slow, stop-start nature of the Environment Bill’s passage does not help us take the rapid action needed to tackle the nature and climate emergency. Our only hope is that this delay is used to improve the Bill. Environmental groups including the RSPB have made a series of measured and sensible improvements, such as legally binding targets to turn the tide on the loss of nature, and these should now be seriously considered. These changes would help us get our own house in order at a time when the Prime Minister wants to show international leadership in the run-up to the key global biodiversity and climate summits later this year.”
A Defra blog explains the progress of The Environment Bill so far.
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Posted On: 26/01/2021