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Karen Ellis Chief Adviser on Economics and Development at WWF-UK commented on the release of the Natural Capital Committee’s Annual report highlighting the need for the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan to be progressed rapidly, 

“The Natural Capital Committee has made it crystal clear that any further delay in producing the 25 Year Environment Plan will have a demonstrable effect on our natural environment, which threatens the UK’s long term economic base. Brexit also gives us an opportunity to rethink some important policies, such as the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, which gives us a once in a lifetime opportunity to rethink agricultural policy to deliver better environmental outcomes.

The Plan gives us a chance to reverse decades of decline by improving the environment for our own benefit and future generations.  But for the Plan to succeed, it must be designed right - it must set ambitious, measureable goals, and a legally enforceable action plan to deliver these, involve all government departments in the delivery of the plan, provide sufficient investment to achieve these targets, and include a goal measuring the UK’s impacts on the environment abroad through the products we import.”

Notes to Editors

1. The Natural Capital Committee was re-established in 2016 with a mandate to advise Government on the development of its 25 Year Environment Plan and to report on progress towards its delivery.
2. This is the first annual report of the Natural Capital Committee’s second term.
3. WWF is one of the world’s largest and most respected independent conservation organizations, with over 5 million supporters and a global network active in over 100 countries. WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of the Earth's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world's biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption. Visit www.wwf.org.uk for latest news and media resources and follow us on Twitter @wwf_uk.
4. Last year WWF-UK published the Greener Budget Report 2016 setting out a suite of practical policy recommendations that would help to shift the UK to a sustainable, resource efficient, low-carbon economy. The recommendations include:

• Promoting the protection and improvement of natural assets, for example by introducing a ‘stress test’ to evaluate risks to the UK economy and businesses from environmental degradation;
• Driving innovation and investment in resource efficiency and the circular economy, for example through adjustments to incentives (e.g. lowering the lower rate of landfill tax) and by increasing access to affordable finance;
• Incentivising energy efficiency and low-carbon industry growth, for example by giving the Green Investment Bank powers to borrow from the private sector;
• Ensuring government expenditure promotes sustainability, for example by phasing out environmentally harmful subsidies;

Promoting a more resilient and sustainable financial system, by for example establishing a requirement for the Bank of England to explicitly take sustainability issues into account when regulating financial markets