Government first set its ambition to improve the natural environment "within a generation" in 2011, but nine years on the Public Accounts Committee says "progress is disappointing" and that the complexity of environmental issues "is not a good enough excuse" for serious delays in tackling "critical environmental issues like air quality, water quality and wildlife loss" where the pace has been "painfully slow".
The 25 Year Environment Plan, published seven years later in 2018, claimed again to set out how Government will improve the environment "within a generation" - but it does not contain a coherent set of long-term objectives or interim milestones, and the responsible Department, Defra, does not have "the clout to lead the rest of government … hold other departments to account or manage trade-offs between policy areas".
Government still does not understand the total costs of delivering its environmental goals, funding has been piecemeal and environmental impacts are still not being taken into account in spending decisions.
It is not clear how much of an additional total £1 billion promised to Defra in the 2020 Spending Review is genuinely new money - it is known to include previously announced increases in flood defence spending spread over the next five years.
Ahead of the last Spending Review – in the year the UK was due to host the upcoming COP26 climate change conference - departments struggled to provide the Treasury with requested information about how their proposals would contribute towards the UK's statutory carbon targets or the 25 Year Plan.
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Posted On: 03/02/2021