Environmental
Improvement
Plan 2023
First revision of the
25 Year Environment Plan

Published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Presented to Parliament pursuant to Section 10(6) of the Environment Act 2021

© Crown copyright, 2023
This information is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3.
Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to: defra.helpline@defra.gov.uk
This publication is also available from our website atwww.gov.uk/government/publications/environmental-improvement-plan.

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Contents
Foreword from the Prime Minister

4

Foreword from the Secretary of State

6

Executive summary

9

Introduction

15

Goal 1
Thriving plants and wildlife

29

Goal 2
Clean air

72

Goal 3
Clean and plentiful water

97

Goal 4
Managing exposure to chemicals and pesticides

126

Goal 5
Maximise our resources, minimise our waste

142

Goal 6Using resources from nature sustainably

163

Goal 7
Mitigating and adapting to climate change

187

Goal 8Reduced risk of harm from environmental hazards

210

Goal 9Enhancing biosecurity

230

Goal 10Enhancing beauty, heritage and engagement with the naturalenvironment

243

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Foreword from thePrime Minister
The natural environment of these islands has shaped who
we are. It is the soil from which our country grew, it provides
the food, clean air, and clean water that sustains us, and it
remains a constant source of pride, joy and solace for millions.
Protecting that environment is an unequivocal moral good,
but it is also fundamental to our health and prosperity.
This government is committed to leaving the environment
in a better state than we found it. Five years ago mypredecessor the Rt Hon Theresa May MP published the 25
Year Environment Plan to improve the health of the natural
world. Since then, we have made huge progress, and we aregoing further and faster now that control of important areasof environment policy has returned to the UK.
We have created or restored wildlife habitats the size of Dorset and established marine
protected areas across 35,000 square miles of English waters. We have passed theEnvironment Act through which we set world leading, long-term targets to restore nature,clean up our waters and tackle pollution. We have replaced the EU’s bureaucratic Common
Agricultural Policy with a new system to reward farmers for their stewardship of ourcountryside. This includes new incentives to manage hedgerows for wildlife, plant nectarrich wildflowers and manage pests without the use of insecticides. As Chancellor I wasproud to launch the Nature for Climate Fund, putting £750 million towards tree planting
and peatland restoration, and the £1bn Net Zero Innovation Fund and launching sovereign
green savings bonds.
We have also driven action on the international stage. At COP26 in Glasgow, more than
140 countries which are home to over 90 per cent of the world’s forests made a historicpromise to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by the end of this decade. And
we played a leading role in striking a new global deal for nature at the UN Nature Summit,
COP15, in December last year, making the case that restoring the natural world is vital inachieving net zero.
This new Environmental Improvement Plan sets out how we will drive this work forwardwith renewed ambition. It is a blueprint not just to halt the decline of nature in our country,
but to reverse it – changing the trajectory that the country has been on ever since theindustrial revolution.  

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Under this plan we will protect 30% of our land and sea for nature. We will launch a new
multi-million pound Species Survival Fund targeted at protecting our rarest species, from redsquirrels to grey seals. We will tackle pollution in the air, in our waters, and on land, setting
ambitious new targets across the board to improve the environment while also improving
people’s health and quality of life. And we will drive investment to support green jobs andgreen growth across the country, building on our leadership in areas like offshore wind andour status as a burgeoning science and technology superpower. I want to see the private
sector stepping up and seizing the many opportunities that this greener future will create.
We have a shared responsibility to preserve this green and pleasant land for our children
and grandchildren to enjoy and benefit from. This plan sets out how we will deliver on that
responsibility.

The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP
Prime Minister

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Foreword from theSecretary of StateOur Environmental Improvement Plan sets out how we will
improve our environment here in the UK and around theworld by working together. Building on the vision set out five
years ago in the 25 Year Environment Plan, with new powers
and duties from the Environment Act, Agriculture Act andFisheries Act, we have laid the foundation stones for our
drive to halt the decline of nature by 2030 – our most criticaltarget of all. Driven by data and dashboards, this will be a
decade of delivery with target-led, targeted actions towards
leaving our environment in a better state than we inherited.
Nature is a crucial part of our islands’ story and our shared
future. We know what is special with our rare habitats, our iconic species, and we also know
the pressures it is under. We rely on our natural capital for a secure supply of food, forclean air, and for clean water, as well as for leisure and genuine joy. However, nature has
been taken for granted for too long, used freely as a resource with little thought for theconsequences. We have to reverse that and respect nature. Nature can help us tackle someof our great challenges and we need to help protect nature.
This is a national endeavour. National government, local government, communities andfamilies all have a key role to play through policies, through delivery of services andthrough the choices we all make daily in our lives. While the Covid pandemic brought
out the desire to reconnect with nature, it hindered our progress to a re-use and recycle
society away from a wasteful, throwaway society as well as delay to delivery on some of ourstructural plans which we have to get back on track when we consider use of our precious
resources and minimise unnecessary waste.
This is also an international endeavour. Around the world, nature is under increasingpressure. The world has acted on tackling climate change but for too long, nature was on
the sidelines and treated as the Cinderella. I was proud the UK brought nature into theheart of action on climate change in Glasgow at Climate COP26 and was reinforced by thePrime Minister at COP27 when he said, “there is no solution to climate change without
protecting and restoring nature”. At Montreal at the UN Nature Summit, I am proud the UK
played a critical role in the global agreement to protect nature. Reinforced by our science
expertise and financial support, we already help nature around the world. We will continue
to do so as the impacts elsewhere can and do have consequences here in the UK.

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We have already started the journey and we have seen improvements. Our transformation
on support for farmers and landowners to prioritise improving the environment, reducing
carbon emissions and enabling sustainable food production is absolutely symbiotic andtruly world-leading. We are stepping up on tree planting. We have cleaner bathing waters,
because we have put a spotlight on water quality and rivers and we are forcing industry toclean up its act.
I know there is much more to do to restore nature - and to level with you, some of thesechallenges are not always so easy to fix as we might all hope. I can assure you though thatwith our new duty to consider biodiversity guided by our Environmental Principles Policy,
we are embedding nature in the heart of every decision that government will take for thelong haul.
Whether you live in a city or town, in the countryside or on the coast, join us in our national
endeavour to improve the environment. Nature needs us to accelerate our help if we wantto enjoy nature’s help for generations to come. Together, we can achieve this.

The Rt Hon Thérèse Coffey MP
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

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Executive summary
Five years ago, the 25 Year Environment Plan (25YEP) set out our vision for a quarter-of-acentury of action to help the natural world regain and retain good health. We said we would
refresh the plan every five years, a commitment set into law in the Environment Act 2021.
This document represents the first such review of the 25YEP. It reinforces the intent of the
25YEP: where the 25YEP set out the framework and vision, this document sets out the plan
to deliver.
To achieve its vision, the 25YEP set ten goals. We have continued to use these ten goals
as the basis for this document: setting out the progress made against all ten, the specifictargets and commitments made in relation to each goal, and our plan to continue to deliver
these targets and the overarching goals.

Our apex goal – improving nature
We will halt the decline in our biodiversity so we can achieve thriving plants and wildlife.
This is a large task but we have already started: we have created or restored wildlife
habitats the size of Dorset, we are investing more than £750 million in tree-planting andpeatland restoration through our Nature for Climate Fund, and we have established a
network of marine protected areas across 35,000 square miles of English waters.
We have also driven action on the global stage, reflecting that restoring nature is not justa national endeavour but also international: at UN Nature Summit COP15, we agreed a
new Global Biodiversity Framework, with 23 global targets, including 30% of global landand 30% of global ocean to be protected by 2030. And our goals and targets at home will
support progress towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals internationally. To makefurther progress, we will:• Launch the Species Survival Fund to create, enhance and restore habitats.
• Create, restore, and extend around 70 areas for wildlife through projects including
new National Nature Reserves, and the next rounds of the Landscape Recovery
Projects.
• Protect 30% of our land and sea for nature through the Nature Recovery Network andenhanced protections for our marine protected areas. We intend to designate the firstHighly Protected Marine Areas this year.
• Implement the Environment Act 2021, including rolling out Local Nature Recovery
Strategies to identify areas to create and restore habitat, and Biodiversity Net Gain toenhance the built environment.

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9• Support a transformation in the management of 70% of our countryside byincentivising farmers to adopt nature friendly farming practices.
• Publish an updated Green Finance Strategy, setting out the steps we are putting inplace to leverage in private finance to deliver against these goals. We have a goal toraise at least £500m per year of private finance into nature’s recovery by 2027 andmore than £1bn by 2030.
This goal is at the apex of our plan: all the other goals will help us to achieve it.

Connections between our environmental goals

Our apex goal
Goal 1:
Thriving plants and wildlife

Improvingenvironmental
quality

Improving
our use ofresources

Improving
our mitigation ofclimate change

Improvingourbiosecurity

Goal 2:
Clean air

Goal 5:
Maximise ourresources,
minimise ourwaste

Goal 7:
Mitigating andadapting toclimate change

Goal 9:Enhancingbiosecurity

Goal 3:
Clean andplentiful water
Goal 4:
Managing
exposure tochemicals
and pesticides

Goal 6:
Using
resourcesfrom naturesustainably

Goal 10:Enhancedbeauty, heritage,and engagementwith the naturalenvironment

Goal 8:Reduced risk ofharm fromenvironmental
hazards

Improving environmental quality
To restore nature, we will need to improve the quality of our environment. Three of the
25YEP goals, in particular, are critical for this. Firstly, we will aim to achieve clean air.
Air quality in the UK has improved significantly in recent decades, but it continues tobe the biggest environmental risk to human health and a source of harm to the natural

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environment. To address this, we will:• Cut overall air pollution by tackling the key sources of emissions, including reducing
the maximum limits for domestic burning appliances in Smoke Control Areas.
• Tackle specific hotspots by challenging councils to improve air quality more quickly,
while supporting them with clear guidance, funding, and tools.
• Reduce ammonia emissions (crucial for sensitive natural habitats) by using incentives
in our new farming schemes, investing £13 million in slurry storage infrastructure in
2023 and considering expanding environmental permitting conditions to dairy andintensive beef farms.
A healthy environment also relies on clean and plentiful water. The public expects betterfrom our water environment, from clean drinking water to its use for crops and bathingwaters. We will:• Tackle nutrient pollution, including by upgrading 160 wastewater treatment works by
2027 and providing increased advice and incentives to support a shift to sustainableagricultural techniques.
• Restore 400 miles of river through the first round of Landscape Recovery projects
and establish 3,000 hectares of new woodlands along England’s rivers.
• Roll out water efficiency labelling across appliances and ensure water companies
deliver a 50% reduction in leakages by 2050.
We will also need to continue managing exposure to chemicals and pesticides. These are
an important part of a productive economy and sustainable food production, but they canplace significant pressures on our environment across land and sea. Both were areas of EU
regulation, so Brexit has provided an opportunity to review our approach. Therefore, we will:• Develop a new Chemicals Strategy this year to establish our regulatory approachand priorities for the sustainable use of chemicals through UK REACH (Registration,
Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals).
• Help farmers transition to Integrated Pest Management with investment and advice,utilising nature to tackle pests and reducing reliance on manufactured pesticides.

Improving our use of resources
We will also have to improve how we use natural resources, which two of the goals aim toachieve. The resources on our island – indeed on our planet – are finite and precious. This
is why we aim to maximise our resources and minimise our waste. The pandemic set usback in achieving this goal: household recycling fell and total waste increased as people
needed new single-use products like facemasks and test kits. We need to get back to better
habits, towards a truly circular and sustainable economy. To do this, we will:

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11• Work with business to implement packaging extended producer responsibility from2024 so that polluters pay to recycle packaging.
• Introduce a deposit return scheme for plastic and metal drinks containers from
October 2025 to drive higher recycling rates.
• Implement consistent recycling between different councils, to boost recycling rates.
• Ban the supply of single-use plastics like plastic plates and cutlery from October 2023.
We will also explore options further, including with stakeholders, for the potential fortechnological innovation in the production of coffee cups, and behavioural science in
how they are used.
At the same time, we need to use resources from nature more sustainably and efficiently.
Our natural capital is estimated to be worth £1.8 trillion. It is essential for securing our basic
needs, maintaining our biodiversity, and sustaining our economy. We will:• Grow a sustainable and long-term UK timber supply by investing in tree planting, skills,
innovation and capacity, as well as improving regulatory processes.
• Publish a baseline map of soil health for England by 2028 and bring at least 40% ofEngland’s agricultural soil into sustainable management by 2028.
• Implement due diligence requirements set out in the Environment Act 2021 to tackle
illegal deforestation in our supply chains.

Improving our mitigation of climate change
Climate change is a significant pressure on our environment. Leaving it in a better statethan we found it cannot be achieved without mitigating and adapting to climate change.
The relationship is two-way: we also cannot mitigate and adapt to climate change without
Nature-based Solutions. We will:• Update on our progress and plans to reach net zero.
• Publish a Land Use Framework in 2023, setting out how we will balance multiple
demands on our land including climate mitigation and adaptation.
• Publish the third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) in 2023 that will set out
our five year strategy to build the UK’s climate resilience.
• Continue our role as a global leader in tackling climate change, biodiversity loss andland degradation and push for an integrated approach to international action.
Climate change is also exacerbating natural hazards and the risk they pose to our health,the environment, and to our economy – hence our goal of a reduced risk of harm from

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environmental hazards. We will:• Deliver our investment plan to improve coastal and flood defences, including £100
million on the most frequently flooded areas.
• Reward farmers for actions to reduce risks and impacts from floods, droughts, andwildfires through our new future farming schemes.

Improving our biosecurity
To restore our biodiversity, we need to enhance our biosecurity. The risk of pests,
pathogens, and invasive non-native species is increasing, as we have seen just this winterwhen the UK has experienced its largest outbreak of bird flu. To protect our biosecurity
against this and future such threats, we will:• Deliver the five-year action plan of the 2023 Plant Biosecurity Strategy for GB,
mitigating threats such as Xylella and Emerald Ash Borer.
• Seize the opportunity post-Brexit to tailor our border import controls with a newtargeted and risk-based Target Operating Model.

Improving the beauty of nature
Our final goal is to enhance beauty, heritage, and engagement with the naturalenvironment. We all understand that spending time in nature is part of what makes
the United Kingdom such a special place. We want everyone to enjoy our landscapesand coastlines, but also recognise that to restore nature, we need to enjoy its beauty
responsibly. We will:• Work across government to fulfil a new and ambitious commitment that everyone
should live within 15 minutes walk of a green or blue space.
• Continue our delivery of the England Coast Path and the Coast to Coast National Trail.
• Green the Green Belt as set out in the Levelling Up White Paper by identifying key
areas for nature restoration.
• Invest in a new national landscapes partnership for National Parks, Areas of
Outstanding Natural Beauty, and National Trails.
• Extend the delivery of our Farming in Protected Landscapes programme, using lessons
learned to inform future farming schemes.
• Invest in active travel, with a vision for half of all journeys in towns and cities tobe cycled or walked by 2030. £35 million funding has already been committed thisfinancial year.

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Introduction
Framework for action
Five years ago, our 25 Year Environment Plan set out tencomplementary environmental goals. As set out in theexecutive summary, by driving progress towards all ten
goals, we will leave the environment in a better state than
we found it for our children, and our children’s children.
We have started to deliver. We have created or restored
wildlife habitats the size of Dorset, we are investing morethan £750 million in the environment through our Nature
for Climate Fund (NCF), and we have established a networkof marine protected areas across 35,000 square miles ofEnglish waters.
Under the UK’s Presidency of the UN Climate Summit
COP26, 145 countries – representing over 90% of theworld’s forests – signed a pledge to halt deforestation andland degradation by 2030. We have also agreed a new
global deal for nature at the UN Nature Summit COP15 inMontreal, Canada, which sets a framework for turning thetide and restoring our global environment.
We became the first major economy in the world to commit
in law to net zero by 2050 and led international efforts totackle climate change through our presidency of UN Climate
Summit COP26.
We are world leaders in our ambition to work with othernations to address the environmental challenges theworld faces, including the interlinked threats of climatechange and biodiversity loss. We are the first country tohave co-designed an agricultural programme which helps
sustainable food production in parallel with a focus on
improving, not just protecting, the environment. Our longterm environmental targets and international leadershipon climate and nature have sent a strong signal across theworld, showing that we take the environment as seriously as
we take net zero. We have shown that where we model thisand work closely with international partners, we can raiseinternational ambition and build momentum and support.
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Our commitment to the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development
Goals also supports this, and they are embedded in ourdomestic targets and ambitions. The strategies andtargets set out in this plan contribute to our ambition toachieve these goals domestically, and so drive progressinternationally.
In recognition of the need for a clear legal structure toempower local government, businesses and the third sector
to take action in line with our world leading ambitions,we passed the groundbreaking Environment Act in 2021.
This required us to set a suite of legally-binding targets,and designate the 25YEP as the first Environmental
Improvement Plan (EIP). Government must review andrevise the plan, if needed, every five years to ensure
continued progress against the ten 25YEP goals.
This Environmental Improvement Plan 2023 (EIP23) is thatrevised plan. It sets out for the first time how the 25YEP
goals, Environment Act targets, and other commitments wehave made domestically and internationally will combine todrive specific improvements in the natural environment.
We have used the 25YEP goals as the structure for thisdocument, setting out an integrated and outcome focuseddelivery plan which recognises the interdependencies between
the goals. As Thriving plants and wildlife is our apex goal,
which all the other goals will help to achieve, we have put thischapter first in this document and re-ordered other chaptersso they are grouped by how they help to deliver the apex.
The majority of EIP23 covers England-only policy as theenvironment is primarily a devolved matter, with somereserved elements, for instance chemicals. We will continue
to work with the Scottish Government, Welsh Government
and Northern Ireland Executive to uphold environmental
standards and go further to protect our shared naturalenvironment across the UK.

