‘Government must act now’

Toxic air that harms health, and water pollution from sewage and farming must be tackled urgently, the UK Government’s new environmental watchdog has warned.

Overfishing and damage to sea floors from trawling, loss of natural habitats, and degraded soils must also be priorities for the UK Government, the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) urges in its first report.

OEP chairwoman Dame Glenys Stacey said that the environment is in a “precarious” state and suffering worrying and persistent declines in air and water quality, species and habitats.

The report calls for the government to make a comprehensive “stocktake” of the state of the natural world, set out ambitious legal targets and to make the environment a priority.

Addressing the crisis in air, water, landscapes and seas should have the same level of cross-government support and urgency as climate efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero, it urges.

The OEP is also calling on the government to reverse the decline in funding for monitoring the state of the environment over the last decade, but does not call for more resources to tackle the environmental crisis.

The watchdog was set up as part of the post-brexit regime for managing England’s environment, with a role for monitoring progress on reversing harm to the natural world and acting as a regulator on green laws.

Its first monitoring report on the government’s 25 Year Environment Plan, announced in 2018, warns that while the plans are ambitious, progress has been too slow.

Failing to prioritise these issues and address them before the tipping points are reached will make it much harder to reverse the declines, Dame Glenys said.

She added: “The 25 Year Environment Plan was an ambitious attempt to confront the challenges facing the environment, yet we continue to see worrying and persistent trends of environmental decline.”

Turning the situation around will not be easy, she acknowledged, but she urged the government to set a clear and ambitious vision for the environment which is prioritised across all departments.

“Its precarious state should be a matter of concern for all of government and a national priority,” Dame Glenys said.

WATCHDOG: The report urges the UK Government to make a “stock-take” of the state of the natural world.