Government has today (Monday, 1 December) published its revised Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP).
Dame Glenys Stacey, Chair of the OEP, said:
“The EIP is of utmost importance to nature’s recovery, and the need to speed up and scale up action to protect and improve the environment is urgent. Our last progress report found that government was largely off track to meet its environmental targets and obligations, including biodiversity targets set under the Environment Act and the UK’s 30 by 30 commitments.
“The proximity of these 2030 targets means that the EIP will succeed or fail on the actions this government takes now. We can see much to commend in the revised plan published today. It offers a more cohesive and transparent approach, and and we note the step forward taken in publishing target delivery plans alongside the main EIP. We can see that much of the independent advice we provided for the review of the EIP has been taken on board.
“On initial view, the new EIP has strengths in coherent and specific commitments. Delivering all that is planned here would improve the chances of government achieving its environmental ambitions. There are places, however, where we think the revised EIP could have been stronger still. Some of the commitments seem vague and there are some gaps in the plans to monitor progress. We will also be examining the extent to which the revised EIP stands in the place of a dedicated chemicals strategy. We note amendments to interim targets and, while we understand the reasoning behind these changes, will look at them in more detail, to gauge how they ensure progress towards legally-binding targets."