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Delivery
This EIP23 includes key highlights of our delivery against
the 25YEP goals since 2018, and key actions we are taking
forward to deliver these goals up until 2043 (the remaining
duration of the 25YEP). We will review EIP23 in 2028. Thisis a detailed delivery plan with policy actions allocated todifferent government departments, local government, andthe private and third sector where appropriate.
Defra’s arms’ length bodies – and those across government– will also continue to play a crucial role in delivering theplan. This plan has been developed with support fromexperts in Natural England, the Environment Agency, theForestry Commission, and others across the country.
Within government, our governance, monitoring andevaluation has been strengthened to recognise both theurgency of action and reflect the legal duties set of theEnvironment Act 2021.
We will continue working with the private and third sector toensure we are tapping into their expertise, leveraging theirknowledge and finance towards these targets. We are clearthat our targets should set a floor to their ambition. Businesses
and investors are a key part of a nature-positive future. There isa market opportunity as they pivot towards delivering against
these goals, recognising the growth opportunity of naturepositive investment, both here and abroad. This plan sets thepolicy landscape to enable that work.
Since the publication of the 25YEP we have set out in moredetail specific policy programmes driving progress towards
our goals. Amongst other strategies, EIP23 should beconsidered alongside:• Resources and Waste Strategy• Clean Air Strategy• Government Food Strategy• England Trees Action Plan
• England Peat Action Plan
• Joint Fisheries Statement• UK Marine Strategy
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN 2023

17• GB Plant Biosecurity Strategy• The Agricultural Transition Plan
• Sustainability and climate change: a strategy forthe education and children’s services systems• Levelling Up White Paper• Transport Decarbonisation Plan

Cross-cutting themes
Delivery of these different policy areas is tied together by aseries of cross-cutting themes, set out below.

Our tools to deliver our environmental targets
and commitments
Green financeAim to raise at least £500 million per yearof private finance into nature’s recovery by
2027, and more than £1 billion by 2030

Green jobs
Develop green
jobs to help usdeliver ourenvironmentalgoals

New farming schemes
Invest in farmers and land
managers to deliver public goods,
improve productivity, and animals’
health and welfare

HMG

Greening
Government
Commitments
Continue tolead the way
by greening
our estate andoperations

Making green choices
Enable all parts of society toplay their part in line with our
six principles for green choices

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Biodiversity net gain
Make sure developments leave
habitats in a better state forwildlife than before

Incentives through our new farming schemes
As part of the agricultural transition we are repurposing thefunding from the EU’s bureaucratic Common Agricultural
Policy into payments for farmers and land managers for
public goods alongside food production. Our aim is for 70%
of agricultural land, and 70% of farm holdings, to be coveredby our new farming schemes by 2028. We are improving andexpanding these schemes to make them more accessible
and attractive, offer a wider range of options at higher levelsof ambition, and encourage and enable farmers and land
managers to take the right actions in the right places, deliver
ambitious outcomes and take joined-up action across local
areas. We published further information on the range ofactions we will pay for through these schemes earlier thismonth in the Agricultural Transition Plan Update. We arealso co-investing with farmers in productivity, innovation,
research and development, and in improving animal healthand welfare – many of these investments will also contributeto improving the climate and environment impacts of farmingin line with our targets.
We also expect private investment in public goods tocontinue to expand over the coming years, and we aredeveloping and implementing policy to support this. We
will particularly focus on how we can design our schemes
to ensure coherence with private schemes and markets
and enable farmers to attract private finance. For example,
we will work with Landscape Recovery projects to actively
attract private finance as they become more established.
as part of their development phase to explore potential
sources of private finance and design public funding
agreements to complement funding from private sources.
Throughout this document we set out how the new farming
schemes will contribute to our statutory environmental
and climate targets and the delivery mechanisms in place
to achieve that. We will continue to work with farmers andland managers to ensure we achieve these targets in themost effective way, and in a way that works best for farmers
and farm businesses and supports their primary role as
food producers, to support our commitment to maintaindomestic food production.

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Land use and planning
There are a significant number of demands on our land, fromdevelopment, energy, food production, nature, climate andbeyond. Strategic planning can help deliver environmental
improvements by protecting natural capital whilst contributing
to its enhancement. We have committed to publishing a Land
Use Framework in 2023 to set out our approach to making
the most out of our land and to ensure we reflect all our
objectives for agriculture, the environment and net zero.
The Environment Act 2021 introduced a mandatory Biodiversity
Net Gain requirement for new development along with Local
Nature Recovery Strategies to target the best places for nature
recovery and wider environmental benefits. When commenced,
Biodiversity Net Gain will mean that developments leave
habitats in a better state for wildlife than they were in before,
whilst Local Nature Recovery Strategies will better equip
local planning authorities to incorporate nature recovery
objectives into local plans and development decisions.
Government is reforming the planning system through theLevelling Up and Regeneration Bill. We will consult on how
to use changes under the Bill to improve environmental
outcomes and embed reforms under the Environment Act.
Environmental improvement will be fully reflected in thereview of the National Planning Policy Framework in 2023. The
new system of Environmental Outcomes Reports under the Billwill be aligned to EIP23 and ensure that decision makers know
how far a plan or project contributes to Environmental Targets.

Green finance
Growing numbers of businesses and investors are recognising
the need to take full account of nature in financial andbusiness decisions and incorporate natural capital within
investment portfolios as an emerging asset class. The
government has already set a goal to raise at least £500
million in private finance to support nature’s recovery every
year by 2027 in England, rising to more than £1 billion by 2030.
This year we will publish a new Green Finance Strategy,building on the first strategy, published in 2019. The strategy
will outline how the UK can mobilise investment into transition
pathways for a net zero and nature- positive economy; andseize the opportunity of a growing international market for

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Our Levelling
Up White Paper
sets out how
we will spread
opportunity moreequally acrossthe UK. This
Environmental
Improvement
Plan supports ourlevelling up goals,
including how
we will improvethe equalityof access andquality of green
space in over 100
neighbourhoods
across the UK, andalign our planningsystem with thepriorities in thisdocument

green finance, in which the UK is now the world’s leading hub.
As part of the strategy we will set out our policy frameworkon nature markets – covering carbon and other ecosystemservices, such as biodiversity and water quality. We want toaccelerate the development of these markets, tapping into
our deep expertise across science, finance, and land andocean management. We will set out our work to create a suiteof high integrity ecosystem investment standards, buildingon the innovation we have already seen under our Natural
Environment Investment Readiness Fund.

Case study: Green jobs – Green Recovery
Challenge Fund
Government launched the £80 million Green Recovery
Challenge Fund in September 2020 that kick-started
environmental renewal after the COVID-19 pandemic,
while creating and retaining thousands of jobs in
England.
The Fund has driven progress against the 25YEP goals
across every region in England by supporting over 150
projects to restore nature, use nature-based solutions
to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and connect
people with the natural environment.
Funded by the Green Recovery Challenge Fund,
Groundwork’s Natural Neighbourhoods project createdjobs for young people, trained people at risk of longterm unemployment, and unlocked voluntary action
on nature recovery and climate change. The project
has delivered urgent work to protect and enhanceparks and green spaces in disadvantaged communities
in the Midlands and North. In doing so, Natural
Neighbourhoods addressed climate and nature crises
issues by promoting the use of nature-based solutions,thus increasing climate resilience, and contributing
towards 25 Year Environment Plan goals.
The project successfully increased job retention,enhanced 105 site locations, upgraded 1,389 hectaresof land, planted 38,172 trees and shrubs as well as
174,055m2 of wildflowers.

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Green jobs and skills
Our commitment to leave the environment in a better state will
require people with the right skills in all corners of the country.
From foresters and farmers to green finance and researchand development, this plan will lead to investment and create
hundreds of thousands of green jobs across the UK. We willcontinue to work across government, with industry and otherkey stakeholders through the Green Jobs Delivery Group to
create the pipeline of people power needed to deliver our goals.
We are already delivering green jobs across the country
through our funds and programmes. The £80 million Green
Recovery Challenge Fund created and supported up to 2,500
jobs across every region in England during the COVID-19
pandemic, providing people with valuable skills whilst theyenhanced their local environment. By 2024, we expect ourcollection and packaging reforms to support 21,000 jobs,
our flood defence programme to support 10,000 jobs, andour Nature for Climate Fund tree planting and peatland
restoration projects to support up to 3,400 jobs. We areworking with the Office for National Statistics to define andmeasure green jobs across the UK. This will enable us tobetter understand where environmental action is creating
and supporting jobs.
Our plans will also drive demand for new types of green jobs
as innovation and research develop new ways to improve
the natural environment – just as flying drones and using
satellites to monitor environmental changes or managing
a portfolio of green investments were once the jobs of the
future, so new green jobs will continue to emerge.
This breadth of green job opportunities means that sincethe 25YEP, the government has introduced new training andeducation routes to enter the green economy, as set out
later in this document.

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Our Green Finance
Strategy, publishedin 2019, set out
our comprehensive
approach togreening financial
systems,
mobilising financefor clean andresilient growth,and capturing
the resulting
opportunities
for UK firms.
In 2023 we will
publish an updated
Green Finance
Strategy, settingout in more detailthe steps we are
putting in place toleverage in private
finance to deliver
government’s
environmental
goals

Case study: Skills and apprenticeships
T-levels are equivalent to three A-levels and include
an industry placement for at least six weeks. From
September 2023 onwards, 16 to 19 year olds will beable to study for an Agriculture, Land Management andProduction T-level.
Since the 25 Year Environment Plan was published,
Government and employers have worked together
to approve a series of apprenticeships. These include
forestry, countryside management, agriculture
and horticulture advice, the water environment,
environmental sustainability, ecology and recycling.
These join apprenticeships in data, digital and otheroccupations which are key to supporting the green
economy. Apprenticeships are open to all ages andenable people to earn while they learn.
Skills bootcamps have been delivered in woodland
management and sustainability and continue to berolled out across the country. Skills bootcamps are free,
flexible courses up to 16 weeks long, giving people theopportunity to build sector-specific skills and fast track
to an interview with a local employer.

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Case study: Generation Green
Generation Green was granted £2.6m funding by theGreen Recovery Challenge Fund. It provided morethan 100,000 opportunities to connect young people
to nature – many for the first time – and to cultivate asense of care for the natural environment. It brought
together several outdoor and residential providers,
including YHA, Scouts and Guides, Outward Bound,
Field Studies Council and all English National Park
Authorities.
The Generation Green programme prioritised young
people from BAME groups, disadvantaged backgrounds
and coastal communities. It delivered new jobs, training,
volunteering roles, residentials and outdoor and online
learning experiences.
The programme retained 20 jobs and created 10 new
jobs; 1 paid internship; 30 kickstart placements; 7
apprenticeships; 659 skilled volunteer roles in theoutdoor sector.

Green choices
Achieving the goals and targets in this document is a sharedendeavour. We must all take action - central government,
local authorities, businesses, communities, families andindividual citizens.
Government’s goal is to create a society that is greener by
design, enabling green action at all levels. We will make green
choices easier and more affordable, so that they become thedefault option. We will do this in a way that maintains choiceand supports fairness, including by ensuring businesses aresupported to take green action. This will bring many cobenefits. Often green action benefits our health, wellbeing,
and economic resilience, as well as the environment.
Our approach is supported by behavioural science. It
builds on government’s six principles for enabling green
choices, which are published in the Net Zero Strategy. Our
approach is summarised below:

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• We will make our society greener by design,
reducing the ask of individual citizens by sending
clear regulatory signals and targeting measures atgovernment, local authorities, and business.
• We will make green action easier by addressing major
practical barriers.
• We will make green action affordable, supporting thisacross all sectors of society.
• We will empower people and businesses to makeinformed choices, by providing clear information
about the environmental impact of different products,
services, and actions.
• We will build public acceptability for major changes,
inviting those affected to inform policy making,including the most marginalised.
• We will present a clear vision of a sustainable society,including the role of different actors in achieving ourenvironmental goals.

Action within government
Within government we are taking action to ensure that
improving the environment is part of everything that we do.
The plan requires long term delivery throughout government,
and continued leadership to ensure environment ishardwired into all contributing departmental priorities.

Environmental principles and governance
The Environment Act makes sure that environmental
considerations are at the heart of government policy
making, by creating a legal duty to have regard to theenvironmental principles policy statement in making
policy. The five internationally recognised principles are:integration, prevention, rectification at source, polluter
pays, and the precautionary principle. Our policy statement
is designed to set out how the principles should beinterpreted and proportionately applied.
Delivery of environmental improvement at the scale andambition set out in the EIP23 requires robust environmental
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Our UK Innovation
Strategy sets
our ambitions for
an innovationled economy,
to enhance
productivity
across the
economy, andin turn bringjobs, growth andprosperity to allparts of the UK.
EIP23 sets out
how we are using
innovation toto address theenvironmental
challenges weface in the UK andacross the world

governance and leadership to drive delivery, build and embedpractice and monitor action. There is already establishedgovernance, oversight and assurance across all outcomes
and targets set out in the EIP23 within Defra and acrossgovernment. The cross-government 25 Year Environment Plan
Board, established in 2020 to drive cross-government delivery
and track and assess progress, has recently been strengthened,establishing its role as the central cross-government authority
to ensure environmental principles are being applied and tomonitor action towards Environment Act targets and EIP23.
The board is also developing cross-departmental practice andguidance and embedding the required skills, capacity, andcapability for delivery across government.

The Greening Government Commitments
The Greening Government Commitments set out theactions that the UK government is taking to improvethe environmental performance of its own estate andoperations, driving specific progress towards 25YEP goals.
For example, in 2019 to 2020, compared to a 2009 to 2010
baseline, the UK government reduced its greenhouse gas
emissions by 50%, waste by 39% and water usage by 12%.
Alongside the environmental benefits, these reductions inenergy, waste and water bills are estimated to have saved
the taxpayer £182 million that year.
In October 2021, Defra published a new Greening
Government Commitments framework for 2021 to 2025. The
framework raises ambition on emissions, waste and water
usage, and requires departments to report on a much wider
range of metrics. It also includes new commitments onnature recovery and climate adaptation, supporting deliveryof EIP23 and the Net Zero Strategy.

Monitoring and evaluation
Monitoring of progress toward the ambitions and goals of
the government’s Environmental Improvement Plan will be
set out through an annual progress report. The report willconsider whether the natural environment has, or aspectsof it, have, improved over the reporting period. The reportwill describe what has been done to implement the EIP,
taking account of progress made towards achieving any
relevant long-term and interim targets.
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The Outcome Indicator Framework comprises a suiteof custom indicators designed to collectively describe
environmental change as it relates to the ten goals of theEIP23. It was developed after extensive consultation and will
be reviewed alongside the EIP23. The framework contains
66 indicators. These indicators are extensive; they covernatural capital assets (for example land, freshwater, airand seas) and together they show the condition of theseassets, the pressures acting upon them and the provision ofservices or benefits they provide.
Each EIP23 chapter outlines the approach to monitoring
and the indicators specific to each goal. Some chapters
also outline new evaluation initiatives. These complement
ongoing monitoring and evaluation activities linked to goal
policies and programmes.
Progress will also be supported by our Natural Capitaland Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA), a science innovationand transformation programme spanning across land andwater environments. It has been set up to collect data on
the extent, condition and change over time of England’s
ecosystems and natural capital. The data gathered throughthe NCEA will ensure we invest in environmental reforms
that achieve maximum benefits for nature and society.

Systems approachAn ecosystem is the sum of its parts, and the environmentis intricately interconnected. Almost all actions in this planconnect with each other to contribute to our ambition toleave our environment in a better state. For instance, taking
action to improve our water quality and quantity, and to clean
up our air, will support improvements in species abundance.
Navigating this complexity and enabling strong coordinationof policy and actions can be made possible by using asystems approach. This means ensuring we design policy tomaximise benefits, account for dependencies and identify
and manage trade-offs. It also reduces the risk of a policy
producing unintended negative impacts.
This document highlights the join up already happening
across government to achieve our goals. It also highlights
the co-benefits we see in actions that drive progress
towards one goal, for progress towards other goals.

