The UK’s two main environmental laws are the Climate Change Act 2008 and the Environment Act 2021.
The Environment Act, however, is not aligned to our Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) targets—and we are falling behind, with the latest progress reports showing the UK is on track to meet just 3 of the 23 targets that we have committed to. The Environment Act focuses on a headline species abundance target halting declines in selected species. Its habitat target covers just 3.8% of England and around 2% of UK land.
Multiple recent reports show the UK is extremely exposed to ecosystem collapse, biodiversity loss, and food system failure, yet there has been no serious policy response. The Nature + National Security Act would restore, connect and maintain a network of key functional ecosystems. This ecosystem approach creates a ‘whole picture’ integrated way of restoring nature (rather than focusing on individual species or habitats) recognising the complex web that forms healthy, connected areas of land and sea. A Nature + National Security Act would also be bold enough to help the UK achieve the principal Global Biodiversity Framework 30by30 goal to protect and effectively manage at least 30% of land, inland waters, seas, and coastal areas for nature by 2030.
Recent planning changes, including the Planning and Infrastructure Bill and expected deregulation from the Fingleton Review, have eroded nature’s protections. This reflects a deeper issue, nature is still treated as a ‘nice to have’, an externality, and not as something of critical importance that underpins our lives, livelihoods and economy. Instead we need to make designating, connecting and maintaining our ecosystems a matter of national importance and integrate this network with other critical infrastructure—as the Nature + National Security Bill does.
On adaptation, the Climate Change Act requires National Adaptation Programmes every five years—government plans set out how a country will prepare for, and respond to, the impacts of climate change. But these NAPs have not been able to deliver the necessary progress towards a more resilient UK. The Climate Change Committee has repeatedly highlighted this failure in its progress reports and has made clear that the current approach is not working. The UK actually has no agreed minimum climate scenario assumptions for making decisions against, or adaptation targets to measure progress and hold decision makers accountable. The new Resilience and Adaptation Commissioner in the Nature + National Security Act would ensure that communities have a champion in Westminster who would drive delivery across departments.
