Environment Act targets 

The Environment Act’s 2021 long-term targets have been much written about, with NGOs calling out what they see as glaring gaps that will prevent improved environmental outcomes coming to fruition, and others casting doubt over whether the targets are achievable.

But now that they have been approved by Parliament, all eyes are turning to what arguably matters most: how they will be translated from words in legislation to changes in our natural environment, the air we breathe, and the amount of waste we leave behind. 

ENDS has spoken to a host of experts, from lawyers and consultants, campaigners and industry bodies, to landowners and foresters, to understand what it will take to deliver on the government’s environmental targets. 

What quirks of the tax regime could make or break biodiversity goals, and why are water companies not being asked to reduce nitrate pollution? Why might environmental permitting for dairy farms be required to meet air quality targets, and how easy will it be to meet DEFRA’s single waste goal? 

In the government’s Environmental Improvement Plan, published on 31 January, ‘improving nature’ was identified as an overarching apex target. Suitably, DEFRA has published more legally binding targets for biodiversity and woodlands than any other area.

Big policy levers related to nature are set to be pulled this year. Delivering a 10% biodiversity net gain will become a mandatory requirement in November, Natural England will begin selling nutrient neutrality credits to developers this spring, and the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill is set to reshape the environmental impact assessment regime. 

DEFRA’s target to see 70% of the marine protected area network in favourable condition by 2042 was broadly welcomed by many – at least in principle – but with just one target set for biodiversity at sea, and five for on land, we have chosen to focus attention on terrestrial biodiversity in this briefing. 

So where do these targets fit into the policy framework already in place, and where do they lead? James Agyepong-Parsons spoke to lawyers, landowners and foresters to find out.

Few environmental policy stories have broken into the arena of public debate like those about our river water quality in the past year.

As a result, DEFRA has been promising a firm hand with water companies that dump untreated sewage into the nation’s rivers. But many campaigners, politicians, and water sector professionals were disappointed when the department chose not to draw up a legally binding headline target to improve river water quality. 

Instead, the government’s focus for its Environment Act water targets has been getting nutrient pollution under control, with 50% of its long-term targets focused there. With the nutrient neutrality crisis across England having held up thousands of housing developments, getting a hold of the catastrophic effects that nitrate and phosphate pollution are having on our waterways is important for more than just environmentalists. But where will DEFRA’s targets see that responsibility fall?

Shosha Adie spoke to experts from the water sector to understand how the finer details of monitoring and enforcement will shape progress, and delved into the policy implications of DEFRA’s water demand and abandoned mine targets.

While the Environment Act was making its way through Parliament in Westminster in 2020, a coroner’s report was published a few miles south in the London Borough of Lewisham. It reported that the death of nine-year-old Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah in 2013 had been caused as a direct result of air pollution.

Ella was the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as the cause of death on their death certificate, and ardent calls for serious targets to tackle the most damaging of air pollutants followed.

While DEFRA’s ultimate targets were lambasted by campaigners as laughable, meeting those that have been set does not look set to be an easy journey.

Catherine Early spoke to consultants and campaigners, and found that the sources of air pollution which need tackling most urgently to meet DEFRA’s targets may not be those you first suspect.

Of all the experts that ENDS spoke to for this briefing, those from the waste sector expressed the most despondency about what changes the government’s single waste target will bring about. 

Though two targets, one on waste and one tackling resource efficiency, were originally thought to be in the pipeline, in the end DEFRA only delivered one, focused on reducing residual waste (excluding major mineral wastes), measured in kilograms per capita, by 50% by 2042 from 2019 levels (574kg). Resource efficiency has been left on the back burner.

What will it take to meet this target? David Burrows spoke to consultants, industry bodies and campaigners to understand if the target is likely to augur the dawn of any new policies.