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ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN 2023

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Goal 1
Thriving plants
and wildlife
Key policies that will deliver our apex biodiversity target
Promote Biodiversity
Net Gain, and make suredevelopments leave
habitats in a better state
for wildlife than before

Create, restore and extend up to 70
areas for wildlife including through new
National Nature Reserves and the next
round of Landscape Recovery, to help
us achieve our 30 by 30 target

Support landowners and farmers
to adopt nature
friendly farming
Launch theSpecies Survival
Fund to create,
enhance andrestore habitats

Invest our Official
Development
Assistance insolutions that
protect and restore
global nature

Create Highly
Protected
Marine Areas
to allow sites
to fully recover

Map our wetlands
and the future
actions to protectthese habitats

Support Marine
Protected Areas to
be in a favourable orrecovering condition

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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFEThe air we breathe, water we drink and food we eat are all dependent on thriving,
diverse and species-rich ecosystems. Over the last century, nature has become
increasingly degraded. The major pressures on terrestrial and freshwater naturein the UK are agricultural management, climate change, urbanisation, pollution,hydrological change, invasive non-native species and woodland management.
We are seeing similar trends around the world. Reversing this must be a collective
effort, which will require concerted action across society and international borders.
We are signatories to over 30 environmental treaties and agreed, at the UN Nature
Summit COP15, a new ambitious global biodiversity framework.
We have already made progress in creating and restoring habitats, reducing
pressures and targeting the species that need bespoke action. To achieve our goal,
supported by our apex target to halt species decline by 2030, we are setting out
further actions across EIP23 to drive progress.
In doing so, we will create a natural world richer in plants and wildlife, which is more
resilient to, and helps with, our ambition to tackle climate change.

Our 25 Year Environment Plan goal
We will achieve a growing and resilient network of land, water and sea thatis richer in plants and wildlife.

Since 2018, we have:• Launched the Nature Recovery Network, with 6 large-scale projects established in 2022,
supported by the NRN Delivery Partnership with other 600 bodies signed up to takeaction for nature.
• Almost doubled the number of agreements we have with farmers and otherland managers to enhance the natural environment through our Countryside
Stewardship scheme.
• Established 22 Landscape Recovery projects to support 263 species and restore
over 400 miles of rivers.
• Improved the conservation status of 96 priority species through the Species
Recovery and Back from the Brink programmes.
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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFE• Launched the England Peat and Trees Action Plans to create and restore peatlands
and woodlands, backed by the £750 million Nature for Climate Fund.
• Continued our international leadership on the environment at the UN Nature
Summit COP15, negotiating and securing a landmark agreement to restore global
nature, alongside our presidency of UN Climate Summit COP26 which brought
nature to the core of climate action for the first time.
• Expanded our international nature investments, including through the £500 million
Blue Planet Fund, £100 million Biodiverse Landscapes Fund, £90 million Darwin
Initiative and Darwin Plus Fund, and Illegal Wildlife Trade programme.
• Pledged £330 million to the Global Environment Facility (2022 to 2026) to support
developing countries tackle the most pressing environmental problems, including
biodiversity loss, and deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

We have the following targets and commitments:• Halt the decline in species abundance by 2030, and then increase abundance by at least
10% to exceed 2022 levels by 2042.
• Restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat by 2042,
alongside our international commitment to protect 30% of our land and ocean by 2030.
• New interim target to restore or create 140,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitats outside
protected sites by 2028, compared to 2022 levels.
• Improve the Red List Index for England for species extinction by 2042 compared to2022 levels.
• New interim targets for all sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) to have an up-todate condition assessment; and for 50% of SSSIs to have actions on track to achievefavourable condition by 31 January 2028.
• Increase tree canopy and woodland cover from 14.5% to 16.5% of total land area inEngland by 2050, with a new interim target to increase this by 0.26% (equivalent to
34,000 hectares) by 31 January 2028, in line with the trajectory required to achieve thelong-term target.
• For 70% of designated features in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to be in favourable
condition by 2042 with the remainder in recovering condition, with a new interim targetof 48% of designated features to be in favourable condition by 31 January 2028, in linewith the trajectory required to achieve the long-term target.

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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFETo deliver these, we will:• Pay farmers and land managers to take care of the natural countrysideenvironment, alongside food and other production, so that collectively:• They will contribute at least 50% of the target of bringing protected sites into
favourable condition by 2042.
• Including peatland restoration and biodiverse woodland, they will contributeat least 80% of the target to restore or create more than 500,000 hectares ofwildlife-rich habitat outside of protected areas by 2042.
• 65 to 80% of landowners and farmers will adopt nature friendly farming on atleast 10-15% of their land by 2030.
• Evolve our Countryside Stewardship scheme to pay for a wider range of actions andreward those who join up across local areas to increase biodiversity.
• Expand the Sustainable Farming Incentive to pay farmers to adopt more sustainable
farming approaches.
• Continue to support the 22 Landscape Recovery projects selected in round one andlaunch a second round of Landscape Recovery projects in 2023 before scaling up
further in 2024.
• Implement mandatory biodiversity net gain from November 2023 for mostdevelopments in England so new developments create 10% more biodiversity.
• Roll out Local Nature Recovery Strategies from April 2023 to identify areas tocreate, enhance and restore habitat and deliver environmental benefits.
• Implement proposals set out in the government’s response to the Landscapes Review
and fund projects through our Farming in Protected Landscapes programme, to restore
nature in our National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs).
• Continue to support the creation of high quality native broadleaf and mixed woodlands.
• Restore our marine protected areas with strengthened protections by 2024.
• We intend to designate the first Highly Protected Marine Areas this year.
• Deliver Fisheries Management Plans, setting out for the first time how we will
increase sustainability on a stock by stock basis.
• Launch a multi-million pound Species Survival Fund to create and restore habitat.
• Update the Green Finance Strategy to support a step-change in private investment.
• Protect and restore globally critical landscapes by collaborating with 18 developing
country governments and local partners through the Biodiverse Landscapes Fund.
• Establish a UK wetland inventory, in support of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands,
mapping our wetlands for the first time and underpinning future actions to protectthese vital habitats.
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Introduction
We depend on nature for everything – from food, water,and resources to the places we go when we need to relax
and recharge. Our plants and wildlife rely on habitats andecosystems which best function and provide benefits whenthey’re connected. A curlew, for example, might spend
spring and summer in moorlands or wetlands but winter incoastal saltmarshes or farmland, or even migrate overseas.
Over the last century, the state of nature in our country has
declined dramatically as the pressure of our demands has
made our habitats increasingly degraded and fragmented,
and brought species to the brink of extinction. We are alsoseeing this trend around the world, with the impact of thedecline of the natural world falling disproportionately on theworld’s poorest and most vulnerable.
We have begun a decade of action to halt and then reverse
nature’s decline at home and abroad. To galvanise action
for nature, we strengthened the biodiversity duty on publicauthories and required development to have a positive
impact through biodiversity net gain. Now, public authorities
will have to periodically consider the action they can take toconserve and enhance biodiversity, and then take that action.
There has been success to date: the Back from the Brink
programme (2017 to 2021) helped 96 priority species
improve their conservation status, such as the black-tailed
godwit and grey long-eared bat. Agri-environment schemes
have supported species to recover such as the cirl bunting
and the high brown fritillary butterfly.

We have begun adecade of action tohalt and then reverse
nature’s decline athome and abroad

This chapter sets out the actions we will take to deliver a
growing and resilient network of land, water and sea thatis richer in plants and wildlife. Alongside other chapters inthis plan, it addresses the major pressures on terrestrial andfreshwater nature in the UK across land management, climatechange, urbanisation, pollution, hydrological change, invasive
non-native species, and woodland management. The reforms
explored in the Nature Recovery Green Paper have fed into
this publication, our delivery plan for protecting nature.
This is underpinned by our apex target to halt species
decline in England by 2030. We have already made progressin creating and restoring habitat, establishing and reducing
pressures and targeting the species that need bespoke
action. Through the Environment Act 2021 we haveestablished the foundational framework which, when fully
implemented, will enable nature to recover.
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Targets and commitments
Biodiversity on land
The target to halt the decline of species by 2030 is our apex
target. To meet this, we must make good progress towards
our other long-term environmental targets and commitments
at home, such as our tree canopy and woodland cover target
and water quality targets.

Long term targets:• By the end of 2030, we will halt the decline in species abundance.
• By the end of 2042, we will increase species abundance so that itis greater than in 2022 and at least 10% greater than in 2030.
• By the end of 2042, we will restore or create in excess of
500,000 hectares of a range of wildlife-rich habitats outside
protected sites, compared to 2022 levels.
• By the end of 2042, we will improve the GB Red List Index for
species extinction compared to 2022 levels.

Interim targets:• To restore or create 140,000 ha of a range of wildlife-rich habitats
outside protected sites by 31 January 2028, compared to 2022 levels.
• All SSSIs will have an up-to-date condition assessment by 31
January 2028.
• 50% of SSSIs to have actions on track to achieve favourable
condition by 31 January 2028.
Our three interim targets cover habitat restoration andcreation, and protected sites. By delivering these across a
broad variety of interconnected habitats and ecosystems,
we establish the right environment for species to begin to
thrive again.

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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFELong term target:• Increase tree canopy and woodland cover to 16.5% of total landarea by 2050.

Interim target:• Increase tree canopy and woodland cover by 0.26% of land area(equivalent to 34,000 hectares) by 31 January 2028.
In the 25YEP, we committed to increasing woodland coverin England to 12% by 2060. We have now gone further andset a target to increase tree canopy and woodland coverin England from the current level of approximately 14.5%of total land area to 16.5% by 2050. Including tree canopy
cover provided by non-woodland trees will ensure we
capture the many benefits for wildlife and people that trees
outside woodland can bring. The 2050 target will requirea similar area of new woodland to be planted as in the 25
Year Environment Plan, but by 2050 rather than 2060.
This target will deliver an increase in tree cover of around
250,000 ha, equivalent to an area the size of Cheshire. The
target is key to achieving our Net Zero Strategy.
The tree canopy and woodland cover target will also playa key role in meeting our species abundance targets,delivering around 20% of the total hectares of new habitat
creation and restoration, while also contributing to meeting
our water quality targets, as set out in the ‘Clean andplentiful water’ chapter.
Our interim target to achieve an increase of 0.26% (34,000
hectares) is in line with the trajectory required to meet ourlong-term target.

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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFEBiodiversity in the sea
The ocean is our most interconnected ecosystem. In English
waters, we have established a network of marine protectedareas (MPAs) across 35,000 square miles. These protect therange of species and habitats in our seas, including coldwater coral reefs with starfish, anemones and sponges; blue
mussel beds supporting sea snails and crabs; and deepwater mud habitats with ocean quahog and sea urchins.

Long term target:• Ensure that 70% of designated features in Marine Protected
Areas (MPAs) are in favourable condition by 2042, with theremainder in recovering condition.

Interim target:• For 48% of designated features in MPAs to be in favourable
condition, with the remainder in recovering condition, by 31
January 2028.
Now our MPAs have been designated, our interim target
sets the direction for increasing the protections for thesevaluable marine environments to remove pressures andhelp them to recover. Our analysis shows that by putting
management measures in place across MPAs by 2024, 48%
of designated features will be in favourable condition by
2028, as per the target.

Good environmental status of our seas
The United Kingdom Marine Strategy (UKMS) is theframework across the UK for supporting a healthy marine
environment, with a programme of measures to achieve
the holistic outcome-based target of Good Environmental
Status (GES) for our seas. At our last assessment in
2018, we had achieved GES for four of the 15 descriptors(eutrophication, hydrographical conditions, contaminants
and contaminants in seafood) and partially achieved GES
for five. For all indicators apart from birds, the situation has
been improving or stable since 2012.

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Protecting 30% of land and ocean by 2030
In 2020 we committed to protecting 30% of land and of
sea in the UK for nature’s recovery by 2030 (30-by-30).
Thanks to UK leadership, agreement was secured at UN
Nature Summit COP15 to set this global target under
the Convention on Biological Diversity. Delivering thiscommitment for England will ensure our most important
places, at the core of nature’s recovery, have the long-term,
effective management needed for biodiversity to thrive.

At COP15 countries
agreed to protect
30% of global landand 30% of global
ocean by 2030

Green financeAchieving our targets and goals will require the private
sector to shift towards an economic model that works fornature, triggering a wave of new investment in the naturalenvironment. The government has set a target to raiseat least £500 million a year in private finance to support
nature’s recovery by 2027 in England, rising to over £1billion by 2030. By mobilising this capital, we are not only
delivering for the natural environment, but also supporting
the growth of a new market for investment, tapping into ourdeep expertise across finance and science.

International targets and commitments
We will honour the requirements of the over 30
international environmental treaties of which the UK is asignatory, including:• The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
• The Bern Convention on the Conservation of European
Wildlife and Natural Habitats.
• The Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species (CITES).
• The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
• Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air
Pollution (LRTAP).
• Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the
Ozone Layer.
• Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.
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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFEAt UN Nature Summit COP15, through the KunmingMontreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) we agreed
alongside the other parties to 23 global targets, including:• A global commitment to halt and reverse biodiversity
loss by 2030.
• 30% of global land and 30% of global ocean to beprotected by 2030.
• 30% of degraded ecosystems to be under restoration
by 2030.
• A commitment to end human induced-species
extinctions of known threatened species by 2030, andrestore genetic diversity.
• A global commitment to mobilise $200 billion a yearof nature finance by 2030, including through a newfund, under the Global Environment Facility, to tackle
the nature crisis; and an expectation that $20 billion of
public and private finance will flow internationally into
nature by 2025, increasing to at least $30 billion by2030.
• Identify and phase out subsidies harmful tobiodiversity, reducing them by at least $500 billion
dollars per year by 2030.
• Obligations to monitor, report and review every 4
years to ensure we track progress against meeting thegoals and targets of the GBF globally.
At UN Nature Summit COP15 signatory countries agreed
to update their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action
Plans. This EIP sets out key concrete actions we will takein England to meet our national targets and contribute to
the global goals and targets. In due course, in collaboration
with other devolved nations in the UK where necessary,
we will publish the required standardised table showing
how our national targets align with the post-2020 global
biodiversity framework.

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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFEOur delivery plan
Over our decade of action, we are focusing on:
1 Creating more joined up space for nature on land
– protecting land and increasing interconnections toboost natural resilience.
2 Restoring our protected sites on land – tacklingincreasing pressures on our most valuable sites andbuilding their long-term resilience.
3 Managing our woodlands for biodiversity, climate
and sustainable forestry – delivering co-benefits fornature and climate.
4 Enhancing nature in our marine and coastal
environments – taking a holistic approach to coastal
and marine protection.
5 Taking targeted actions to restore and manage
species – such as tailored conservation strategies andhabitat creation.

Our delivery planfor the next decadefocuses on 8
important areas

6 Mobilising green finance and the private sector –drawing on the increasing interest in investing in nature.
7 Taking action to restore our global environment –supporting other countries to take the action we rolemodel domestically.
8 Unlocking private and public financial finance flows– ensuring that we grow new sources of finance fornature.
Delivery also relies on reducing the key drivers of habitatand species decline through taking the action prescribed
across EIP23’s other chapters, such as improving water andair quality and reducing threats from invasive non-native
species and climate change.

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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFE

1. Creating more joined up
space for nature on land
We need to create more joined up space for nature sothat wildlife can thrive. Habitats provide many ecosystemservices for people, from flood protection to water and air
filtration. Connected spaces create greater resilience for
species as it increases their ability to move and reproduce.

Protect 30% of land by 2030
We have committed to protecting 30% of our land by 2030.
To achieve our 30-by-30 target, we will:• Strengthen: ensure effective policy and statutory
safeguards and powers are in place to improve
management for nature and prevent degradation.
• Extend and create: designate new protected areas andrestore or create wildlife rich habitat outside of these(which could be recognised as Other Effective Area
Based Conservation Measures).
• Invest: invest in habitat restoration across ourprotected areas and beyond.
We will publish a map of what counts towards 30-by-30 by
the end of the year. This will include work to:• Launch a further 19 nature recovery projects acrossEngland by 2025, building on the five already launched.
• Continue to work towards a Nature Recovery Network,a national ecological network that expands, buffersand connects our best terrestrial and freshwater
wildlife sites, including our Protected Sites, and allows
wildlife populations to move and thrive.
• Establish another 25 National Nature Reserves by
2027, on top of the existing 221 which cover 105,000
ha across England.
• Scale up our Sustainable Farming Incentive offer andevolve ‘Countryside Stewardship Plus’ to pay farmers

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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFE

and land managers to take care of nature alongside
food production.
• Launch a second round of Landscape Recovery projects
in 2023 before scaling the scheme up further from 2024.
• Drive coordinated action on areas of particularimportance through Local Nature Recovery Strategies.
• Implement measures including Biodiversity Net Gain
and Conservation Covenants.

