Ar gael yn y Gymraeg yma
Earlier this year RSPB Cymru called on the Welsh Government to urgently introduce a Nature Positive Bill for Wales – a Bill to set nature recovery targets in domestic law and create an independent environmental watchdog. We were among over 300 organisations, under the banner of Climate Cymru, who wrote an open letter to the First Minister calling on him to bring the Bill forward this year. Thank you, if you were one of the thousands of people to send your own email to the First Minister in support of the campaign.
Unfortunately, the First Minister did not make the commitment we wanted; but he did promise a White Paper this year, leading to a Bill in 2025. While this gave us some assurance that the Welsh Government is committed to delivering a Nature Positive Bill, it did not reflect the sense of urgency that we, or the Senedd Committee on Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure were hoping to see.
In September, the Committee published a report on environmental governance in Wales. To prepare it, the Committee took evidence from the Interim Environmental Protection Assessor for Wales (IEPAW) – a non-statutory post created by the Welsh Government to fill the gap until a permanent environmental watchdog is set up through new legislation. The Committee also spoke to representatives of the Office for Environmental Protection (which covers England and Northern Ireland) and Environmental Standards Scotland – independent bodies that have been established by law to uphold environmental standards in their respective countries. The Committee’s session with Dame Glenys Stacey and Natalie Prosser – the Chair and Chief Executive of the OEP – and Mark Roberts, the Chief Executive of ESS – ‘[provided] a sharp illustration of what Wales is missing out on’.
The Committee has previously expressed its concern about the inadequacy of Wales’ interim environmental governance measures, given the limited scope and resources of the IEPAW. The IEPAW’s remit is to consider people’s concerns regarding how environmental laws are working. Unlike the OEP and ESS, she cannot consider whether those public bodies – including the Welsh Government and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) – that are responsible for actions and enforcement under environmental laws, are complying with their responsibilities. Resourcing also remains a key concern, with the IEPAW only publishing a single report to date, having received well over 20 submissions.
The Committee wants the Welsh Government to learn from the experiences of the OEP and ESS, and to commit to establishing a shadow environmental governance body at the earliest opportunity, ahead of the legislation being passed by the Senedd. The Committee heard from Dame Glenys Stacey that the establishment of an interim, or shadow, OEP had allowed for the appointment of Board members at an early stage, enabling them to steer and shape the organisation’s development and enabling the OEP to hit the ground running. After so many years of delay, this is something Wales definitely needs.
Time is running out for the Government to deliver on its promise of legislation during the current term, and the report makes clear that the Committee expects to see quick progress from the Government once it has completed its consultation on the Nature Positive White Paper. The Committee’s report reminds us that it is now seven years since the EU referendum when the environmental sector first raised concerns about an environmental governance gap and five years since the Welsh Government committed to legislate to address that gap. It goes on to say: It will be an unforgivable failure of this Welsh Government if the new body is not fully operational before the end of its term in office. We agree.