Given the delay in the publication of the environmental targets required by the Environment Act 2021, and ahead of the UN CBD COP15 (biodiversity) summit in December, this is an opportune moment to seek to persuade Ministers to incorporate the Ecology Bill’s nature target into UK law. 

The 2030 target proposed by the Ecology Bill has the same ambition as stated by the UK Government across dozens of policy documents—and is the same ambition being pursued by Ministers ahead of COP15. Lord Redesdale’s committee stage briefing for Peers explains this in more detail.

This nature target focus, while shining a light on the often underrepresented half of the climate-nature emergency, will (as ever in Zero Hour’s work) provide an opportunity to promote the interconnectedness of the crises—and the urgency of restoring nature in order to mitigate and adapt to the worst impacts of the climate emergency.