The UK’s nature protection watchdog has said that the UK government is falling short of delivering its 25-year plan to improve the environment following a chronic decline in the abundance of key plant and wildlife species.
In 2018, the government published targets across a broad range of areas and promised a new public body to monitor its implementation as it set out a long-term plan designed to “leave our environment in a better state than we found it”.
Reccall that the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) had set out its latest findings in a critical report covering England.
“Progress on delivery of the 25-Year Environment Plan has fallen far short of what is needed to meet government’s ambition,” OEP Chair Glenys Stacey was quoted to have said.
Read also: Biden administration commits another $490 mln to combat wildfire risk
According to a report by the OEP, 23 of the targets assessed showed no evidence of where the government’s progress was demonstrably on track and in the 32 trends it examined, nine were improving, eleven were static and eight were deteriorating.
In response, the government highlighted environmental legislation passed last year and said it would build on that with an Environment Improvement Plan soon. This, it believed, would set out the action that would ensure a reversal in the decline in nature, achieve the intended net zero goals and deliver cleaner air and water.
The OEP report said a goal to ensure greater species abundance in 2042 was shown to be off track with levels still falling and only limited signs this was slowing and urged the government to step up its activities in this area.
“Our assessment shows that the current pace and scale of action will not deliver the changes necessary to significantly improve the environment in England. But there is a clear opportunity to change course,” Stacey said.
Story was adapted from Reuters.