Recover nature in National Parks and Areas of
Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs)
Our AONBs and National Parks are iconic landscapes andhome to important habitat such as ancient woodland,
peatland and grassland. These current and future Protected
Landscapes can play an important role in recovering natureand by doing so contribute more towards our 30-by-30
commitment and we expect them to do so.
To support that Defra is:• Funding projects through our Farming in Protected
Landscapes programme which deliver improvements fornature in line with local priorities. In recognition of the
programme’s success so far, we are increasing its fundingby 50% for 2023/24 and extending it by a further
year (more detail in ‘Enhancing beauty, heritage andengagement with the natural environment’ chapter).
• Implementing proposals driven by the Landscapes
Review. This includes agreeing a new outcomesframework for Protected Landscapes, which setstargets for their contributions to national environmentand climate commitments, to be embedded in their
management plans.
• Updating Protected Landscape management plan
guidance to ensure consistency.
• Issuing and promoting new guidance on thestrengthened biodiversity duty, which requires publicauthorities to periodically consider the action they cantake to conserve and enhance biodiversity, and thentake that action.
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Roll out Local Nature Recovery Strategies
With partners we will put in place Local Nature Recovery
Strategies (LNRSs) to better target and support the join
up of local actors to restore nature across the whole ofEngland. LNRSs are a key measure from the Environment
Act (2021) which will:• Set priorities for nature recovery in a local area.
• Play a major role in identifying and mapping the best
locations to create, enhance and restore nature andprovide wider environmental benefits, helping to shape
the Nature Recovery Network and meet government’s
wider commitments and targets.
We will bring forward secondary legislation and statutory
guidance to set out the process and contents of an LNRS
ahead of national rollout from April 2023. These will
support consistency in strategy preparation across England,
whilst ensuring strategies can still be flexibly and effectively
tailored to each area. This will include, where appropriate,measures to improve the Green Belt.
It is important that LNRSs have weight and meaning across a
range of government policies. We will set out in guidance how
LNRSs should be reflected in Local Plans so that opportunities
for nature recovery can be properly integrated into the land
use planning system. Working with the new requirement for
Biodiversity Net Gain, this will help the planning system playa more proactive role for nature and the environment.
We are committed to funding the preparation of LNRSs.
We will work with responsible authorities appointed to leadthe preparation of LNRSs and other public, private andvoluntary actors, including landowners and land managers, toensure the strategies are evidence-based and collaborative.
Through this we will create a coherent network of sharedplans that everyone can help to deliver, and to bring together
environmental priorities to improve join-up and coordinationof action to recover nature and improve the environment.

Deliver through our new farming schemes
As 70% of our land is managed for agriculture, there isgreat potential to create habitat in appropriate places, fromfarm corners to riverbanks and more.
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70% of our land
is managed for
agriculture. Our new
farming schemes
will support therestoration of ourprotected sites
THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFEThe cirl bunting demonstrates where agri-environment
schemes have supported species recovery. In 2016, thepopulation exceeded 1,000 pairs, representing a nine-foldincrease since conservation action commenced in the early
1990s. The latest estimate of the breeding population size
is 1,200 pairs and the birds’ range now takes in coastal
farmland between Exeter and Rame Head in Cornwall.
Our new farming schemes will incentivise farmers and land
managers to take action across the countryside to support
the restoration of our protected sites. This includes throughtackling pollution pressures, and contributing to the Nature
Recovery Network through hedgerows, buffer strips andfarm corners, as well as Landscape Recovery projects inappropriate places.
Hedgerows are important ecological building blocks across
our landscapes. We will ensure that hedgerows continue tobe protected when existing cross compliance protections
are lost in 2024. Our new farming schemes will continue
to invest in incentives for maintenance and planting ofhedgerows across the country.
Since 2020 we have seen a 94% increase in Countryside
Stewardship agreements. There are currently over 1.6 million
hectares in Countryside Stewardship, and 1.4 million hectares
in Environmental Stewardship. In these agreements we have
422,000 hectares of grassland being managed and 2,500
miles of new hedges have been created.

In 2021 there werearound 70,000
conservation,
environment,or associate
professionals
working in England

Agreements running from 2024 are expected to bring ormaintain 37,000-48,000 hectares of eligible SSSI habitat
in England under favourable management and deliver up
to 300,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat (alongside up
to 200,000 hectares of peat and woodland) creation andrestoration by 2042. We will add further options as we rollout our new farming schemes.
Our new farming schemes schemes are expected to:• Contribute at least 50% of the target of bringing
protected sites into favourable condition by 2042.
• Contribute 80 to 100% of the target to restore or
create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-richhabitat outside of protected areas by 2042, by including
the contribution from peat restoration and biodiverse
woodland creation.
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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFE• Support 65 to 80% of landowners and farmers to adopt
nature friendly farming on at least 10-15% of their landby 2030.
• Launch further rounds of Landscape Recovery projects
in 2023 and 2024.
• Support continued favourable management of allexisting priority habitat already in favourable condition
outside of SSSIs (from a 2022 baseline) and increasing
to include all newly restored or created habitat throughour new farming schemes by 2042.
• Support farmers to create or restore 30,000 milesof hedgerows a year by 2037 and 45,000 miles ofhedgerows a year by 2050, returning hedgerow lengths
in England to 10% above the 1984 peak (360,000 miles).
In 2022, we announced 22 projects under the Landscape
Recovery scheme, each covering an area of between 500 and
5,000 hectares. These projects aim to restore over 400 milesof rivers and protect and enhance 263 species such as water
vole, lapwing, and marsh fritillary. We will award funding toanother round of Landscape Recovery projects in 2023.
Bees play a crucial role in our
ecosystem

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2. Restoring our protectedsites on land
We have committed to restore 75% of protected sites tofavourable condition by 2042, which is crucial to delivering
our wider biodiversity commitments. Our protected sites
are also a part of delivering our international commitments,
such as the Emerald Network, Ramsar Convention andConvention on Biological Diversity. There are currently
4,128 SSSIs located across the country, covering all priority
habitats and many characteristic, rare and threatened
species. 915 are purely geological sites. These importantsites are under increasing pressures, not least from climatechange, pollution, development and invasive species.
We are:• Updating the evidence on site condition and required
action to maintain or improve the condition of all 4,128
sites over the next five years.

We will restore 75%
of protected sites
to a favourable
condition by 2042.
This is critical to
our biodiversity
commitments• Implementing a whole feature assessment approach,to improve our understanding of how sites arefunctioning and where interventions will deliver thegreatest return on investment.
• Developing more strategic actions through newProtected Sites Strategies, building on the existing
pilot partnerships covering 33 SSSIs which launched in
Spring 2022 and will complete by 2025.
• Continuing to implement the designations programme
to consider further places suitable to become sites ofscientific interest.
• Delivering the £5.6 million Conservation andEnhancement Scheme to improve and maintain thecondition of those SSSIs not currently eligible forexisting agri-environment schemes, for example
because they are not agricultural holdings.
• Supporting appropriate and sustainable farmland
management, including by reducing the impact ofinvasive non-native species and addressing pressures
such as nutrient or sediment run-off contributing topoor water quality.
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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFE• Using powers in existing legislation appropriately tosupport more effective management of protected sites.
We will continue to work in partnership with the Major
Landowners Group, regulators and other stakeholders
to address pressures affecting SSSIs and to implement a
programme of site improvement. This will include working
with farmers to provide advice and help them secure funding
to implement necessary land mangement changes; working
at a catchment scale with partners to improve water quality
and supply issues; and delivering regulation in a fair andproportionate manner alongside other public bodies toprevent harm and improve site condition. This work will
include targeting eight key areas covering 145 SSSIs to drive
their wider programme of site improvement.
As part of the guidance for public authorities to implement thebiodiversity duty, which came into force on 1 January 2023, we
will make clear our expectation that they must be consistent
with their duties to conserve SSSIs, take efforts to restore
their protected sites. We expect all public authorities to ensure
they have management plans in place, by the end of the year,
to support their sites to reach favourable status. We will also
set out expected improvements to Protected Sites within
National Parks and AONBs within our Protected Landscapes
outcomes framework and refreshed management plan
guidance, as set out in the previous section.
We are clear that damaging activities must be tackled withgreater urgency. Where appropriate we will make full useof existing powers to improve the natural environment.
This includes, for example, issuing Statutory Management
Notices. We will also assess where we can tackle legacy
consents on SSSIs that negatively impact sites.

Restore our water-dependent protected sites
A majority (67%) of our most precious water bodies are also
protected sites. These sites deliver a range of services, suchas water purification and climate adaptation or mitigation,and provide people with the opportunity to spend timein nature. Blue carbon habitats such as saltmarsh andseagrass – the majority of which are in protected areas– play an important role in supporting adaptation andresilience to climate change, alongside carbon sequestration
benefits. We need to continue to restore these sites so that
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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFEthey achieve their full potential.
Alongside relevant actions set out in other chapters(including the ‘Clean and plentiful water’ chapter), Defra
will:• Continue to work on the delivery of Protected Sites
Strategies to ensure a holistic approach to tackling on
and offsite pressures on our protected water bodies.
• Unlock the potential of England's over 150,000 milesof watercourses through our Woodlands for Water
project, which provides dedicated support to farmers
and landowners to encourage more riparian woodland
creation, and by publishing a UK Forestry Standardpractice guide. Planting trees or using naturalcolonisation along rivers and within the wider catchment
will offer enormous benefits for water quality, flood
management, biodiversity and climate resilience.
• Develop new nature markets for habitats such as saltmarshand seagrass. These can generate a revenue stream
from blue carbon, while also realising wider benefits
such as natural flood management and water quality.
Defra is supporting some of this innovation through our
Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund.

3. Managing our woodlands
for biodiversity, climate andsustainable forestry
Trees and woodlands capture and lock away carbon, bothin the tree biomass and in the soil, as well as deliveringsignificant benefits for biodiversity. Approximately a quarterof all species of principal importance for conservation in
England are associated with native woodland habitats andtrees, including lesser spotted woodpeckers and high brown
fritillaries. From ancient woodland and veteran trees totemperate rainforest and urban trees, they provide a variety of
benefits to people and form a vital part of our natural heritage.

The England PeatAction Plan andEngland Trees Action
Plan are supportedby the £750 million
Nature for Climate
Fund

In line with our tree canopy and woodland cover targets, theEngland Trees Action Plan provides a strategic frameworkfor our woodland creation and woodland management
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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFE

ambitions and is supported by the £750 million Nature for
Climate Fund (NCF). We have already:• Launched our flagship England Woodland Creation
Offer in June 2021, which is paying land managers toplant the right trees in the right places. This is also ourfirst ever government grant to support new woodland
creation via natural colonisation.
• As part of the England Woodland Creation Partnership,
supported England’s Community Forests with
continued funding to plant new trees and woodlands,
including through the creation of the Plymouthand South Devon, North East and Cumbria Coastal
Community Forests, which expands England’s national
network to thirteen Community Forests.
• Launched a three-year Tree Health pilot to test and refine
ways of slowing the spread of tree pests and diseases.
• Published an updated Keepers of Time Policy onancient and native woodland to recognise the value ofEngland’s ancient and native woodlands and ancientand veteran trees.
• Published a UK Forestry Standard practice guide on
adapting forest and woodland management for thechanging climate.
• Launched a series of Regional Woodland Restoration
Innovation Funds to encourage and broaden innovationin the forestry sector and support active managementof our woodlands to improve their ecological condition.
• Published evidence-based decision support
frameworks to guide both landowners and publicbodies regarding tree planting decisions in peat
environments or in locations where there may beground-nesting birds.
To build on this, we will:• Set out plans on how we will increase the resilience of
our woodlands. These plans will be incorporated intoa revised version of the government’s Tree HealthResilience Strategy, which will cover our approachto tackling pressures on our trees and woodlands,

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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFE

including climate change, pests and diseases. This
work on reducing pressures will be supported by our
national deer management strategy (covered laterin this chapter) and our Grey Squirrel Action Plan
(covered in the ‘Enhancing biosecurity’ chapter).
• Continue to support the creation of high quality native
broadleaf and mixed woodlands.
• Implement our Keepers of Time Policy to protect andimprove our ancient and native woodlands and ancientand veteran trees and the valuable habitats they
provide for future generations.
• Support work on the ground to improve the condition ofancient semi-natural woodland and to restore plantations
on ancient woodland sites (PAWS) while making surethey continue to provide owners with income. In supportof this, Forestry England will continue to deliver its
commitment to restore all 42,814 hectares of its PAWS.
• Consult on new protections in the planning system
to recognise the high ecological and societal value of‘Long Established Woodland’ (woodlands that havebeen present since at least 1893).
• Review the National Planning Policy Framework(NPPF) to ensure that it is being implemented correctly
for ancient and veteran trees and ancient woodland,and consult on wording in the NPPF at a future date toensure the strongest protection for these habitats.
• Introduce a new duty on local planning authorities
to consult the Secretary of State for Levelling Up,
Housing and Communities before granting permission
for development proposals that will affect our ancient
woodlands.
• Further develop our forestry proposals aimed
at increasing the planting of new woodland andpreserving the nation’s forests for biodiversity.
The NCF will end in 2025; after this our new farming
schemes will deliver a large proportion of tree planting
funding. As set out in the prospectus, the new farming
schemes will support land managers to establish new
woodland systems, expand existing ones and manage

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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFE

woodlands sustainably. Future woodland creation grants
will mirror the England Woodland Creation Offer, ensuringcontinuity of offer. Landscape Recovery will support major
landscape-scale afforestation projects where these deliver awide range of environmental outcomes.

Scale up private sector funding for new woodland
creation
We will address barriers which may deter tree planting by:• Exploring the inclusion of greenhouse gas removals
in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme, including thepotential inclusion of high integrity woodland carbon,
such as Woodland Carbon Units. A call for evidence
closed in June 2022, and a Government Response will
be published in due course.
• Scaling up high integrity voluntary markets forcarbon and other ecosystem services by clarifying
and strengthening the standards and governancearrangements for this type of investment.
• Working with the forestry sector to increase theamount of productive forestry in England and increase
the safe use of timber in construction.
• Improving woodland creation regulation by reducing
the time it takes for projects to receive grant funding
and regulatory approval.
• Reviewing guidance on the tax treatment of trees andwoodlands, to provide greater clarity to landowners
on how new and existing trees on their land affect tax
liabilities.
• Developing a voluntary Woodland Water Code so
landowners are incentivised by natural capital markets
to plant woodlands in places where they do most to
improve water quality.
• Increasing tree planting on public land and support
local authorities to plant more trees.
• Continuing to build capacity in the domestic forestry
sector through training and apprenticeships.

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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFEEncourage and support agroforestry
Trees planted as part of agroforestry systems provide
important shade for livestock, increase flood resilience,
improve water quality and enhance food production potential.
To deliver our target we will:• Roll-out the agroforestry standard within the
Sustainable Farming Incentive in 2024.
• Deliver further options in Countryside Stewardship.
• Finalise a further test and trial pilot for agroforestry
support and monitor the uptake of the offer throughour new farming schemes to assess whether further
support is needed.
We will take a mixed approach to achieving our overall tree
planting goals that combines trees as part of food producing
systems (for instance orchards), creation of smaller woodlands,
and larger scale woodland creation where appropriate. By
2050, taken together these measures incentivised throughthe new farming schemes will achieve approximately 90% of
the Environment Act target to increase tree cover to 16.5% ofEngland’s land area by 2050. Work to further unlock private
investment is expected to complement this.

4. Enhancing nature in
our marine and coastal
environments
Increase the scope and protections of protectedareas
Effective protection through Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
and Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) will help deliverthe 30-by-30 commitment for the ocean. Having createdover 100 MPAs in English waters since 2010, we have now
established a comprehensive network of 178 MPAs covering
40% of English waters.
We are focused on increasing protections for our MPAs. 98
inshore MPAs now have byelaws in place to protect sensitive
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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFEspecies and habitats from damaging bottom towed fishinggears. Byelaws for the first four English offshore sites cameinto force in June 2022 and, where necessary, byelaws forthe next tranche of 13 sites will be in place later in 2023.
Where needed, all offshore MPAs will have byelaws in placeby the end of 2024.
Alongside MPAs, we will create Highly Protected Marine
Areas (HPMAs). HPMAs aim to allow sites to fully recover,increasing resilience to climate change, and help us tounderstand more about the management and recoveryof blue carbon habitats. We intend to designate the first
HMPAs this year.

Our network of 178
Marine Protected
Areas covers 40%
of English waters (or35,000 square miles)

Take a holistic approach to coastal and marine
spatial prioritisation
In order to properly manage ecosystems at sea, we need
to approach them holistically, making sure we protect key
habitats while facilitating the diverse uses of the sea and coast.
To do this, Defra will:• Optimise the use of the marine space through thecross-government programme on Marine Spatial
Prioritisation.
• Continue to monitor and report against marine plans.
• Develop Fisheries Management Plans, working withindustry and other partners.
• Work with the High Level Panel for a Sustainable
Ocean Economy to develop sustainable ocean plansthat capture both Defra and cross-government work.
Defra will lead a practical initiative to restore estuarine andcoastal habitats (ReMeMaRe (Restoring Meadow, Marsh andReef)), which will restore 15% of our priority habitats along
the English coast by 2043.

