Up to £6.8bn a year should be spent on nature restoration to meet the UK's 2030 nature targets
New modelling from leading green campaign groups suggests a minimum investment of £1.2bn a year is needed to achieve the UK's nature protection goals, as concerns grow that Environment Bill could be watered down
A coalition of 22 nature charities today called on the Chancellor to commit to an additional £1.2bn in annual nature funding as part of the upcoming Spending Review and Budget, warning that a "business as usual" approach would see continued wildlife loss and result in the government's nature goals being breached.
The group, including organisations such as RSPCA, The Wildlife Trusts, and Wildlife and Countryside Link, argue that a minimum of £1.2bn in extra funding a year is needed to restore habitats and protect wildlife to help meet the UK's nature targets for 2030. The government has committed to protect 30 per cent of land and sea and halt biodiversity decline in the next decade in support of its wider efforts to slash carbon emissions by 78 per cent against 1990 levels by 2035.
However, according to the green groups' modelling UK public spending on nature would have to triple from the current £2.2bn to £6.8bn a year to ensure that the government's stated environmental ambitions are met. The proposed extra funding would include over £2.2bn a year on habitat protection and restoration and at least £5.5bn over three years towards improving access to nature, which could provide £200bn in healthcare benefits, deliver around 40,000 jobs, and help the 'levelling up' agenda by providing 3,500 deprived communities across the UK with access to green spaces.
"Barren landscapes denuded of nature, polluted waters choked with sewage, empty seas trawled of life. Years of underinvestment have made the UK one of the most nature-deprived places on Earth," said Dr Richard Benwell, CEO of Wildlife and Countryside Link. "Our modelling shows more than a billion pounds of extra investment is needed every year for wildlife - more still for air, water and our seas. But Government is pinning its hopes on policies that won't kick in for years to come.
"With international climate talks ahead, we will all be rich in rhetoric. But this Spending Review is the best test of whether the Government is serious about our environment. Without an extra £1.2bn a year in public investment, our chances of restoring the State of Nature are surely in doubt."
Over the past decade, government spending on environmental protection has stagnated, with less money spent in 2019/20 than in 2010/11 and less than four per cent of government spending in 2018/19 put towards restoring nature. A recent report from the Green Finance Institute found that there was a £44-97bn 10 year public sector funding gap for nature-related outcomes in the UK, with the widest gap in England where biodiversity restoration and protection and bio-carbon climate mitigation measures were the least well-funded.
Joan Edwards, director of Policy and Public Affairs at The Wildlife Trusts, said: "The latest figures show that the government spends only £473m a year on restoring nature - that's just about half the amount spent on the Eat Out to Help Out scheme alone. The Government have recognised the crisis that nature is facing and have committed to reversing its decline. We know that restoring wild places is not only essential for wildlife, it's absolutely vital for helping to tackle the climate emergency too because healthy habitats store carbon. With just days to go until the COP26 climate conference, now is the time for the Treasury to support this commitment and provide the investment needed to kickstart nature's recovery and meet our climate goals."
The charities suggest that new green policies, such as the planned Environmental Land Management farming payment scheme and biodiversity net gain requirements in the planning system could help contribute to raising the required funding. But they warned these policies will not provide major investment before the end of the Spending Review period, as they are not expected to take full effect for several years.
Tom Fewins, head of Policy and Advocacy at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, said funding short falls were having a real world impact on efforts to reverse biodiversity decline and enhance climate resilience. "Without adequate funding there is less we can do on the ground to create and restore diminishing and threatened wetland landscapes and support struggling species," he said. "We are calling for a blue recovery, where 100,000 hectares of healthy wetlands are created around the UK to help deal with climate change, and combat the related nature and wellbeing crises. Without a Green Spending Review, we may struggle to meet this target, and struggle to achieve what's needed to help protect our planet. Vital post-Covid funding could help to get nature and climate out of the red zone and allow the government to fulfil its promise of putting a green recovery at the heart of building back better after the pandemic."
The call comes just a day after the government published its long-awaited Net Zero Strategy, which promised to boost the £640m Nature for Climate Fund announced last year by £124m to accelerate progress towards various nature protection goals. Ministers also published a response to the Climate Change Committee's highly critical report on the UK's climate resilience strategy, which broadly accepted that the country's climate resilience plans need to be enhanced.
The intervention also comes as the Environment Bill returns to Parliament today amidst warnings from campaigners that various amendments introduced in the House of Lords to strengthen the legislation are set to be rejected by the government.
Ruth Chambers from the Greener UK coalition welcomed news the government was set to compromise on one Lords amendment that would allow charges for single-use plastic bags to be extended to other single use items, but she said Ministers' decision to oppose a raft of wider amendments was "hugely disappointing".
The Lords backed a series of amendments designed to crack down on sewage pollution in rivers, enhance the independence of the new Office for Environmental Protection, strengthen air quality targets, and compel the government to meet its own stated interim environmental goals. However, with the government commanding a significant Commons majority and Defra opposed to the proposals the amendments are widely expected to be blocked, kicking off a fresh wave of 'ping-pong' votes between the Commons and the Lords.
