Fersiwn Gymraeg ar gael yma
Over the past couple of months, RSPB Cymru has been working with Climate Cymru to call on the Welsh Government to urgently bring forward new laws to protect the environment and drive nature’s recovery – a ‘Nature Positive’ bill for Wales.
What?
In March, we joined forces with over 300 other organisations, including businesses, charities and universities to send a to the First Minister, we also asked our supporters to write directly to the First Minister to add their voices to the Nature Positive campaign.
On 17 May, we joined our partners from the Climate Cymru network to install an artwork outside the Senedd to draw more attention to our demands.
We are aiming to influence the Welsh Government’s decisions about what new laws will be prioritised for the coming year, which will be included in the legislative programme announced by the First Minister in early July.
We are going to make sure that your voices are heard by working with Climate Cymru to stage a hand in of the campaign demands, showcasing your support and voices in asking for a Nature Positive future for Wales.
Why?
The Welsh Government has promised a new bill to set nature recovery targets, and to create a new, independent environmental watchdog, which we have welcomed. But there is no clear commitment as to when this new bill will be brought forward, and each year seems to bring further delays. The Nature Positive campaign is letting our decision makers know that this is urgent: we want the bill to be part of the programme for the coming year.
We need this new bill to do two things:
1. It must establish legally binding targets for nature’s recovery – the same way we have targets in law to reduce carbon emissions.
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework has set a clear mission to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, and to see nature thriving once more by 2050. We need targets in law so that this mission can’t be ignored here in Wales, and we avoid another lost decade in which the nature we love, and need, continues to decline.
2. It must create an independent environmental watchdog for Wales – equivalent to the Office for Environmental Protection (which covers England and Northern Ireland) or Environmental Standards Scotland.
These bodies have the power to hear citizens’ concerns and hold government and other public bodies to account over how they are delivering environmental laws, for example for clean air, water and wildlife. They fill the environmental ’governance gap’ that was created when the UK left the EU; without an equivalent body in Wales the protection of our environment is weakened, as is citizens’ access to environmental justice (a right that is enshrined in the international Aarhus Convention).
You can watch Climate Cymru’s campaign video here, and if you haven’t already, you can add your voice to the thousands of other individuals supporting this campaign by taking this e-action.