My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 24 in my name, and I am extremely grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Krebs, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Parminter and Lady Jones of Whitchurch, for joining me in supporting it. I apologise to noble Lords for a lengthier contribution than I normally aspire to, but for me and many thousands of others this is a crucial issue.
Like others, I have been pressing for a state of nature target to be inserted into this Bill for some time. Indeed, a current petition has well over 200,000 signatures. I was therefore delighted to hear my honourable friend George Eustice’s recent speech at Delamere Forest, when he said:
“Nature is going to be key pillar of our work as host of the UN Climate Change Conference COP26. We were the first major economy in the world to set a net zero emissions target in law. To meet that target we must protect and restore nature, with nature-based solutions forming a key part of our approach to tackling climate change.”
He went on to say something we all know:
“The UK is sadly one of the most nature depleted countries in the world.”
He said:
“We want not only to stem the tide of this loss, but to turn it around and leave the environment in a better state than we found it. I want us to put a renewed emphasis on nature’s recovery. And,
that is why today we will be amending the Environment Bill to require an additional legally binding target for species abundance for 2030, aiming to halt the decline of nature. This is a huge step forward, and a world leading measure in the year of COP15 and COP26. We hope that this will be the Net Zero equivalent for nature, spurring action of the scale required to address the biodiversity crisis.”
My noble friend the Minister has just echoed those words.
After that speech there were many virtual cheers, not only from conservation and environmental NGOs but from those thousands of our fellow citizens who care deeply about this issue, myself very much included. Indeed, I am sure that many Conservative MPs were equally delighted to be able to report back to their concerned constituents that this Government, my Government, were taking the steps required to start the decline of our nature.
At the recent G7 summit, part of the communiqué stated:
“We therefore confirm our strong determination to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, building on the G7 Metz Charter on Biodiversity and the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature as appropriate.”
However, I have to say, very regretfully, that when these much-heralded government amendments were laid they were disappointing—really disappointing. I take no pleasure in saying that so much expectation was dashed to the ground so quickly. I suspect that my noble friend the Minister shares some of that disappointment —I will not press him on that—and that somewhere, the original aspiration and maybe even an earlier draft of these government amendments were squashed. I cannot think where. It cannot be the Treasury, as it commissioned that excellent piece of work, the Dasgupta review, which laid out clearly the economic case for restoring nature. It is all a bit of a mystery to me. Perhaps my cynicism is misplaced and my noble friend will be able to assure me that our simple amendment now has the green light. That would save us all a lot of time.
Why is this state of nature target needed? As I said, the Government have accepted the need to halt the decline of nature. I have already said that this has been managed in the G7 nature compact, the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature and the Dasgupta review. The Government have stated their intention to
“halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.”
Previous global agreements to halt nature’s decline failed because global goals have not been matched by domestic implementation. The UN Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 showed that the world had failed to meet any of its targets to halt biodiversity loss set under the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Environment Bill is of course largely framework legislation, without a definite environmental objective. Adding a meaningful state of nature target would help upgrade the Bill to landmark legislation, setting a clear direction for environmental improvement.
The Government’s proposal for a species abundance target just does not lock in a level of ambition to halt species decline by 2030. Instead, it merely requires the target to “further” the objective of halting nature’s decline. This means that there would be no fixed date at all for achieving the ultimate objective of stopping biodiversity loss. Under the Government’s proposed
approach, the level of ambition for the species abundance target would be set by statutory instrument, along with other targets, in October 2022 at the earliest. Setting half a target of this kind undermines the very purpose of a statutory target. It does not provide a fixed point of accountability, give certainty to investors or create a clear requirement for all government departments to achieve a clear goal.
The Government may argue that it would be appropriate to wait to set the target following consultation. However, I believe that there are three problems with this approach. There is no guarantee of ambition: the final target could fall far short of an objective to halt species decline by 2030 and there would be no statutory obligation to set that target for a later date. This would also show a regrettable failure of leadership. Part of the reason for setting a state of nature target is to inspire action in other countries, but the Government’s approach would mean the target being set after the COP 15 Convention on Biological Diversity talks.
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Finally, and very importantly, it would mean a critical delay in implementation. The state of nature target is achievable but challenging; there are just nine years for action. Waiting until 2023 for certainty on the target would mean a critical delay in the action and investment needed to halt nature’s decline.
I have to say as well that I fear that some things that may accelerate the decline might take place before that. Perhaps my noble friend could look into the proposals that widespread reptiles, along with other species, should be removed from Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, which were put forward recently by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee in its quinquennial review. That would mean, for example, that it would be perfectly all right to kill adders and collect reptiles and amphibians. I have a sneaking feeling that this might be something to do with planning, and in my opinion it is very concerning. However, I digress.
A species abundance target would be based on an index of hundreds of species aggregated to show an overall trend in biodiversity, and the objective would be to bend the curve of the index so that the decline is halted by 2030. The State of Nature index is one example of how that could be done. It measures the fortunes of 696 terrestrial and freshwater species—including, perhaps, those in the chalk streams that the noble Lord, Lord Chidgey, has just mentioned, and I have a great deal of sympathy regarding such streams. The index shows a significant decline of 13% in average abundance since 1970 and has fallen by 6% over the past 10 years. Since 1970, 41% of species have decreased in abundance and 26% have increased, while 15% are threatened with extinction from Great Britain.
The index should be designed to cover terrestrial, freshwater and marine species and could include plants as well as mammals, birds and insects, and the precise details of the index could be agreed by statutory instrument in 2022. The important thing is to set the overall level of ambition in law now in this Bill. Ideally, an ambitious target would also set measures for the extent and condition of wildlife-rich habitats and for avoiding individual extinctions. However, a
well-designed species abundance target could serve as a reasonable proxy for the overall state of the natural environment, with more detailed targets set later. Realistically, could we achieve this? A 2030 species abundance target should be the first step towards the 25-year environment plan promise of passing on the environment in the best condition, so further long-term targets should aim for the recovery of species and habitats.
After many decades of decline, halting the loss of biodiversity by 2030 will be challenging, but well-established conservation science shows that it is indeed achievable. It will require a combination of halting the main pressures on biodiversity, chiefly from intensive agriculture, unsustainable development, pollution and the over-abstraction of water, as well as positive action for restoration, such as investment in habitat creation.
Many policy options needed to achieve the target are already in development. A strong environmental land management programme, farming regulation, biodiversity gain requirements in development, and protection of 30% of the land and sea for nature could deliver much of the effort required to meet the target. Setting the target would help to ensure that those policies were designed and delivered with the necessary consistency and ambition and that all departments played their part in meeting that goal.
Sadly, without a state of nature target the Environment Bill is, I regret to say, rudderless. It does not set a direction of travel for environmental improvement. Government Amendment 22 falls far short of the net-zero for nature promised by the Secretary of State, because it does not set that level of ambition. A failure to halt the decline of biodiversity would lead to species extinction and economic losses and would compromise the health and welfare of future generations. Without a target in the Bill, this crucial opportunity for the UK to show global leadership ahead of COP 15 will be lost.
Amendment 24, requiring a target to be set that will “meet” the objective of halting the decline of biodiversity rather than the very unambitious “further”, would be a simple and achievable way for the Government to inspire the action and investment needed to help avert continuing ecological decline and begin to restore our natural world. I have to say that this issue will not go away and that I intend to pursue it if the Government do not move further. However, I have every hope that they will do so in order to ensure their credibility on this issue.