UK's window to redress environmental harm "rapidly closing"
The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) is pressing the Labour government to “act urgently" not to miss the ‘rapidly closing window of opportunity’ to achieve its commitments to the UK land and sea environments.
Experts at the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) are pressing the Labour government to “act urgently and decisively” to both meet legal obligations and not miss the ‘rapidly closing window of opportunity’ to halt and redress the UK’s widespread environmental harm.
Published this week, the OEP’s latest annual assessment has suggested that progress towards improving the environment has slowed, with the government “still largely off track” in achieving its legal environmental commitments. Several of these commitments are only a few years away.
Covering the period between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, the report concludes that while there have been “some areas of improvement”, substantial challenges remain with less progress being made overall compared to the previous 12 months.
Many of the legally-binding environmental targets, commitments, and goals still unmet include those in the statutory Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) such as obligations to halt declines in water, air quality, and nature. The government is still largely off-track to achieve such obligations, as endorsed by Parliament, to significantly improve the natural environment.
Yet, while some of those key deadlines are approaching fast – those like the 30 by 30 commitment to protect the land and the sea – there does remain a small window of opportunity for the Labour government to catch up.
“But with each passing month, that window to redress environmental harms is closing, while the effort needed and cost to do so increases,” said Dame Glenys Stacey, Chair of the OEP.
“This government must act urgently and decisively to catch up […] not just by developing plans, but then by fully and effectively implementing them. It has several legally-binding commitments only a few years away. The window of opportunity is closing fast.”

While the report presents what the OEP has called a “worrying read”, the body also points out that – due to the nature of the reporting cycle – the progress assessed within it falls under the previous Conservative government.
Nonetheless, out of the 43 targets and commitments identified by the OEP, the government is on track to achieve only 9, partially on track to achieve 12, and largely off track to achieve 20.
The message, therefore, remains the same.
“Our recommendations and advice still very much apply to the current government as it must deal with mounting environmental challenges,” added Dame Glenys.
Among the eight, key recommendations made by the OEP progress report, for driving the action that will deliver benefits across the EIP goals and the Government’s own five environmental priorities, are those with a particular focus on the UK’s marine space – a sector in which the government has been found furthest off track.
These include: the call to enhance and enforce the legal protection offered to protected sites for nature, as well as ‘correct the current underinvestment in site designation’; speed up action to deliver on overdue Marine Protected Area bylaws and implement a new UK Marine Strategy; and set out some clear mechanisms for reconciling competing demands for use of land and sea by progressing all Local Nature Recovery Strategies, a Land Use Framework, and put in place detailed catchment and marine spatial plans with the right resources.
In terms of the overall prospects of government meeting its ambitions for significantly improving the natural environment, the OEP concludes that in seven goal areas, including the apex goal of achieving ‘thriving plants and wildlife’, government is largely off track.
In three goal areas – clean air, reducing the risk of harm from environmental hazards, and enhancing beauty, heritage, and engagement with the natural environment – government is partially on track.
Most progress has been made on reducing some environmental pressures – such as emissions of some air pollutants, greenhouse gases, and chemical pollutants.
Although there are signs that the downward trend in species abundance is slowing, wider biodiversity trends continue to get worse as does the marine environment.

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