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Harness the power of marine ecosystems to help
deliver net zero
Marine ecosystems have the potential to be an importantnature based solution to climate change. We will advance theevidence base on blue carbon ecosystems, including throughthe UK Blue Carbon Evidence Partnership (UKBCEP).
The Marine Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment(mNCEA) programme aims to fill core data gaps on theservices blue carbon habitats provide. These include carbon
storage and sequestration rates of saltmarsh and seagrass,burial of carbon in the sea floor, and the importance ofplankton in the carbon cycle.
We will work with the Department for Business, Energy andIndustrial Strategy (BEIS) and the devolved administrations
through the UKBCEP to address key questions including fillingthe evidence gaps that currently hinder inclusion of saltmarshand seagrass habitats into the UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Inventory. The first aim of the Partnership has been to identify
and then clearly set out the most pressing research questions
relating to blue carbon in an Evidence Needs Statement thatwill act as a signal to the research community.

Our English waters are home to
many precious creatures

Offshore wind is a critical government priority which will
support the UK’s transition to net zero and help ensure our
future energy security. However, its development needs tobe delivered alongside protection of the ocean and support
for its recovery.
Offshore wind has the potential to create artificial habitat
for wildlife. However, there can be risks of environmental
damage, particularly during construction. As set out in the
British Energy Security Strategy, we are implementinga package of measures to enable faster consenting ofoffshore wind developments while maintaining high levels ofenvironmental protection. We are doing this by:• Enabling environmental compensation for theadverse environmental effects of offshore wind farmdevelopments to take place in a more strategic andimpactful way, with developers collaborating on larger
scale projects.
• Setting up a marine recovery fund to help deliver
these strategic measures. The fund will be an optional
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Our British
Energy Security
Strategy sets out
how Great Britain
will accelerate
homegrown powerfor greater energy
independence.
EIP23 setsout how we aresupporting this

THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFEmechanism that developers can choose to use todeliver their compensatory measures.
In addition, we will be:• Designing Offshore Wind Environmental Standards
to reduce the overall environmental impact of adevelopment. We will provide clear guidance todevelopers on best practice to incorporate into thedesign, construction, operation and decommissioning ofoffshore wind farms.
• Making sure that we understand cumulative impacts ofdevelopment on whole ecosystems by making best use ofexisting monitoring data to support faster, more robust
decision making.

Case study: Blue Carbon– LIFE Recreation
ReMEDIES Project
Natural England is leading the LIFE Recreation
ReMEDIES (Reducing and Mitigating Erosion andDisturbance Impacts affEcting the Seabed) project, a£2.5 million, four-year marine conservation projectacross five Special Areas of Conservation in Southern
England, Marine Conservation Society, Ocean
Conservation Trust and others.
ReMEDIES is leading England’s largest seagrass
planting effort, aiming to plant a total of eight hectares.
The project is also working with recreational boaters
to help protect the seabed. Seagrass can be damagedby activities such as the anchoring and mooring ofrecreational boats. They are working with harbour
authorities and private mooring holders to install
Advanced Mooring Systems (AMS), which are more
beneficial to seagrass.
By maintaining and restoring seagrass, we are helping
to create healthy seagrass meadows that provide
habitat for a number of protected species, are importantnursery grounds for fish, help stabilise the seabed andreduce coastal erosion, clean surrounding seawater andstore and capture significant amounts of carbon.

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A short-snouted seahorse in
the seagrass bed in the Solent
Maritime SAC on the 2020
ReMEDIES survey

THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFE

5. Taking targeted actions to
restore and manage species
In the last 20 years, the England priority species abundanceindex has been declining by approximately 2% year on
year, and our rarer species are at risk of extinction. While
we value native species from hedgehogs to red squirrels
in their own right, the recovery of species is critical to
the restoration of diverse and healthy ecosystems which
provide us with food, water, clean air, recreation, andregulate our climate.
We are taking action to protect and restore species:• Our multi-million pound Species Survival Fund isspecifically targeted towards our 2030 species
abundance target. This fund will seek to create andrestore habitat, as well as further targeted species
recovery actions.

Our new Species
Survival Fund will
help us halt the
decline in species
abundance by 2030

• Species Conservation Strategies will find betterways to protect species at risk and improve theirconservation status. Initial pilots will focus on hazel
dormouse, water vole and widespread reptiles.
• Our Species Recovery Programme supports therecovery of threatened and declining species inpartnership with stakeholder organisations. In 2022 to
23, the programme is targeting 215 species across 93
projects. So far, we have funded projects for species
including curlew, wart-biter cricket, lady’s slipper
orchid and red-backed shrike.
• Our new farming schemes will support farmers
and land managers to improve species abundance,
including through restoring and creating habitat, moretargeted action for our rarest species, and tacklingpressures (including management of species that
present a threat to threatened native species or tohabitats).

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Case study: Red Squirrel partnershipworking leads to conservation success
Since 2011 Red Squirrels Northern England (RSNE) has
led collaborative efforts to conserve the remaining
wild red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris). Partners
work alongside local communities and hundreds ofpassionate volunteers to secure the future of thischerished native British mammal. In recognition of
their vital work Defra has funded 180 training places forvolunteers this winter (2022/23).
In 2005, 17 large conifer forests in northern England
and a 5km buffer around them were identified as red
squirrel strongholds. RSNE focuses on grey squirrel
management in these areas to create space for reds tothrive without competitive pressure.
RSNE’s Annual Squirrel Monitoring Programme wasestablished in 2012. The data collected shows thebenefit of the strongholds and the impact of grantfunding. Red squirrel occupancy has stabilised since2015 and reds are currently present in 53.2% of all
squares surveyed. Red occupancy is even higher withinstrongholds at 61%.
The data from the monitoring programme is used totarget grant aid as well as focus conservation activity
in the right areas. A new £50/hectare supplement
was made available in 2022 to support greysquirrel management – a cornerstone of red squirrel
conservation. Over 11,000 hectares of woodland(across England) benefitted from that support in thefirst year.
To make it easier to collate accurate red squirrel
monitoring data and report back to volunteers, RSNE
is trialing use of an app for field data collection anddeveloping a data portal which will allow each groupto understand the contribution they are making to theconservation effort.

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Bees and other pollinators
Bees and pollinators play a crucial role in food production
and are also vital to our wider, natural ecosystems. They
contribute the equivalent of more than £500 million a year
to UK agriculture and food production, by improving crop
quality and quantity.
Our National Pollinator Strategy: Pollinator Action
Plan 2021 to 2024 committed us to action. In addition toactions under the plan we have:• Established the Pollinator Monitoring and ResearchPartnership with research institutes and volunteer
organisations to gather data and improve ourunderstanding of the status of pollinators andpollination services in the UK. The partnershipestablished the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme
to deliver standardised approaches to monitoring
pollinators across Great Britain.
• Established the ‘Bees’ Needs Week’, an annual event
working alongside our many partners to raise awarenessof the steps we can all take to protect pollinators.
• Introduced new options to Countryside Stewardship, toprovide incentives for habitat creation and management
for pollinators. Between 2014 and 2019, we estimatethat the area of farmland covered by agri-environment
scheme options delivering food and fuel for pollinators
increased by 30,000 hectares.

Case studies: Back from the Brink Limestones Living Legacies
Back from the Brink (BftB) was a £7.7million
programme, principally funded by the National Lottery
Heritage Fund, working to put over 100 priority specieson the road to recovery. The programme was led
by Natural England working in partnership with the
7 NGO partners of Rethink Nature: Amphibian and
Reptile Conservation, Bat Conservation Trust, Buglife,
Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Butterfly Conservation,
Plantlife and the RSPB. Butterfly Conservation led theLimestone’s Living Legacies multi-species project, witha value of £538K.

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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFEHalf of the UK’s limestone grasslands are situated in the
Cotswolds - the project sought to improve monitoringand management of limestone grasslands benefiting a
range of threatened species which rely upon this habitat.
The project reintroduced the Large Blue butterfly tothree new sites, including at Rodborough Common in
partnership with the National Trust, Natural England,Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, the commoners at
Rodborough Common and species contractors Habitat
Designs Ltd. This was the biggest reintroduction of
the species, with 750 adult butterflies emerging in2020 after 1,100 larvae were released in autumn 2019
following five years of grassland management tocreate optimum habitat on a Cotswold hillside where
the species has not been seen for 150 years. The
globally endangered butterfly now flies in greaternumber in Britain than anywhere else in the world, four
decades after it became extinct in the country. The
species is now thriving in the Cotswolds, and further
reintroductions taking place over time with ongoingsupport from NE’s Species Recovery Programme.
The project carried out extensive habitat management
across 31 different sites and provided habitat
management advice to 49 sites benefiting over
700ha of land. 90 landowners were trained in the
management of limestone grassland for the benefit ofthreatened species.
In total 414 volunteers from local communities gaveover 3 years’ worth of time to the project of which
274 people have been trained in species identificationand survey methodology. The project improved ourmonitoring of rare invertebrates it rediscovered therock-rose pot beetle at a site for the first time in 35
years and identified the rock-rose rugged oil beetle,
Ruderal Bumblebee and the Red-shanked Carder Bee at
new sites.
Large Blue butterfly

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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFECetaceans and seals
One of the greatest threats faced by cetaceans and seal
species is the risk of accidental bycatch in fisheries. To
tackle bycatch of these species, we will:• Take forward the plans set out in the UK Bycatch
Mitigation Initiative, published by the UK governmentand devolved administrations in 2021.
• Run trials of bycatch reduction technologies, bringing
together stakeholders and innovators to explore
alternative gear and gear modifications.

Seabirds
Seabirds play an important role in our ecosystems. We
are taking action to protect them from pressures around
feeding and breeding. We will develop an English Seabird
Conservation and Recovery Pathway in Spring 2023 toassess the vulnerability of seabird populations and develop
actions to address them. The impact of avian flu could hit
seabirds particularly hard as seabirds tend to live for longer,
taking longer to reach breeding age and have fewer chicks.

Protecting woodland – deer management
The UK deer population is at its highest level for 1,000
years. Deer have a propensity to eat saplings, threatening
the establishment of young trees and the regenerationof new and existing woodlands, affecting the long-term
success of tree planting efforts. Deer can reduce the final
timber crop value by up to 50% through browsing damage
and they may also cause serious crop and agricultural
damage. Overpopulation can also result in poor welfare
for the deer themselves, leading to malnourishment andthe prevalence and spread of disease. To tackle this, wewill implement a national deer management strategy for
England in 2023.

Reintroductions
We will continue to explore the reintroduction andconservation translocation of native species to improvebiodiversity. We have already done this for species like the

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large blue butterfly and lady’s slipper orchid, supporting
healthy ecosystem function and nature recovery. We will:• Work with statutory bodies and experts through the
new Species Reintroduction Taskforce regarding
views on potential reintroductions and conservationtranslocations.
• Provide opportunities for conservation translocations
and reintroductions of native species where benefits
to the environment, people and the economy are clear.

6. Mobilising green financeand the private sector
The government has set a target to raise at least £500
million in private finance to support nature’s recovery every
year by 2027 in England, rising to more than £1 billion by
2030. We will set out more detail on how we will support a
step-change in investment from the private sector in theforthcoming update to the Green Finance Strategy.

Develop private markets for nature
The market for private investment in nature is at an earlystage, and so government needs to take steps to build trust,confidence and market integrity. We will:• Support the confidence of investors in the integrity ofthe market:• Publish a policy framework, in spring 2023 aspart of an updated Green Finance Strategy,
to provide clear principles for the developmentof high-integrity nature markets that enable
farmers and land managers to attract investment
into nature’s recovery.

We will raise at least£500m in private
finance to support
nature’s recovery
every year by 2027
in England, rising toover £1bn by 2030

• Develop a comprehensive suite of investment
standards, learning from existing practices andinnovations, to support investment across the fullrange of Nature-based Solutions.
• Reduce the risk and uncertainty around the financial
returns from natural capital investments for investors
and providers:
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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFE• Scale up investment in nature-based projects thatcan deliver a financial return with £30 million seedfunding through the Big Nature Impact Fund.
• Scope out the investment pathway for key sectors
for the transition to a nature positive future.
• Continue to support the market-led Task
Force on Nature Related Financial Disclosures,
demonstrating the UK's commitment to target 15
in the Global Biodiversity Framework.
• Establish a pipeline to build capacity and accessibility:• Provide development grants and support throughthe Landscape Recovery scheme, to enable
long term, large scale, bespoke projects aiming
to enhance the natural environment to attract
private funding.
• Launch the Local Investment in Natural Capital(LINC) programme to build the capacity ofleading local authorities to attract private
investment at scale, and direct it towards theirenvironmental priorities.
• Scope out how best to support the developmentof a voluntary biodiversity credit market tostimulate greater flows of finance into nature.

Biodiversity net gain
We will commence the Biodiversity Net Gain condition forplanning permissions from November 2023 to support nature
recovery and the Nature Recovery Network.
This means that new developments must provide a 10%
gain for biodiversity, and that where this is not possible
on-site developers will invest in off-site habitat creation andenhancement. This will help to deliver the priorities set out
in Local Nature Recovery Strategies and build new markets
for biodiversity restoration.
We provided £4.18 million in 2021 to 2022 to help local
planning authorities and strategic authorities such ascounty councils and combined authorities prepare forbiodiversity net gain. We intend to provide further funding
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for the remainder of the two-year transition period andexpect to confirm the level of support shortly. We are also
supporting planning authorities with guidance and tools
though the Planning Advisory Service.

Conservation covenants
Conservation covenants are a new kind of legal agreement
between landowners and designated responsible bodies,
to conserve the natural or heritage features of land.
Conservation covenants address the absence of a simple
legal tool that landowners can use to secure conservation
benefits when land is sold or passed on.

We will develop cost
recovery options
for environmental
regulators, in linewith the Polluter
Pays principle

They will be used by charities, public authorities or altruistic
landowners wishing to conserve land for the future and, insome cases, will have a commercial component. For example,
conservation covenants can also be used for biodiversity net
gain, to secure offsite biodiversity gains in the long term,even if the land is sold. A conservation covenant could
also offer an alternative to land purchase by conservation
organisations, setting out obligations on a landowner tomaintain or restore habitats in return for funding from theorganisation, or could be used to protect a heritage feature,such as an archaeological site, in accordance with thelandowner’s wishes, even after the land changes hands.

Marine Net Gain
Activities in the sea can also be disruptive for biodiversity,
but there are net gain opportunities for development in thisarea too. Following in the footsteps of biodiversity net gain,
we are developing marine net gain policy to apply to new
infrastructure developments at sea. This will explore thepotential of net gain to enhance the protection and restorationof habitats and species, including ‘blue carbon’ habitats
which capture carbon from the atmosphere and store it.

Cost recovery for environmental regulators
Alongside mobilising finance through the private sector, we
will further develop cost recovery options for environmental
regulators in line with the Polluter Pays Principle,. This will
help provide a stable funding base to help ensure the mosteffective management of environmental impacts, support

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nature’s recovery, and provide a consistent service forregulated businesses.

7. Taking action to restore
our global environment
As well as taking action at home, the UK leads internationallyin providing expertise, funding and support for action on
tackling biodiversity loss, climate change and poverty, using
Official Development Assistance (ODA) and other tools.
We are delivering on our commitment to spend at least £3
billion of International Climate Finance (ICF) on climate
solutions involving the protection and restoration ofnature and working together with frameworks like theIntergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity
and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

Action on terrestrial 30-by-30
We are delivering the new £100 million Biodiverse
Landscapes Fund to ensure strengthened management of
ecosystems across 6 biodiverse landscapes – Andes andAmazon, Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation
Area, Lower Mekong, Mesoamerica, Western Congo Basinand Madagascar.
At the UN Nature Summit COP15 we announced additional
funding of up to £29 million to help developing countries
deliver on 30by30 land protection.
Through its active role in the Ramsar Convention
on wetlands and implementation of the CBD Global
Biodiversity Framework, the UK will continue to support
the conservation and wise use of wetlands. In support ofthis we will establish a UK wetland inventory, mapping ourwetlands for the first time. The UK, UK Overseas Territories
and Crown Dependencies are home to the largest numberof Ramsar designated wetland sites of international
importance in the world, setting the UK’s commitments atthe center of global action on wetlands.

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Darwin Initiative
We are delivering an expanded and restructured £90
million Darwin Initiative to address biodiversity challenges
and support poverty reduction in developing countries.
Through its well-established challenge fund model, thenew programme harnesses UK and wider expertise tosupport innovation, build local capability, supply data andevidence and provide pathways to the scaling of successful
approaches within and across countries.
The Darwin initiative is currently funding 147 projects
across 58 countries. To date, it has awarded more than £164
million to more than 1,140 projects including:• Partnering with business for restoration of ecosystemservices in Mt Kenya.
• Preventing Borneo’s peatland fires to protect health,
livelihoods and biodiversity.
• Integrating traditional knowledge into Guyana’s
conservation policy-making and practice.
• Enhancing socio-ecological resilience in Laikipia, Kenya
through cattle, water and wildlife.

