The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has written to Environment Secretary Therese Coffey, requesting that new long-term targets for air quality, water quality and biodiversity under the Environment Bill be published immediately and that there be clarity regarding important resource and waste strategies.
The EAC Chairman, Rt Hon Philip Dunne MP, sent the letter to the Environment Secretary on Tuesday, demanding a “culture of delay” within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to be addressed.
The department missed a legal deadline of October 31 to confirm nature-related benchmarks that are part of the Environment Bill which gained Royal Assent in November 2021.
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The EAC is requesting that the department lay out a timeline for publishing the targets, ideally before Canadian negotiators begin work on a new global treaty for nature on December 7.
The National Action Plan for Pesticides, the Chemicals Strategy, the Environmental Principles Policy Statement and other programmes are among those for which the EAC is appealing for clarification about the publishing of materials.
Story was adapted from edie.
