November 10, 2021

expert reaction to the UK Environment Act

The legislation which aims to improve air and water quality, tackle waste, increase recycling, halt the decline of species, and improve our natural environment has now passed into UK law.

Dr Veronica Edmonds-Brown, Aquatic Ecologist, University of Hertfordshire:

“It’s certainly better than the original, mostly due to active lobbying from wildlife organisations such as the Wildlife Trusts. Having legally-binding 2030 species abundance targets may help reduce our losses and is very much welcomed.

“On the negative side, the Office for Environmental Protection was promised to be completely independent and this has been undermined.

“The government have resisted calls to have legally binding interim targets in place, and the requirement to ensure local authorities have a duty to follow local nature recovery plans means this section is very weak.

“It gives no indication that the Environment Agency or Natural England will have the funding to ensure they can deliver on the Act. Without adequate funding for these organisations, we are likely to see habitats continue to degrade and disappear, and pollution to increase”.

Dr Andrew G. Mayes, Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at the University of East Anglia, said:

“While I welcome many aspects of the new Environment Act, which strengthen key legislation, I remain deeply frustrated that the government is currently still “consulting” on the plastic bottle deposit scheme.  This was promised as a matter of urgency several years ago by this government and has been routinely implemented in many other countries for more than 30 years.  Why is it taking so long? Why are we still talking about it and not DOING it?  With 13 billion bottles disposed of in the UK every year, this could and should have become a routine aspect of our shopping culture by now.  The success of the plastic bag levy demonstrates this well, since most people now take reusable bags shopping as a matter of routine.  Our empty plastic bottles could and should be in these bags!”

Prof Tom Oliver, Professor of Applied Ecology at the University of Reading, said:

“It is critical that the Environment Act sets targets for environmental restoration that are both ambitious and feasible. Targets need credible policy road maps that are not siloed by environmental sectors (such as water, air quality and biodiversity), but instead produce solutions that have widespread benefits and avoid trade-offs. Importantly, trade-offs across Whitehall departments need appropriate scrutiny, so that Government housing, energy and transport policies have net-positive rather than adverse impacts on the environment”

Prof David Hannah, Professor of Hydrology and Chair-holder for the UNESCO Chair in Water Sciences at the University of Birmingham, said:

“The Environment Act provides legislation (through binding targets and a new watchdog) with potential to improve water and air quality as well as address pressing issues related to waste and recycling.

“While the UK is in the COP26 spotlight, I am pleased we have this national focus on restoring nature and dealing with serious matters of environmental pollution.

“The Act is welcome in terms of the setting-out ambitions and frameworks; but the critical issue is implementation. Success will depend on the ability to fund and deliver approaches to achieve targets and enhance the quality of our environment, while ensuring the independence of the new watchdog to limit pollution and enforce greener environmental standards.”

Prof Mark Fellowes, Professor of Ecology at the University of Reading, said:

“This must be welcomed, and provides a clarion call for action, but as always, the Devil is in the detail. The UK is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world, and it’s not all about protecting charismatic species or simply planting more trees.

“We need intact, functioning ecosystems, restored so that diversity thrives in all its myriad forms. This is a start. Let’s see it implemented.”

Dr Daniela Russi, Senior Policy Manager at the British Ecological Society, said:

“The Environment Act is an important and very necessary development which the British Ecological Society welcomes, particularly as the UK now has a legal requirement to halt biodiversity decline by 2030. We now need to strengthen all the environmental and biodiversity policies that will ensure we meet this target. This will include improving the management of protected areas, designing and implementing policies to make agricultural and forest land management more sustainable, making sure that net gain requirements really deliver for biodiversity, and increasing environmental protection against industrial pollution.”

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/world-leading-environment-act-becomes-law

Declared interests

Prof Tom Oliver: “Prof Oliver was involved in development of Defra’s Environment Bill targets through a senior fellowship position, as ‘design authority’ on Defra’s ‘Systems research programme’. This programme helped develop methods and competencies for policy teams take a systems approach to Defra’s environmental policies.”

None others received.