Darwin Plus
The UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs) and Crown Dependencies
are home to internationally important biodiversity, which we
support through our Darwin Plus program.
Since publication of the 25 Year Environment Plan, we haveinvested:• over £32 million in 132 Darwin Plus projects, helping
to conserve species such as the Blue Iguana in the
Cayman Islands, and Humpback Whales in the Pitcairn
Islands.
• £10 million will continue to be made available eachyear until 2025, continuing to fund biodiversity andconservation projects in the UKOTs.
In partnership with JNCC, we are also working with UKOT
Governments to:

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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFE• Develop a new UKOT Biodiversity Strategy.
• Make sure management plans are in place and identify
new Ramsar Wetland Protected Areas.
We also launched tailored funding under the Darwin Plus
program. Darwin Plus Local is a new funding offer forsmaller environmental projects in the UKOTs. In 2023, we
will publish more information on the development of Darwin
Plus Strategic, which will be designed in support of larger,
collaborative projects in and between UKOTs.

Action on the illegal wildlife trade
The illegal wildlife trade is a significant threat tointernational biodiversity.
The UK is building on our investment in tackling IWT ofover £46 million (2014 to 2022) with a further £30 million
between 2022 and 2025.
The Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund (IWTCF) has
committed £43 million to 136 projects around the world, inover 60 countries since 2014 and is now on its ninth roundof funding. Funded activities include to:

The Illegal Wildlife
Trade Challenge
Fund has committed£43m to 136 projects
in over 60 countries
around the world
and is in its ninth
year of funding• Support legislative reform to increase conviction rates
and penalties for wildlife crime.
• Train rangers and border force agents.
• Deliver campaigns to reduce the demand for products
in key markets.
• Help communities to protect the wildlife they rely on
for their livelihoods.
We will continue to promote strong and effective
protection, and sustainable and legal use of endangered
species through the Convention on International Tradein Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and are
updating CITES regulations following CITES COP last year.
We will also promote coordinated conservation measuresthroughout a species migratory range through theConvention on Migratory Species.

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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFEOcean recovery
International collaboration is essential to deliver the ocean
action we need, and ensure all stakeholders are included,
such as indigenous peoples and local communities.
• In 2022, the UK joined the High Level Panel for a
Sustainable Ocean Economy (HLP), an initiative thataims to build momentum towards a sustainable ocean
economy.
• We chair the Global Ocean Alliance (GOA) which willplay an important role in supporting the implementationof the Global Biodiversity Framework in the Ocean.
The GOA will take on a wider ocean advocacy role tocontinue raising the profile of the ocean, ocean issues
and the needs of coastal and large ocean states, tostrengthen ambition to achieve global targets, including
ocean 30-by-30. The GOA will partner with other groups
and initiatives to support and facilitate knowledge
sharing, technical assistance and capacity building, andthe mobilisation of ocean finance.
• The UK leads international partnerships and is ocean
co-chair of the High Ambition Coalition for Nature andPeople, and the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature.
• The UK also plays an active role in other alliances
including the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance.
• In June 2022, the UK joined the International Allianceto Combat Ocean Acidification.
Over 60% of the global ocean lies in areas beyond
national jurisdiction. The UK is continuing to work toconclude negotiations as soon as possible in 2023 ona new implementing Agreement under United Nations
Convention on the Law Of the Sea (UNCLOS) for theconservation and sustainable use of marine biologicaldiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (the Marine
Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ)).
Conclusion of these negotiations will be key to supporting
the implementation of the 30-by-30 target and wider GBF
objectives. The BBNJ agreement must include a mechanism
to establish Marine Protected Areas in areas beyond
national jurisdiction (ABNJ), which is crucial to achieving
30-by-30 in the ocean.
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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFEAt the UN Nature Summit COP15 the UK announced
further Official Development Assistance from the Blue
Planet Fund, committing an initial £20 million throughcompetitive OCEAN grants to support local initiatives for
ocean conservation. In addition, we committed a further £17
million through the World Bank’s ‘PROBLUE’ programme,
supporting ocean conservation by small island states andleast developed countries.
The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable
Development (2021 to 2030) enables us to drive forward
international collaboration to develop science for ocean
action. In June 2022, the UK, alongside other partners,
launched the Global Ocean Decade Programme for Blue
Carbon, to establish a robust evidence base which willfurther global thinking on blue carbon habitats as effective
Nature-based Solutions to climate change.
Through the Convention for the Protection for the Marine
Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR) the UK
takes a leading role in shaping policy direction and raising
key issues relating to biodiversity, as well as other topics. The
North-East Atlantic Environment Strategy (NEAES) 2030
was launched and agreed by all OSPAR contracting parties
in 2021. Through this, the UK will work with our closest
neighbours to achieve goals around clean seas; biologicallydiverse seas; productive and sustainably used seas; andseas resilient to climate change and ocean acidification.
The UK is also an active member of ASCOBANS (The
Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of
the Baltic, North-East Atlantic, Irish, and North Seas), a
regional seas agreement on small cetaceans under theConvention on Migratory Species. Through this agreement
the UK, in conjunction with other Parties, seeks to improvethe conservation status of small cetaceans like dolphinsand porpoises.

Sustainable global fisheries
Tackling Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing (IUU)
and overfishing are also important priorities. Domestically,
we are introducing Vessel Monitoring Systems requirementsfor our inshore, under 12 metre fleet, will, alongside theCatch App, provide a comprehensive picture of all licensed
fishing activity across English waters for the first time. The
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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFEUK has also developed the digital Fish Export Service, which
supports the UK industry to get documents for free, 24 hours
a day to meet other countries’ IUU fishing requirements.
Internationally the UK launched the IUU Fishing Action
Alliance (IUU-AA) at the 2022 UN Ocean Conference in
Lisbon which:• Brings together states and non-state actors to
implement international agreements.
• Promotes active monitoring, control and surveillance.
• Encourages transparency and data sharing on IUU as
part of our global leadership and cooperation.
The UK will use its £500 million Blue Planet Fund, financed
from the UK Official Development Assistance Budget, tohelp eligible developing countries reduce poverty, protect,and sustainably manage their marine resources andaddress human-generated threats, including activity totackle IUU fishing.
Through Ocean Partnerships, the UK will support developing
countries such as Ghana, the Maldives and Sri Lanka to
improve access to data to support enforcement of national
fisheries policies and crack down on illegal fishing in theirwaters. We have also announced an investment of up to£20 million in grants that will be made available to localorganisations around the world to help tackle illegal fishing,fight marine pollution and protect rare habitats and species.
Defra will work with the Ministry of Defence to identify
opportunities for Royal Navy vessels to support efforts totackle IUU fishing during their international operations.

8. Unlocking private andpublic financial finance flows
We want to make sure that public and private financeprotects and preserves nature as a default.
We created the Political Vision: 10 Point Plan for Financing
Biodiversity with Gabon, Ecuador and the Maldives in 2022.
The plan has been backed by over 40 countries and led a new

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Donor Joint Statement for a number of developed countries
setting out billions from international community to protect
and restore nature. This has defined a pathway for bridging
the global nature finance gap of $700 billion per year, andaligning financial flows with the Kunming-Montreal GBF andthe 2050 Vision for Biodiversity. The Donor Joint Statement
has a particular focus on how international public finance can
support developing countries to accelerate the transition to
become nature positive and eliminate or redirect all subsidies
harmful to biodiversity.
• We will work internationally to promote investment
in nature and decrease harmful finance, by working
through our chairmanship of the G7 to redirect oreliminate all subsidies harmful to nature by 2030 andcontinuing to work through the global market-led
Taskforce on Nature Related Financial Disclosures.
• At the UN Nature Summit COP15 we committed £7.2
million to support developing country governments,
central banks, businesses, and financial institutions
to integrate the value of nature into their decisionmaking, including through the uptake of the Taskforce
on Nature-related Financial Disclosures Framework.
• At the UN Climate Summit COP26 in Glasgow, we
committed £1.5 billion financing for forests, as part of
the wider £3 billion of International Climate Financering-fenced for spending on nature.
• As part of this, the UK committed a further £65m
for the nature pillar of the Climate Investment Fund’s
Nature, People and Climate Programme. This will
accelerate nature-based solutions in developing
countries and will put indigenous peoples and local
communities at the heart of forest protection.

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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFEMonitoring and evaluation
We will monitor progress towards delivering the EIP23 through theAnnual Progress Report and the Outcome Indicator Framework.
The framework contains 66 indicators, arranged into 10 broad
themes. The relevant indicators for thriving plants and wildlife are:
C2

Seabed subject to high pressure from human activity

C3

Diverse seas: status of marine mammals andmarine birds

C4 Diverse seas: condition of seafloor habitats
C5

Diverse seas: condition of pelagic habitats

C6

Diverse seas: status of threatened and declining
features

C7

Healthy seas: fish and shellfish populations

C8 Healthy seas: marine food webs functioning
C9

Healthy seas: seafloor habitats functioning

D1

Quantity, quality and connectivity of habitats

D2 Extent and condition of protected sites – land,
water and sea
D3

Area of woodland in England

D4 Relative abundance and/or distribution ofwidespread species
D5 Conservation status of our native species
D6 Relative abundance and distribution of priority
species in England
D7

Species supporting ecosystem functions

Working with the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC)
and the devolved administrations, we will also continue to review
the UK Biodiversity Indicators to help align them as far as possible
with the monitoring framework of the Kunming-Montreal Global
Biodiversity Framework adopted at the UN Nature Summit COP15.
We will also continue to work with the JNCC and international
partners to support the development and application of the global
monitoring framework including to develop and trial an indicatorof Management Effectiveness of Protected and Conserved Areas.

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THRIVING PLANTS AND WILDLIFEOur work to protect our marine
and coastal environments is
helping seabirds to thrive

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Goal 2
Clean air

Challenge councils to improve
air quality more quickly while
supporting them with clear
guidance, funding, and tools

Consider extending
environmental permit
conditions to dairy andintensive beef farms to help
reduce ammonia emissions

Continue to tackle
domestic emissions by
reducing maximum
emissions for domestic
burning appliances

Review and improve how thegovernment communicates
air quality information to
make sure the public know
the impacts of air quality andhow to protect themselves

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN 2023

Support drivers to make the transition
to zero emission vehicles throughgrants and generous tax rates

72

CLEAN AIRAir quality in the UK has improved significantly in recent decades. We have seen adecrease in all five major air pollutants: for instance, emissions of fine particulatematter (PM2.5), the most damaging pollutant to human health, decreased by 18%
between 2010 and 2020. Reductions in these pollutants have produced significant
benefits for our health and environment.
In recent years we have broadly maintained this trajectory. However, air pollution
continues to be the biggest environmental risk to human health, with particular
hotspots in some urban areas.
It also harms the natural environment, affecting our biodiversity, waterways andcrop yields. In particular, emissions of ammonia have reduced more slowly than theother key pollutants and continue to damage sensitive natural habitats, adding toour existing challenges around house building with nutrient neutrality.
Therefore, to make further progress we are setting out an ambitious plan which tackles
both overall concentrations and specific hotspots. In particular, we are taking further
action on PM2.5, as the pollutant which is most harmful to humans, and on ammonia,
which we must reduce to achieve our apex target to halt species decline by 2030.

Our 25 Year Environment Plan goal
We will achieve clean air.

Since 2018, we have:• Published our Clean Air Strategy in 2019, setting out plans to make our air
healthier to breathe, protect nature and boost the economy.
• Reduced pollution from domestic burning, the biggest source of emissions of PM2.5,
by banning the sale of smoky coal and restricting the sale of wet wood.
• Tackled NO2 hotspots by funding councils with £883 million to implement local
NO2 reduction plans, including the introduction of Clean Air Zones (CAZs) in cities
across the country.
• Consulted and established UK Best Available Techniques (UK BAT) regime so our largest
industry uses the most up-to-date techniques to minimise emissions.

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CLEAN AIR• Supported farmers in reducing ammonia emissions by providing grants foremission-reducing equipment and targeted, locally informed on-farm advice
through the Catchment Sensitive Farming programme.
• Published our Transport Decarbonisation Plan, which will help to improve air
quality as well as decarbonising the entire transport system in the UK.

We have the following targets and commitments:• A legal target to reduce population exposure to PM2.5 by 35% in 2040 compared to2018 levels, with a new interim target to reduce by 22% by the end of January 2028.
• Legal concentration limits for a number of other key pollutants. We already meet the
majority of these limits including for sulphur dioxide and coarse particulate matter. We
are working towards meeting compliance with a 40µg/m3 limit for nitrogen dioxide.
• A legal target to require a maximum annual mean concentration of 10 microgramsof PM2.5 per cubic metre (µg/m3) by 2040, with a new interim target of 12 µg/m3 by
the end of January 2028.
• Legal emission reduction targets for five damaging pollutants by 2030 relative to2005 levels:• Reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides by 73%.
• Reduce emissions of sulphur dioxide by 88%.
• Reduce emission of PM2.5 by 46%.
• Reduce emissions of ammonia by 16%.
• Reduce emissions of non-methane volatile organic compounds by 39%.

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CLEAN AIRTo deliver these, we will:• Continue to tackle domestic emissions by reducing the maximum emissions fordomestic burning appliances in Smoke Control Areas and by promoting bestpractice in use of stoves and fireplaces.
• Challenge local authorities to improve air quality more quickly by assessing
their performance and use of existing powers, while supporting them with clear
guidance, funding, and tools.
• Facilitate the rollout of further Clean Air Zones by local councils in areas which arein breach of air quality statutory limits, with further zones and other non-clean air
zone measures as required.
• Re-align regional air quality zones in line with local government boundaries to drive
effective coordinated action.
• Reduce ammonia emissions by using incentives in our new farming schemes, whileconsidering expanding environmental permitting conditions to dairy and intensive
beef farms.
• Continue to support the move away from petrol and diesel cars and consult on an
extension to the existing North Sea Emission Control Area to cover the Irish Sea,
reducing emissions from shipping.

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CLEAN AIR

Introduction
Air quality in the UK has improved significantly in recent
decades with a decrease in all five major air pollutants.
Between 2010 and 2020 emissions of fine particulate matter(PM2.5) decreased by 18%; emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx)decreased by 44%; sulphur dioxide (SO2) by 70%, nonmethane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC) by 14%, andammonia (NH3) by 0.2%. These reductions have produced
significant benefits for our health and environment.
However, air pollution continues to be the biggest
environmental risk to human health, disproportionately
affecting those who are already vulnerable.
Air pollution also harms biodiversity. Ammonia emissions,primarily from farming, cause excessive nitrogenaccumulation in soils. This favours a limited selection ofcommon, fast-growing plants species, such as nettles, which
outcompete nitrogen sensitive species such as wildflowers.
Ultimately this reduces lower overall biodiversity, both inplant species but also animal species which are reliant on
specific nitrogen-sensitive plants.
When too much nitrogen has accumulated in soils,
some habitats take decades to recover without active
management (such as vegetation or soil removal) which isextremely difficult and expensive to achieve at scale.
To continue to drive down emissions we will need to focus
on the most polluting sectors. Data from 2020 indicates
that, in the UK, emissions from the home, agriculture,industry and transport combined contributed 85% of PM2.5,
87% of NO2 and 90% of NH3 emissions to the air.
To make further progress for our health and environment,
and to tackle particular pockets where air pollution is poor,
we set out in this chapter the measures and interventions
we intend to take forward.

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CLEAN AIR

Targets and commitments
Long term targets:• By the end of 2040, we will achieve a maximum Annual Mean
Concentration Target (AMCT) of 10 micrograms of PM2.5 or below
per cubic metre (µg/m3).
• By the end of 2040, we will reduce population exposure to PM2.5
by 35% compared to 2018 levels.

Interim targets:
By the end of January 2028:• The highest annual mean concentration in the most recent fullcalendar year must not exceed 12 µg/m3 of PM2.5.
• Compared to 2018, the reduction in population exposure to PM2.5 inthe most recent full calendar year must be 22% or greater.
PM2.5 is the pollutant which is most harmful to humanhealth. We have set two legally binding long-term targets
that both reduce concentrations of, and drive down people’s
exposure to, the pollutant across the country. To show our
trajectory against both targets, we are setting new interim
targets against both long-term legal targets. These interim
targets reflect the progress we expect to make by 2028
towards our long-term targets.
The maps in Figure 1 show that the concentration target will be
the most challenging to meet in the South East (because thisexperiences the greatest amount of pollution blown in fromother countries) and in London and other urban areas (as these
are where the greatest amounts of UK pollution is produced).

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Our first interim
target will achieve
concentration
reductions 40%
lower than thecurrent legal limit of
20 µg/m3

CLEAN AIRModelling PM2.5 concentrations across England
Non-UK attrib PMf
B2018

Total PMf ConcB2018

Total PM2.5 concentration

European, international
shipping and naturalcontributions

UK attrib PMf
B2018

UK man-madecontribution

Source:UKIAM V6

Figure 1. Maps of modelling outputs for 2018 produced by Imperial
College London using the UK Integrated Assessment model showing
how (a) variations in PM2.5 from natural sources and sources fromoutside the UK and (b) UK manmade PM2.5 result in significantly
different concentrations across the country.

