(c) Ben Andrew (rspb-images.com)
This is the third of a series of seven blog posts covering our asks in several environmental areas of the 25 Year Environment Plan. In this third blog, Senior Policy Officer, Kim Dunn, looks at what the Environment Improvement Plan (EIP) actually means for businesses, what it does – and doesn’t – include, and what needs to happen next.
The 25YEP refresh is an opportunity to drive business change through accountability and credibility, creating the stable environment in which businesses can account for nature across their operations.
As we have seen in previous blogs, in January 2023, the “Environmental Improvement Plan” or EIP, gets a refresh. The original Plan promised to deliver results for the environment by working with businesses and communities, but from a business perspective, what does the Plan actually mean? Perhaps most notably for businesses is the promise of the Green Business Council as a key to the delivery of the plan.
We know we urgently need to redefine our relationship to the natural world, integrating nature into every decision and protecting and restoring it across the globe. “Nature Positive” is used in many different ways; as a goal, a philosophy, a movement and an overall approach, that will drive the economic shifts required for nature. We are seeing the emergence and development of new green finance markets that aim to pin economic models into the nature positive movement, but measuring the overall impact of a set of actions, rather than address a single impact along the supply chain. Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), for example, only explores a small part of the value chain, and while embedded into Nature Positive, does not encompass the whole systematic shift we need to see. We welcome the move for financial markets and mechanisms such as BNG, but they must be ambitious and address the whole value chain.
A Nature Positive future for the UK
In 2020, the UK Government pledged to deliver a Nature Positive future, which included joining the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature. As such, the EIP offers a real opportunity for the Government to set out the strategy needed to reach the Nature Positive goal which includes a mission to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030 and to put nature on the path to recovery. To succeed, we know that collective action across sectors, from Government, businesses and civil society, is needed, and that each has a critical role to play; we will not see the protection and restoration of our natural world without working together and moving away from ‘business as usual’. While we need the Westminster Government to produce an ambitious goal, tied to clear, actionable targets, we also need to see businesses acting, innovating and delivering change for nature.
Building on the 25YEP – the role of Government and business
The UK Government, alongside businesses, know that we are fast approaching critical environmental tipping points, which, as the Office for Environment Protection highlighted, could lead to the collapse of natural systems, from vanishing fisheries, to polluted rivers, and the loss of wildlife. In the last 5 years progress has been too slow and we need the UK Government to recognise the critical timeframes and drive urgent action across society. It should focus particularly on those sectors with the largest impacts on nature, such as agriculture, forestry and built infrastructure, which are driving biodiversity loss through the destruction, degradation and fragmentation of habitat.
We need to see financial incentives beyond those proposed in the original Plan, and the removal of harmful subsidies. Schemes such as Entry Level Stewardship simply do not drive the change fast enough or have the necessary impact. We need schemes that will enable 10% of agricultural land to be put aside for nature and managed effectively; we need schemes that discourage trawling, especially in marine protected areas and vulnerable habitats, and allow marine protected areas to become effective nurseries for our marine ecosystems; and we need financial streams to be moving investment to green mechanisms.
The 25 Year Environment Plan highlighted where businesses are already acting, such as the segregated recycling bins in fast food outlets and working to develop cross-sector commitments (such as WRAP), but these actions don’t go far enough and will be insufficient to deliver the Nature Positive future that the UK government has promised. Over the last 5 years, significant improvements have been made, with many more businesses aware of their impacts and dependencies on nature and recognising the risks that biodiversity loss represents to their operations and championing a nature positive economy. However, there are also significant opportunities for businesses to integrate nature into their net zero strategies and help address the dual crises of nature and climate. Communicating the business needs, and more importantly the challenges and barriers they face in implementing further action, is a crucial role for businesses, they must identify the blockers, call on government support to address them and codevelop solutions.
What we want to see
Initiatives such as the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the Natural Capital Coalition Protocol were referenced in the original Plan but we now need to see the UK Government building on these to include new initiatives such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD) and the Biodiversity Supplement to the Natural Capital Protocol in its next iteration. We are also seeing business coalitions — which often include governments, such as the IUCN, Business 4 Nature and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (wbcsd), making significant strides in defining Nature Positive for businesses.
In 2020, the government commissioned the Dasgupta review, which shows how our economies are embedded in nature, and how natural capital has a critical part to play, and its potential for quick returns from investment in natural capital. The UK Governments commitment to a ‘nature-positive future’ required the economy to adopt new accounting frameworks, where nature, through natural capital, is included in calculations of wealth. We need to see the UK Government setting strong targets and holding businesses to account against them, thereby ensuring that where businesses claim they are acting for nature, those truly are actions that aid the recovery of nature.
What’s next?
The EIP should challenge businesses to go beyond the baseline and help create an environment in which they are motivated to innovate for nature. This should mean they are rewarded economically - either through improved profits or other business improvements - but are no longer enabled to do so while damaging the environment. The 25 YEP refresh is the opportunity to set stronger targets for businesses, and to ensure the recovery and restoration of the natural environment - not merely its conservation and protection - in a manner that brings progress through accountability and fairness.