Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the timeframe for enactment of the Environment Bill and potential biodiversity targets under that legislation, if he will take steps to help ensure the effectiveness of Aichi targets at the Convention on Biodiversity.

The UK is committed to playing a leading role in developing an ambitious and transformative framework of international targets under the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD), which will replace the existing Aichi targets. The new CBD goals and targets are expected to be agreed later this year, at CBD COP15.

Due to exceptional pressure on the parliamentary timetable as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Environment Bill will be carried over into the Second Parliamentary Session. Key work on implementing the Bill’s measures will continue at pace and the deadline to bring forward targets by October 2022 will remain.

This timing will allow us to set at least one new, long-term, legally binding target for biodiversity under the Environment Bill, reflecting the priorities of the CBD’s global framework as well as our existing priorities set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan (25YEP).

That does not mean that we will wait until October 2022 to start delivering on our international commitments. The 25 YEP marked a step change in ambition for biodiversity and the wider natural environment in England, addressing many of the emerging themes in the CBD framework, and we are already bringing forward key actions to deliver on that ambition.

We are setting a new legal foundation to improve the environment through the Environment Bill and our strengthened Agriculture and Fisheries Acts. We are investing in nature restoration and in nature-based solutions to tackle biodiversity loss and climate change and to safeguard green jobs, for example through our Nature for Climate and Green Recovery Challenge funds. We are developing a new Environmental Land Management scheme that will reward farmers and land managers for delivering environmental public goods, and we are extending protection on land and sea. We will set out further plans over the coming year.