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CLEAN AIR

Additional concentration limits
In addition to these limits on PM2.5, legal limits also apply tothe concentrations of several other air pollutants including
nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and coarse particulatematter (PM10). These limits require us to take action if too
much pollution is present in the air in a particular place.
Concentrations of pollutants can be impacted by domestic
emissions, or they can come from other sources. These canbe naturally occurring pollutants (for instance sea salt),
pollutants originating in other countries, and chemical
reactions in the air which can be from a mixture of naturally
occurring pollutants and emissions from human activity.
England is compliant with all these concentration limits,with the exception of NO2 at roadside hotspots in sometowns and cities. Our 2017 NO2 Plan put in place actions toaddress this, and they are also outlined below.

Specific pollution emission limits
As well as concentration limits (a measure of the level ofpollutant in the air in specific areas), we have separate
legal limits on emissions (the quantity of specific pollutantsreleased into the air across the country). The combination ofthese two approaches to targets means that action is taken
both at national level to regulate polluting activities, and at
local level to reduce people’s exposure from specific sources.
Our emissions limits cover five man-made pollutants as set
out in the table below. In 2020 we achieved our targets for
all five. The next targets are set for 2030:
Pollutant2005(kiloton)2020(kiloton)

PM2.5

121.4

80.1

34%

46%

NOx (excluding
agriculture)1737.4

675.3

61%

73%

SO2

787.9

136.2

83%

88%

NH3 *

280.0

259.2

7%

16%

NMVOC (excluding
agriculture)1124.7

654.8

42%

39%

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2020 - reduction
2030 Target
achieved from 2005 reduction from 2005
baseline (percentage) levels (percentage)

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CLEAN AIR

Our delivery plan
Building on our 2019 Clean Air Strategy, our delivery plan
focuses on these four sectors, as well as supporting action
by local authorities:
1 Reducing emissions in the home by managing
domestic burning, which is the biggest source ofemissions of fine particulate matter. Much of theseemissions were in urban areas, increasing people’s
exposure to this harmful pollutant.
2 Driving effective local action through local
authorities. They have the legal responsibility andpowers to deliver clean air in their areas and so havethe greatest power to support the achievement of the
population exposure targets.
3 Maintaining and improving our regulatory
framework for industrial emissions, which havealready reduced significantly.
4 Supporting farmers to reduce the impact ofammonia emissions from agriculture on air quality.
They are responsible for 87% of the ammonia
emissions in the UK.
5 Reducing emissions from cars and other forms oftransport which are still a major source of NO2 andPM2.5 emissions.

The harebell is a wild flower
species which is adapted to
low-nutrient conditions

1. Reducing emissions in thehome
Improve regulation for burning high emission
materials in the home
Burning a dry log can reduce emissions by 50% compared to alog which has not been dried, so we have been taking action by:• Banning the sale of wet wood in smaller packets, whilst
bulk quantities are still available for seasoning at
home. This means those purchasing small quantities ofwood, typically for immediate use, are not unknowingly
using wet wood.
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Burning a dry log canreduce emissions by
50% compared toa log which has notbeen dried
CLEAN AIR• Putting limits on sulphur content and smoke emissions
from manufactured solid fuels.
• Legislating to ban the sale of traditional house coal,sometimes known as smoky coal.
• Enabling local authorities to better enforce Smoke
Control Areas – areas where additional restrictions
on domestic burning apply – including throughissuing financial penalties under a civil regime and by
pursuing persistent offenders under a criminal regime.
To further reduce such emissions, we will:• Tighten the limits that new stoves in Smoke Control
Areas must meet, reducing the limit from 5g of smoke
per hour to a maximum of 3g.

We have legislated
to ban the sale oftraditional housecoal, sometimes
known as smoky coal

• Extend the solid fuels legislation, including to fuels
burned outside. This would provide consistency inthe market making it easier for consumers, improve
compliance with legislation and improve air quality.
This would not introduce new requirements for
traditional fuels used for barbecues, such as charcoal.
• Design and implement measures to drive a shift awayfrom older, more polluting appliances, to newer appliances
which meet our tough new emission standards.
We are not considering a ban on domestic burning in
England. The UK government recognises that somehouseholds are reliant on solid fuel burning as a primarysource for heating, hot water and cooking, with this inmind government is not seeking to ban burning. A ban ondomestic outdoor burning (bonfires, barbecues, firepits etc.)
would also be considered disproportionate.

Include air quality as a key consideration in theplanning process
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities(DLUHC) has already set out ventilation requirements tomaintain indoor air quality as part of amendments to the
Building Regulations. This will mean people are exposed
to less harmful pollution indoors, helping to reduce overall
population exposure.

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CLEAN AIROn top of this, DLUHC will:• Use Environmental Outcomes Reports as a tool to help
us better identify the impact of development on air
quality, so they can be minimised as far as possible.
These form a new system for assessing environmental
impact, with a greater focus on delivering improved
environmental outcomes.
• Retain the current approach in the National Planning
Policy Framework, whereby decisions should sustain
and contribute towards compliance with relevant limit
values. Future updates to planning policy guidance as
they relate to air quality will embed our new targets in theplanning system and set out how they should be taken
into account. We will continue to build the homes andinfrastructure the country needs, whilst continuing to
make positive progress on improving air quality.

Develop widescale and targeted communications
campaigns
There is a role for government to communicate the rightinformation to people so that they can make the mostpositive choices for themselves regarding air quality andsteps to mitigate their own exposure.

In 2019 wepublished ourClean Air Strategy,
setting out plans
to make our
air healthier tobreathe, protect
nature and boost
the economy.
EIP23 sets out
the actions weare taking to buildon this and makefurther progressfor our health andenvironment

Defra will:• Review and improve how the government
communicates air quality information. We want toensure members of the public, and vulnerable groups inparticular, have what they need to protect themselves
and understand air quality’s impacts on them. We areengaging with representatives from vulnerable groups
and other key stakeholders to capture information andensure that their needs are addressed.
• Continue to develop a targeted communications
campaign to promote best practice in use of woodstoves and fireplaces in using cleaner and more efficientfuels, and techniques to reduce exposure to pollutants.
• Publish outdoor burning best practice guidance, which
also supports reducing the risk of wildfires as set
out in our ‘Reduced risk of harm from environmental
hazards’ chapter.

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2. Driving effective local
action through local
authorities
Taking action at a local level, focusing on areas of highpopulation density and where there is significant exposure
to air pollutants, will be key in meeting our population
exposure reduction target.
Defra’s Air Quality Grant Scheme funds English local
authorities for community projects which tackle air
pollution. More than £30 million has been awarded under
the scheme since 2018.
Since 2018, we have:• Required local authorities to take more proactive andcollaborative action in tackling air quality throughreforms to the Local Air Quality Management
Framework.
• Funded the Air Quality Hub, enabling local authorities
to share best practice, success stories and experienceto drive improvement nationwide.
• Made available over £883 million to help local
authorities develop and implement local NO2 reductionplans and to support those impacted by these plans.
• Facilitated the introduction of Clean Air Zones bycouncils in Bath, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol,Portsmouth and Tyneside. We have announced afuture Clean Air Zone in Sheffield.

Since 2018 we havemade available over£883 million to help
local authorities
develop andimplement local NO2
reduction plans

Reinforce the role of local authorities in
improving air quality
We will continue to support local authorities by:• Publishing an Air Quality Strategy that sets out
clear guidance to local authorities on how they should
embed actions which improve air quality within
their wider functions, including exercise of traffic
management powers and planning powers.

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CLEAN AIR• Using the Air Quality Strategy to make clear that
local authorities are key delivery partners in reaching
our legal limits and targets. This will include a clear
expectation, to which local authorities must haveregard, that they should use their powers to reduce
PM2.5 from sources within their control.
• Re-aligning local air quality zones in line with local
government boundaries, to drive effective coordinatedaction.
• Publishing new statutory Local Transport Plan
Guidance that will set the government’s current
expectations on improving air quality and other local
environmental issues in the local transport context.

Enable local authorities to use their powers as
effectively as possible
Defra has supported local authorities with guidance, funding
and tools to improve local air quality, including more than
£30 million since 2018 awarded through the Air Quality
grant. On top of this, we will:• Increase transparency by requiring timely andaccurate publication of air quality assessments by local
authorities.
• Conduct an audit of all powers relevant to air quality
available to local authorities, how they are using themand any barriers to successful delivery.

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Case study - Defra’s Air Quality Grant
Scheme - Clean Air Villages - Cross River
Partnership project
Almost £2 million awarded to local authorities for 4
projects over 4 years
Defra’s Air Quality Grant scheme funds English
local authorities for community projects that tackle
air pollution. This helps to level up our country byaddressing disparities in exposure to air pollution.
The Clean Air Villages project was run across London
between 2018 and 2022, managed by a group of
London Boroughs. Each ‘Village’ was an area with
pollution and high population densities. Local solutions
were implemented in high-pollution areas, driving down
emissions from freight, and encouraging active travel.
The scheme delivered:• Nine cargo bike schemes, and a shared electricvehicle• A micro hub consolidation scheme to reduce thenumber of vehicles and journeys in the area.
• A citizen scientist monitoring project for hospital
staff to gather evidence to raise awareness of
air quality in the hospital and implement ideas todevelop solutions• Seven traffic monitoring devices were installed to
improve the evidence based for future air quality
decisions
The next phase of the scheme will deliver river-based
logistics, paired with cargo bikes and electric delivery
vans, to reduce pollution from freight deliveries.

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3. Maintaining and improving
our regulatory framework forindustrial emissions
Industrial processes are a key part of our economy but theyalso create pollution. To avoid potentially serious impacts
on our health and environment, these processes arecarefully managed and this has already made a significant
contribution to reductions in air pollution. Reducing
these emissions further will have a direct impact on theconcentration of air pollutants in those places where people
live and work.

Continue to drive progress in large industry
Since 2018, we have jointly consulted with the devolved
administrations on our approach for setting “Best Available
Techniques” (BAT) for tackling industrial emissions. Datasuggests that, by applying Best Available Techniques,pollution can be reduced by between 25% and 60%,
depending on the sector and pollutant.
Following on from this, Defra will, working with industry,
regulators and the devolved administrations:

In 2019 theUK had around
21,000 workers(FTE) certified
in environmental
protection ofambient air andclimate• Continue to roll out the UK BAT system, through which
industry and regulators are able to collaborate toimprove standards in industrial processes.
• Further develop UK BAT, particularly around newtechnologies and methods that industry should put inplace to reduce emissions.

Improve the overall regulatory framework
It is vital that UK businesses can innovate within a clear
regulatory framework. We will consult on improvements
to the mechanisms for developing standards forindustrial processes to better reflect our priorities for theenvironment and to support businesses in innovating anddelivering net zero, including by integrating the regulationsof GHG emissions alongside other emissions from industry.

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Regulate to support progress in smaller industry
We have extended environmental permitting so that a muchwider range of combustion plants are now required to meetemission limits. This has reduced emissions of NOx, SO2 andparticulates.
Whilst we have achieved significant improvements withlarge industry, smaller industry has been left with lagging
emissions standards. Instead of the same system ofregularly updated standards, small industry is covered by
a complex multitude of documents which has led to out-ofdate requirements on a large number of sectors and sites.
These smaller sites also tend to be more numerous andare more likely to be located in urban or residential areas.
As such, reducing their pollution will help drive progressagainst our population exposure reduction target.
We will consult on a new system for updating standards forsmall industry like petrol stations, metals processing, andquarrying. As set out above, the BAT approach has beenhighly successful in reducing emissions from large industry.
Applying a similar approach to small industry will reduce
pollution from this source, and help drive progress.

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Cleaner air will improve both
our health, and the health of
our environment

CLEAN AIR

4. Supporting farmers to cut
the impact of agriculture on
air quality
The agricultural sector is responsible for 87% of UK ammonia
emissions, which are a major contributor to biodiversity loss.
As well as impacting on biodiversity, ammonia also creates
PM2.5 in the air by reacting with other pollutants. This is
known as secondary PM2.5, which can negatively affect air
quality far from the original source. It is therefore importantthat the agricultural sector reduces these emissions.

Incentivise pollutant reduction through our new
farming schemes
Defra has already supported farmers to reduce theirammonia emissions. Since 2018 we have made available
grants to support investment in low emissions equipment
through the Countryside Stewardship scheme and theFarm Equipment and Technology Fund. We have also madeadvice available to farmers through extending the scope ofCatchment Sensitive Farming.
A new nutrient management standard in the Sustainable
Farm Incentive will:• Incentivise appropriate nutrient management onarable fields and grassland.
• Fund advice on improving efficient nutrient use.
• Fund farmers to take action including by planting andmaintaining legume fallows.

Consider expanding environmental permitting
conditions to dairy and intensive beef farms
Pig and poultry farms are already required to adhere toenvironmental permit conditions. Since we have required
this, their emissions are estimated to have decreased byaround 30%. Dairy and intensive beef farms together
contributed over half of the UK’s ammonia emissions fromagriculture in 2020. Cattle farming also accounted for 46%

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Emissions from pig
and poultry farms
have decreased
by around 30%
since we required
them to adhere
to environmental
permit conditions
CLEAN AIR

of all UK agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in 2020, andagricultural diffuse pollution was the primary cause for 40%
of water bodies failing to achieve good ecological status.
We will:• Consult this year on extending environmental
permitting to dairy and intensive beef farms.
• Work with the farming industry to identify the best
measures farmers can implement within the dairy andintensive beef sector to underpin the permitting system.
These measures will be flexible and appropriate for theparticular farm setting – for example, farms near asensitive nature site may need to implement more
ambitious measures to protect that site.

Put in place measures to reduce emissions frominorganic fertilisers and organic manures
Urea fertilisers have higher ammonia emissions than otherinorganic fertilisers and we want to support farmers inmanaging them.
Defra has agreed a plan to reduce these emissions throughan industry-led approach to be implemented through the
Red Tractor assurance scheme and qualified advisors. We will
monitor the success of industry action and regulate if necessary.
We will also:• Invest £13 million in slurry storage infrastructure in
2023, with further rounds of funding to follow.
• Consult on new rules to reduce ammonia emissions fromthe management of organic manures. This would include
requirements to use low emissions spreaders for slurry
and digestate and to cover slurry and digestate stores.
• Expand availability of low emissions equipment throughCountryside Stewardship and continue funding throughFarm Equipment and Technology Fund.

Manage emissions from anaerobic digestion
Anaerobic digestion is an important technology to reach our
net zero goals – it generates biogas which can be upgraded

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CLEAN AIRto biomethane which is chemically identical to natural
gas and can be used as a direct replacement for this.
Biomethane is currently the only green gas commercially
produced in the UK and the building of anaerobic digestion
plants is supported by the Green Gas Support Scheme for the
purpose of putting biomethane into the grid.
Anaerobic digestion also produces a nutrient rich by-product(digestate) which can be used instead of chemical fertilisers,
but which is also rich in ammoniacal nitrogen leading toammonia emissions. The production of biomethane andbiogas is expected to increase further by 2030 and theenvironmental impacts of ammonia associated with digestateneeds to be managed to ensure that we meet both our net
zero and environmental goals.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial
Strategy (BEIS) has funded a study to explore technologies
that can be used to treat digestate to reduce ammonia
emissions at the relevant sites.
Defra will:• Continue to require anaerobic digestate operators tocover new digestate stores.
• Consult on other measures to reduce ammonia from thestorage and spreading of organic manures, including
digestate, later in 2023.
• Consider how best to reduce ammonia emissions byprocessing digestate, in a way that is consistent with thecontinued growth of the anaerobic digestate market.
Alongside its support for biogas and biomethane
production, BEIS will:• Continue to require that where digestate produced
by anaerobic digestate plants is spread, it is done sousing low emission spreading equipment.
• Consider the findings of the recent techno-economic
study to identify cost-effective technologies to reduce
environmental impacts, including ammonia emissions,from digestate. The use of these technologies could
become part of eligibility criteria for future policy
frameworks to drive more sustainable biogas andbiomethane production.

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5. Reducing emissions fromcars and other forms oftransport
While emissions from transport continue to decrease, datafrom 2020 indicates transport is still the source of 41%
of NO2 emissions and 16% of PM2.5 emissions. Reducing
emissions from transport is therefore essential to delivering
better air quality.

Take collaborative action to drive down pollution
from roads
The majority of local exceedances of emissions limits are
due to NO2 emissions from roads.
We have:• Required National Highways to work with local authorities
in reducing these exceedances. National Highways andlocal authorities often already work together to improve
local air quality but the changes will ensure a moreconsistent approach to future collaboration.
• Introduced powers to force vehicle manufacturers torecall vehicles if they are found to be non-compliant
with the environmental standards they should have met
when they were sold. This will allow the government to
respond quickly and firmly to any future breaches ofenvironmental standards in the vehicle industry.

