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State of Climate and Nature

My Rt hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Ed Miliband MP) made the following Statement today:

Today, I am making a statement on the state of climate and nature, on behalf of myself and my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. This is the first-of-its-kind and provides the British public with an assessment of the climate and nature crises we face and the action that this government is taking in response.

This follows the publication of the Met Office ‘State of UK Climate 2024’, which shows that the UK’s climate is getting hotter and wetter, with more extreme weather events.

We have also today published the ‘Environmental Improvement Plan 2024-2025 Annual Progress Report’ and the first report on the ‘Protected Landscapes Targets and Outcomes Framework’, which highlight the steps government has taken over the last year to clean up our water and air, reduce waste and restore nature.

Alongside this, the UK government Special Representative for Nature is today launching a report on ‘Unlocking benefits for people, nature and climate: Actions to jointly address climate change and biodiversity loss’. This report showcases how the government is implementing joined-up solutions to meet its global commitments on climate change and tackling biodiversity loss.

Government Action

The government has restored the UK as an international leader on climate change and is reversing nature’s decline after years of neglect. In this year’s Spending Review, the government secured the largest investment in clean power in a generation, as well as record levels of funding for nature restoration. This puts the UK on the path to clean power by 2030, bringing bills down in the long-term, and creating thousands of good jobs for our country, whilst restoring our natural environment and tackling the climate crisis.

By taking steps like making homes more energy efficient and planting trees, we are mitigating the crises we face while also helping to cut bills and improve access to nature. At the same time, we are also committed to improving the resilience of our communities to adapt to the climate change that is already happening. We have announced the largest flooding programme in history, which commits a record £7.9 billion capital investment over ten years to protect hundreds of thousands of homes, small business, and vital infrastructure. To help us improve further, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has announced that they will explore how stronger adaptation objectives can be set to improve preparedness for the impacts of climate change, which will be crucial to an ambitious and impactful fourth National Adaptation Programme due in 2028.

Finally, I want to take the opportunity to update Parliament on the actions on climate and nature that we agreed with the sponsors of the Climate and Nature Bill. The first action was to deliver an annual statement on the State of the Climate and Nature. Alongside today’s statement, we are moving at pace to take the other actions forward:

• Nature recovery: In June we announced the government will introduce a Bill by the end of the year to enable ratification of the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement. The Environment Secretary has also appointed 48 county and combined authorities to lead the creation of Local Nature Recovery Strategies. Last week, Essex and Leicestershire responsible authorities became the latest authorities to publish their strategies.
• Consumption emissions and carbon leakage: We are ensuring that our UK decarbonisation efforts lead to a true reduction in global emissions through developing the UK’s carbon border adjustment mechanism to tackle the risk of ‘carbon leakage’ and encouraging a circular economy both domestically and internationally, which will reduce waste and emissions. Today, we are also launching the Production and Consumption Transformation Centre, a new partnership between the Universities of Leeds, Lancaster and Sussex, co-funded by UKRI and government.
• Public engagement and participation: We will continue to engage with the public through this statement and beyond. Our Net Zero Public Participation Strategy will be published later in the year and will lay out our objectives for engaging the public.
• Improved join-up between JNCC and CCC: Finally, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and the Climate Change Committee (CCC) have committed to a data sharing agreement to help tackle these intertwined crises. This partnership will bring to bear a wealth of expertise in an integrated way, helping government shape the right solutions for climate and nature.

The fight to protect our home is a deeply British cause - it is about protecting our way of life and our natural world from significant dangers. Only by bringing down carbon emissions, protecting nature, and working internationally can we deliver energy security today, and climate security for future generations.