Natural Capital Committee again warns there has been virtually no zero progress against the government's own biodiversity, water, air, and soil quality goals
England's natural environmental is deteriorating at an alarming rate thanks to a "worrying" lack of progress against the government's biodiversity, air, water, and land quality targets, independent government advisors have warned ministers today.
The Natural Capital Committee, which advises the government on safeguarding England's forests, rivers, minerals, oceans, and other natural assets, today published its final assessment of the government's 25 Year Environment Plan which starkly sets out the worsening state of the country's nature.
The 25 Year Environment Plan, released in 2018 under Theresa May's government, sought to flesh out the government's ambition to leave England's natural environment "in a better state" within a generation by setting out a set of broad targets covering waste, soils, air quality, biodiversity, and other areas.
But the Natural Capital Committee has repeatedly sought to shine a light on the lack of progress against the Plan since its release, even warning earlier this year that the deteriorating state of England's environment risked becoming a "drag" on the country's economy unless rapid action is taken to boost tree planting, enhance protected ecological areas, and tackle growing climate impacts.
Today the NCC again delivered a damning assessment of progress to date in the final report of its current four-year term which ends this year, concluding that zero progress has been made against goals across all seven natural resource groups.
In fact, the state of the environment is going backwards in most cases, with the NCC warning that five out of the seven focus areas - water quality, marine environments, soil quality and erosion, plants and wildlife, and land - are in fact "deteriorating".
Specifically, the report warns that freshwater quality is declining across England, with no surface water bodies securing 'good' chemical status last year, while soil erosion exacerbated by intensive farming and development is costing England and Wales as much as £900m a year.
Plants and wildlife are also suffering heavy losses, with the UK's bee and hoverfly species having declined by almost a third between 1980 and 2016, the report adds, while climate change is driving increasing acidification of Britain's seawater due to growing absorption of CO2 from the atmosphere.
Meanwhile, progress has stalled in several other key areas, the report states. For example, household recycling rates have plateaued since 2013 at around 44 per cent in England, putting the UK as a whole on course to miss the EU's 2020 target to reach 50 per cent of recycled household waste. The report also singles out ammonia air pollution - for which agriculture accounts for around 88 per cent - as showing little sign of progress, with England still not on track to meet a target reduction of eight per cent from 2005 levels.
Chair of the Committee Dieter Helm, professor of economic policy at the University of Oxford, said the report underscored the NCC's repeated calls for urgent action to reverse these declines in England's natural environment.
"Nearly a decade has passed since the government committed to leaving the environment in a better state for the next generation," he said. "Our report highlights the limited evidence of progress and some worrying declines."
Helm slammed the worrying lack of data on England's natural environment, particularly for soils, insects and the impact of climate change on the marine environment, and urged the government to encourage the public to take part in environmental monitoring and nationwide surveys to fill in the gaps.
He also called on ministers to ensure new post-Brexit independent environmental body, the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), utilises the government's proposed Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment tool in order to properly assess progress against environmental goals.
The OEP is a major pillar of the government's post-Brexit environmental regulation regime, but significant concerns remain among green groups over its level of independence and resources. Moreover, final details over how the OEP will operate have yet to be set out despite there being just over two months until the UK fully leaves the EU, leaving it almost certain the body will not be up and running as originally envisaged from January 2021.
Helm said England could be "green and prosperous, but it will not happen by default".
"With the Environment Bill to return imminently return to Parliament, the government has a once in a generation opportunity to transform our environment," he said. "The OEP must be properly resourced to take forward the framework the Committee has developed to deliver and monitor the changes needed to urgently restore England's environment. It is vital that we measure the state of our natural assets and then target interventions to improve the environment in a coherent way."
The government has sought to place the concept of 'natural capital' at the forefront of its vision for the environment, arguing that valuing natural assets such lakes, countryside, and biodiversity in monetary terms can help safeguard the natural world against ongoing deterioration. Ministers are also working on sweeping reforms to agricultural subsidies that are meant to incentivise farmers and landowners to enhance nature protection and ecosystem services.
Yet the NCC's sobering assessments in recent years have consistently highlighted both the lack of progress to date and the huge scale of the challenge ahead for policymakers to make food on their promise to improve the environment within a generation.
But in response to today's report, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs maintains the government has "made significant progress implementing our 25 Year Environment Plan for a greener future".
It pointed to its flagship Environment Bill - which is expected to come back to Parliament for its final reading after a lengthy delay, and in which campaigners argue there remain significant gaps in environmental protection and governance - as a demonstration of its efforts.
"As we rebuild our economy in response to the coronavirus pandemic, we are committed to shaping a cleaner, greener and more resilient society to protect and restore our natural environment and diverse ecosystems," Defra said in a statement.