Environment Bill

Baroness Jones of Whitchurch Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 7th June 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, I refer to my interests at Rothamsted and in the South Downs National Park, as set out in the register. I am grateful to everyone who has spoken with such passion and urgency about the Bill today. I pay particular tribute to the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Salisbury for his service and for his wise words today, particularly his plea for action at a local and global level in the care of our planet as we go forward.

This Bill represents a huge opportunity but also a huge responsibility in this momentous year for change. As has been said in debate, the impact of the twin emergencies of habitat loss and climate change on our planet are all too apparent, so we share the Minister’s ambition for the UK to go to the Convention on Biological Diversity in China and COP 26 in Glasgow with ground-breaking legislation of which we can all be proud. The election of President Biden in the US and the action he has already taken to provide global leadership on the environment give us all hope. We need to match that ambition.

Sadly, this Bill does not quite yet hit that mark. As it has meandered slowly through the Commons, it feels less and less like the ambitious and relevant legislation that Ministers once claimed and wanted it to be. Of course, there is still much to be commended, but the gaps and the fudges remain all too evident.

Many noble Lords have referred to the challenges that we face in the UK, and we still have a huge mountain to climb. While carbon emissions are falling, the UK is not on track to meet the fourth or the fifth carbon budget. A leaked memo has revealed that Defra still has no plan to meet its carbon emissions targets. Meanwhile, wildlife in Britain is on a downward spiral, with 44% of species in decline over the past 10 years. One in seven of our native British species is now at risk of extinction, and tree planting is 50% below target. Every year, 40,000 deaths are linked to air pollution. The UK has missed its 50% recycling target. Meanwhile, an estimated 12 million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans each year. The latest report shows that the UK ranked last in Europe for the quality of our bathing water. In 2019, water companies poured raw sewage into rivers on more than 20,000 occasions and dumped thousands of tonnes of raw sewage on to beaches. I could go on, but these examples serve to illustrate the challenge that this Bill faces in cleaning up our air, land and water.

We of course look forward to sight of the Government’s amendments on legally binding species targets and tackling sewage discharge into rivers as a helpful step forward, but, in the meantime, we intend to work through the Bill clause by clause to give it the scrutiny it deserves. While we recognise the timetable for the international conventions taking place later this year, we will take as long as it needs to get this Bill right. It is a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

On the environment targets set out in the Bill, we agree with the critique of many noble Lords that their scope is too narrow, that the Bill gives the Secretary of State too much autonomy in setting them, that there are no interim targets and that the targets are not properly legally binding. Many noble Lords quite rightly raised the challenge of setting meaningful targets and knowing that they can be measured and achieved. We will table amendments to address these concerns. We will also want to follow up on the advice of the Natural Capital Committee that robust baseline data should underpin the future measurement of success.

On the office for environmental protection, we welcome the appointment of Dame Glenys Stacey to lead the body, but, as many noble Lords have said, she needs the authority to deliver its remit without government interference. I hope the Minister heard the almost universal clamour for the role to be strengthened and properly resourced. We have all valued the independent role of the Committee on Climate Change, on occasions being outspoken and sometimes a thorn in the side of government, and we would like the OEP to have a similar legal footing. In particular, we want to remove the provision for the Secretary of State to give guidance to the OEP on how to carry out its role. We will also want the OEP to have greater powers of enforcement, following the advice of the Bingham Centre and ClientEarth. We will wish to explore further whether fines would provide an additional deterrent and, if not, what a comparative sanction might be. I hope that the Minister has heard the views expressed on this issue and will continue his discussions with the noble Lords, Lord Anderson and Lord Krebs, to produce a solution to the Bill failing in this regard. I think that would be welcome on all sides of this House.

On air quality, the Government have ducked their responsibilities for far too long. There is a public health crisis on this issue, which needs to be addressed urgently. As it stands, the Bill does not set a target for air quality but leaves that to the discretion of the Secretary of State. We will be tabling an amendment to deliver the coroner’s recommendation to the Ella Kissi-Debrah case, that legally binding targets based on WHO guidelines should be set nationally. As the coroner said in his ruling:

“The evidence at the inquest was that there is no safe level for Particulate Matter and that the WHO guidelines should be seen as minimum requirements.”


We agree with that analysis. At the same time, we will be addressing the fact that many local authorities lack the power or the resources to deliver the local air quality action plans expected of them, but we pay tribute to Birmingham City Council, mentioned by my noble friend Lord Khan, and the Mayor of London for taking action on air quality already.

The need to address the decline in UK biodiversity is, rightly, a major part of the Bill, and many noble Lords referred to it in a range of different ways. The Natural Capital Committee’s 2020 report and the Dasgupta report both illustrated the dangers of our demands on nature exceeding supply. As has been said, this will have implications for our humanity and our economy. The Government have now indicated their plan to amend the Bill to deliver a new, legally binding target to halt the decline in nature by 2030, but we want to go further than that, by reversing the decline and creating a positive state of nature as a legal requirement. We will be tabling amendments to deliver this.

We will also want to spend time addressing the proposals for biodiversity net gain and local nature recovery strategies. The Government’s recently announced planning proposals, to which a number of noble Lords referred and which many are calling a developers’ charter, emphasise housebuilding at the expense of local decision-making. We want to ensure that biodiversity net gain has a legal underpinning that cannot be overridden by developers, and that any conservation credits are applied in the locality with full public involvement and consultation. We share the anger of the noble Baroness, Lady Boycott, at the proposed housing development next to the Knepp estate, which absolutely illustrates the problems ahead if we do not get this right.

Many noble Lords talked about the need to plant more trees. This is an issue in which the Government’s delivery has rather trailed behind their ambition, and the latest tree action plan sets targets for tree planting, which are welcome, but does little to protect and restore existing woodlands. This is why we want to see a comprehensive tree strategy in the Bill, with a focus on planting native and broadleaf trees, the protection of ancient woodlands and incentives for creating smaller, local woodlands, to enhance biodiversity and public enjoyment. We hope to work with noble Lords to deliver these ambitions.

Finally, I want briefly to say something about waste and recycling. Again, this is an area of huge public concern, reflected in the contributions today. We will be tabling an amendment to put the circular economy and waste hierarchy into the Bill, with requirements to reduce and reuse materials before they can be considered for disposal as waste as a last resort. We will look to strengthen the extended producer responsibility provisions so that manufacturers pay the full cost of disposal, we will propose a deadline ban on the international export of all waste, and we will require a consistently high-quality domestic recycling scheme to be implemented.

It has been impossible to touch on all our issues of concern in the time available, but we share a common cause with so many noble Lords who have spoken today. I hope and I know that the Minister will be in a mood to listen and to compromise, and I hope that in the weeks to come, together, we can create a historic piece of legislation to which other countries truly will aspire.