CPRE comments on the latest progress reports from the independent Climate Change Committee and notes that once again, nature-based solutions are overlooked.

CPRE comments on the latest progress reports from the independent Climate Change Committee and notes that once again, nature-based solutions are overlooked. - CPRE

street in Cottingley Bridge flooded with brown water — Cottingley Bridge, Bradford, where extreme weather caused damaging floods (Chris Gallagher / Unsplash)

We review the latest climate report and say ‘close the chasm between words and actions'

The Climate Change Committee, an independent body that was set up to advise UK governments on actions to tackle climate change, has released its latest assessment of the UK’s progress – and it makes for frustrating reading.

At CPRE, we know that the countryside is full of potential to help tackle the climate crisis. We’ve long called for the government to look to our own front doors and see the possibilities that exist in nature, such as restoring peatlands and hedgerows to lock up carbon.

The latest report from the Climate Change Committee suggests that once again, these solutions are, as Tom Fyans, CPRE campaigns and policy director puts it, ‘like the toolbox that’s been left gathering dust in the shed’.

‘The government must get real on delivery’

As the latest reports were released, Lord Deben, the committee’s chair, called for more execution on government commitments, saying:

‘We are in the decisive decade for tackling climate change. The government must get real on delivery. Global Britain has to prove that it can lead a global change in how we treat our planet. Get it right and UK action will echo widely. Continue to be slow and timid and the opportunity will slip from our hands.’

Read: Time is running out for realistic climate commitments - The Climate Change Committee