Biodiversity: UK environment watchdog criticizes government’s slow actions on nature

Slow progress in the UK’s 25 year environment plan could lead ecological tipping points, such as collapsed fish stocks, warns the Office for Environmental Protection

By Adam Vaughan

The UK’s post-Brexit green watchdog, the Green Watchdog UK, has criticised the government’s slow progress on its flagship plan for protecting and restoring nature. It warned that a sluggish pace of action could lead environmental tipping points, including collapses in fish stocks.

The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), which was established in November 2021, made its first public intervention. It warned of worrying declines of wildlife and lamented falling funding for monitoring soil and rivers.

We’re edging seemingly inexorably towards real tipping points for the environment, says Glenys Stacey, chair of the OEP, a new independent agency designed to safeguard environmental standards after the UKs departure from the European Union.

The group said that overall progress has been too slow on the 25-year government environment plan, which was launched four year ago. Today’s report. The watchdog found that policies since 2018 have not reversed declining biodiversity or significantly improved polluted waterways and air quality.

The group found that only 16 percent of England’s rivers were in good ecological condition. Only 33 of 44 UK air quality zones met the annual limits for nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant mainly caused by diesel cars. Stacey states that there has been little progress in stopping the degradation of the marine environment.

Simon Brockington from the OEP claims that the UK is at ecological tipping point. A slow and steady decline will suddenly become catastrophic due to the speed of progress. He cites examples such as setting fish catch quotas that are too high, damaging bottom trawling on the seafloor, and nutrient runoff from farmland. They can pollute waterways.

Cross-government support for the 25 year plan is not as urgent or significant as the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. UKs net zero goalThe group says that they are happy to help you. Our message to the government is clear: Do not delay in making the necessary changes to protect and restore. [and]Stacey says that improving the environment is key.

Government senior environmental officials spoke New ScientistThey hope the OEP’s intervention will help to boost momentum for the 25-year plan. The plan is intended to deliver on the 2011 pledge to leave the environment in a better condition than it found it. The UK is not closer to achieving this goal now than it was in 2011. Two years ago, the country’s spending watchdog made a shocking assessment.

Craig Bennett from the Wildlife Trusts charity says of the report: “We strongly agree with this. There is a problem within government: there’s just not a sense of the kind of timescales and urgency needed.” He says too often policy announcements on nature were piecemeal and moves by some departments undermined Defra’s positive steps.

The OEP, which has legal powers to enforce environmental laws against public authorities since January, disclosed that it had received 39 complaints from the public.

Defra said it is happy to receive the report and will respond to its suggestions later in the summer.