Reduce NO2 concentrations in hotspots
We have funded a number of measures such as road andjunction improvements, as well as a variety of vehicle
upgrades, all aiming to improve air quality.
However, there are still areas within England which do notcomply with the relevant air quality concentration limits forNO2 and so we are taking further action.
Defra and the Department for Transport will enable the rollout
of a further Clean Air Zone in Sheffield, with further zones

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and other non-clean air zone measures to be announced incertain areas where other interventions are not efficient.

Support the move away from petrol and diesel cars
The Department for Transport has set out the government’s
commitments and the actions needed to decarbonise
the entire transport system in the UK in the Transport
Decarbonisation Plan. This will also support our aims for
air quality - as we move towards a decarbonised transportsystem emissions of air pollutants will reduce.
The Department for Transport has already:• Committed to ending the sale of new petrol and diesel
cars and vans by 2030 and sales of new non-zeroemission heavy goods vehicles by 2040.
• Consulted on dates for ending the sale of new nonzero emission buses and L-category vehicles such as
mopeds and motorcycles.
• Pledged up to £2.8 billion to support the switch to zero
emission vehicle technology.
As set out in the 2021 Transport Decarbonisation Plan,
we expect that £2.8 billion investment to also improve air
quality. As we move towards a fully electrified vehicle fleet,
tailpipe emissions of air pollutants will continue to reduce.
The Department for Transport will continue to support themove away from petrol and diesel cars by:• Putting in place a package of measures to support
drivers to make the transition to zero emission vehicles.
This includes grants to reduce the upfront purchaseprice of plug-in vehicles which will continue until at least
financial year 2023 to 2024 for taxis and motorcycles,
and 2024 to 2025 for vans and trucks. Generous tax
rates, including zero vehicle excise duty (until 2025) andfavorable company car tax rates remain in place.
• Supporting the acceleration of the rollout of a worldclass charging infrastructure network.
• Investing in active travel with the aim that half of all
journeys in towns and cities will be walked or cycled by

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2030. This includes delivering thousands of miles ofsafe, continuous routes for cycling and creating Active
Travel England to support local authorities to deliver
ambitious and transformational schemes. This will also
support our aims in the ‘Enhancing beauty, heritage andengagement with the natural environment’ chapter.
• Investing in cutting-edge research to identify options for
mitigating or reducing brake and tyre emissions fromroad vehicles, including zero tailpipe emission vehicles.
• Requiring that an increasing proportion of
manufacturers new car and/or van sales be zero
emission, beginning in 2024. This is called our Zero
Emission Vehicle mandate.
• Over the coming months and years, exploring creating
a single regulatory framework that applies to all roadvehicles from motorcycles to the heaviest trucks,
putting the phase out dates for the multiple vehicle
types in UK law.

Deliver the Rail Environment Policy Statement
We have electrified more than 1,200 miles of railway since2010 in Great Britain compared with 63 miles in the 13 years
preceding, and now only 1.5% of GHG emissions come fromtrains. However, diesel trains still play an important role inconnecting our communities, particularly the most rural,and so we need to carefully support the transition.
We have also installed air quality monitors at over 100
railway stations since February 2022. This will improve ourunderstanding of pollutant concentrations in these locations
and inform further action,
The Department for Transport will:• Commission a comprehensive review of theregulations, standards and guidelines governing air
quality on the railway. This will be particularly focusedon informing the development of industry targets
to improve air quality in problem locations such as
enclosed railway stations.
• Fund a £4.5 million Stations Air Quality Monitoring

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Network, working with rail industry to monitor the
impact that diesel trains have on air quality.

Deliver the Clean Maritime Plan
The maritime sector has begun to decarbonise and shift
to clean fuels, improving air quality and tackling climatechange. Our plan to further increase the pace of change
is set out in the Transport Decarbonisation Plan, whichbuilds on the approach announced in the Clean Maritime
Plan and Maritime 2050, published in 2019.
Since 2018, the Department for Transport has:
• Extended the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation,
making renewable fuels of non-biological origin formarine use, such as hydrogen and ammonia, eligible
for incentives.
• Used our call for evidence on increasing the uptake ofshore power in the UK, which has both air quality anddecarbonisation benefits, to develop policy proposals
which we aim to consult on in 2023.
• Run a call for evidence with the UK Emissions Trading
Scheme authority which, among other measures,sought views on proposals to expand the UK ETS todomestic maritime.

We have electrified
more than 1,200
miles of railway
since 2010 inGreat Britain
compared with63 miles in the 13
years preceding

The Department for Transport will:• Consult on an extension to the existing North Sea
Emission Control Area to cover the Irish Sea. Within
this area, shipping must adhere to strict emission
limits on pollutants such as NO2 and SO2.
• Deliver on the 2022 consultation on establishing a‘course to zero’ for the domestic maritime sector.
• Publish a refreshed Clean Maritime Plan to include
indicative decarbonisation targets for the domestic
maritime sector alongside the long-term interventions
needed to achieve full decarbonisation and reduce theenvironmental impacts of shipping.

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Monitoring and evaluation
We will monitor progress towards delivering the EIP23
through the Annual Progress Report and the Outcome
Indicator Framework. The framework contains 66 indicators,
arranged into 10 broad themes. The relevant indicators forclean air are:
A1

Emissions for five key air pollutants

A3 Concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5)
in the air
A4 Rural background concentrations of ozone (O3)A5 Roadside nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations
A6 Exceedance of damaging levels of nutrient
nitrogen deposition on ecosystems
A7 Area of land exposed to damaging levels ofammonia (NH3) in the atmosphereWe operate the Automatic Urban and Rural Network forpollution monitoring. This is the UK’s largest automatic
monitoring network, providing near-real-time measurementof pollution concentrations at strategic locations around thecountry. The network is being expanded with the numberof PM2.5 monitors more than doubling to better assess PM2.5
levels in England and progress against interim and longterm targets.

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Reducing emissions from carsand other forms of transport will
make active journeys healthierand more pleasant

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Goal 3
Clean andplentiful water
Key policies to achieve our water targets
Incentivise sustainable land
use and increase compliancewith regulations to reduce
agricultural pollution

Construct new minewater
treatment schemes

Modernise wastewater
treatment by reducing theuse of storm overflows
and upgrading wastewater
treatment works

Use nature-based solutions to
reduce pollutants entering
the water environment
through sustainable drainage,
wetlands, and more

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Facilitate infrastructure
projects, reduceleakage, and increase
efficiency in new
developments andretrofits to promote asustainable andresilient water supply

CLEAN AND PLENTIFUL WATER

Water is what makes life possible on our planet.
It is essential for human health and wellbeing, biodiversity, and the economy. Yet
our complex, interconnected water system is under greater pressure than everbefore as our population grows, and our infrastructure ages.
That is why we have begun significant investments and transformational
programmes to address impacts on the water environment.
In setting stretching new targets we will drive clean and plentiful water now and forgenerations to come, with plenty left for wildlife as well. Working from source tosea, we will take action on those who continue to pollute our water as a top priority– and restore our rivers, including globally significant chalk streams.

Our 25 Year Environment Plan goal
We will achieve clean and plentiful water by improving at least 75% of our waters
to be close to their natural state as soon as is practicable.

Since 2018, we have:• Driven environmentally sustainable farming by doubling funding available for theCatchment Sensitive Farming programme to £30 million in each of the next 3 years
to cover all farmland in England; opening the first year of new farming funding
through the Sustainable Farming Incentive; and launching the Slurry Infrastructure
Grant scheme to give farmers access to loans of up to £250,000 to upgrade theirslurry storage capacity as part of a £13 million investment package.
• Tackled nutrient pollution with an amendment to the Levelling Up and Regeneration
Bill to require water companies to upgrade wastewater treatment works.
• Published our Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan, requiring watercompanies to deliver their largest ever environmental infrastructure investment £56 billion of capital investment over 25 years to tackle storm sewage discharges;
and expanded the storm overflows monitoring programme from only 5% of storm
overflows monitored in 2016 to nearly 90% in 2021.

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CLEAN AND PLENTIFUL WATER• Improved planning requirements to support water availability, enabling an
additional £469 million of water company investment to develop new strategic
water resources; required that water companies produce high quality Water
Resources Management Plans and drought plans.
• Published our Strategic Policy Statement for Ofwat, which sets clear long-term
priorities for the water industry and the economic regulator.

We have the following targets and commitments:• Reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution from agriculture into the water
environment by at least 40% by 2038, compared to a 2018 baseline, with an interim
target of 10% by 31 January 2028, and 15% in catchments containing protected sites
in unfavourable condition due to nutrient pollution by 31 January 2028.
• Reduce phosphorus loadings from treated wastewater by 80% by 2038 against a2020 baseline, with an interim target of 50% by 31 January 2028.
• Halve the length of rivers polluted by harmful metals from abandoned mines by
2038, against a baseline of around 1,500km (approximately 930 miles), with aninterim target to construct eight mine water treatment schemes and 20 diffuse
interventions to by 31 January 2028.
• Reduce the use of public water supply in England per head of population by 20%
from the 2019 to 2020 baseline reporting figures, by 31 March 2038, with interim
targets of 9% by 31 March 2027 and 14% by 31 March 2032, and to reduce leakage
by 20% by 31 March 2027 and 30% by 31 March 2032.
• Restore 75% of our water bodies to good ecological status.
• Water companies to cut leaks by 50% by 2050. We will reduce leakage by 20% by
31 March 2027 and 30% by March 2032.
• Require water companies to have eliminated all adverse ecological impact fromsewage discharges at all sensitive sites by 2035, and at all other overflows by 2050.
• Target a level of resilience to drought so that emergency measures are needed only
once in 500-years.

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CLEAN AND PLENTIFUL WATERTo deliver these, we will:• Ensure water companies are delivering on our targets and commitments throughenhanced transparency and monitoring mechanisms in the Environment Act,targeted enforcement from regulators and increasing the maximum fines.
• Direct water company fines relating to environmental breaches to improving thewater environment.
• Crack down on sewage pollution by holding water companies to account fordelivering the targets set out in the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan.
• Require water companies to upgrade 160 of their wastewater treatment works tomeet the strictest phosphorus limits by 2028, and upgrade a further 400 by 2038,
to reduce harmful nutrient pollution from treated wastewater.
• Reduce agricultural pollution across England by paying farmers to protect andenhance watercourses through new farming schemes, and investing in improved
slurry storage and management through our grants, providing advice to farmers
to improve their practices through the expanded Catchment Sensitive Farming
partnership scheme, and ensuring farmers are meeting legal standards of
responsible farming through our expanded and targeted farm visits programme.
• Increase our resilience to drought by working with regulators and water companies
to reduce household and non-household water use, and ensuring water companies
are delivering a 50% reduction in leakage by 2050.
• Roll out new water efficiency labelling and deliver our ten actions in the Roadmap
to Water Efficiency in new developments.
• Deliver a ten-fold increase in the Water and Abandoned Metal Mines programme,
upscaling the existing three treatment schemes with 40 more by 2038, to tackle
harmful pollutants from abandoned metal mines.
• Protect our chalk streams by supporting the Chalk Stream Strategy.
• Make Sustainable Drainage Systems mandatory in new developments subject tofinal decisions, following consultation, on scope, threshold and process.

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Introduction
Water is essential for human health, biodiversity and theeconomy. We all need access to a safe, reliable, resilient
supply of clean and plentiful water for our homes,
businesses, and for leisure.
We have made significant progress over time in improving
the quality of the water environment. For example, we havedelivered an 80% reduction in phosphorus concentrations
since 1990. Our bathing waters have been steadily
improving over time, with 93% of the bathing waters in
England at ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ in the latest classifications.
Those bathing waters meeting the highest standard,
Excellent, have risen to 72%, the highest level since newstandards were introduced in 2015.
Levels of ammonia, which is toxic to aquatic life including
fish, have reduced to just 15% of their levels in 1990. Iconic
species, such as seahorses, seals and salmon, are returning
to our rivers and estuaries. Salmon have returned to theRiver Donn for the first time in 200 years.
However, improvements in our water environment haveplateaued due to an increasing population, ageing
infrastructure, increased pollution risks and the pressure
on our drainage system. Climate change also means thatrainfall patterns are changing. Projections show somerivers could have 50 to 80% less water in summertime by2050 from drier summers, increasing the concentrationof pollutants in water bodies and the impact of water
abstraction on the water environment. Wetter winters andmore frequent intense rainfall lead to increased flooding
and more pollutants being washed off fields and urban
areas into nearby water bodies.

72% of our bathingwaters meet thehighest standard‘Excellent’. This is
the most since newstandards wereintroduced in 2015

Projections showthat some rivers
could have 50 to80% less water insummertime by
2050

The top issues preventing our water bodies from achieving
near natural state include:• Physical modification (41%).
• Pollution from agriculture and rural land (40%).
• Pollution from wastewater (36%).
• Non-native invasive species (25%).

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CLEAN AND PLENTIFUL WATER• Pollution from towns, cities and transport (18%).
• Changes to natural flow and levels of water (15%).
• Pollution from abandoned metal mines (3%).
Having enough water in the environment to sustain wildlife
whilst also ensuring a secure supply to homes and businessis becoming increasingly challenging. An additional 4,000
megalitres (Ml) of water a day will be needed in Englandby 2050 to meet future pressures on public water supply.
Water companies currently provide around 14,000 Ml/day ofwater for public water supply.
Improving the way we manage our water is essential – andtackling sources of water pollution must remain a top priority.

An additional 4,000
megalitres of watera day will be neededin England by 2050
to meet futurepressures on public
water supply

We have a regulatory framework to set high standards forwater at a fair price to consumers. The government sets theoverall direction of travel for water companies, and Ofwat acts
as the economic regulator. The Government’s Strategic Policy
Statement for Ofwat sets the priorities for Ofwat’s regulationof the water industry. The Environment Agency is the regulator
on environmental standards. The Drinking Water Inspectorate
assesses whether drinking water is safe. Finally, the Consumer
Council for Water represents the interests of water consumers.
We remain committed to improving 75% of our waters to
be close to their natural state as soon as is practicable. To
drive the scale of progress and improvements needed forthe water system, wholesale transformation is required. The
policies in this chapter are the first step in a broader water
reform programme.
We are developing a suite of new policy interventions
designed to transform how we manage the water system ina holistic way, as well as targeted action on each componentof the water system.

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Targets and commitments
Long term target:
Reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution from agriculture
into the water environment by 40% by 31 December 2038, compared
to a 2018 baseline.

Interim target 1:
Reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution from agriculture
to the water environment by 10% by 31 January 2028

Interim target 2:
Reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution from agriculture to
the water environment by 15% in catchments containing protected sites
in unfavourable condition due to nutrient pollution by 31 January 2028.
Farming creates a range of water pollution risks, such as
nutrient runoff when fertilisers and manures are spread,and erosion of soil following tillage. Nutrient loss leads toeutrophication in water bodies which causes the overgrowthof algae and plants, decreasing oxygen levels and negatively
impacting invertebrates and fish.
Recognising the significant change and investment needed,
supported through the rollout of our new farming schemes,
the interim target for England overall is set at 10% by 2028,
with acceleration expected after then according to an ‘S
shaped’ trajectory. This is because interventions such astechnology, farm infrastructure and land use change willtake time to deliver, particularly in the current context ofhigh input prices.
The interim target for the catchments containing ourmost important habitats which are in unfavourable
condition due to nutrient pollution is set at 15%, in
recognition of how we must focus and front load
even further our interventions in those areas. A listof these sites can be found in the Natural England
publication ‘Strategic Solutions: Nutrient Neutrality’.
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CLEAN AND PLENTIFUL WATERLong term target:
Reduce phosphorous loadings from treated wastewater by 80% by 31
December 2038, against a 2020 baseline

Interim target:
Reduce phosphorous loadings from treated wastewater by 50% by 31
January 2028, against a 2020 baseline.
Excessive phosphorus in the water environment causes
eutrophication. Pollution from wastewater accounts for 36%
of the issues preventing surface water bodies in Englandfrom reaching good status. Existing nutrient removal workby water companies is well established, and water companies
have made good progress in reducing phosphorus loads.
These targets will require water companies to upgrade at least
160 treatment works to meet the strictest phosphorus limits
by 31 December 2027, ahead of the interim target deadline,
and an estimated further 400 treatment works by 2038.

Long term target:
Halve the length of rivers polluted by harmful metals from abandoned
mines by 31 December 2038, against a baseline of around 930 miles(or 1,500km).

Interim target:
Construct 8 mine water treatment schemes and 20 diffuse
interventions to control inputs of target substances to rivers by 31
January 2028.
Abandoned metal mines are the largest source of metal
pollution in English rivers and into the marine environment.
In the majority of catchments impacted by these mines,
there are few or no other reasons for failure, so tackling thispollution will support these rivers achieving good status.

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Achieving the long-term target will likely require 40
mine water treatment schemes and around 40 diffuse
interventions by 2038.

Long term target:
Reduce the use of public water supply in England per head of
population by 20% from the 2019 to 2020 baseline reporting year
figures, by 31 March 2038.

Interim target 1:
Reduce the use of public water supply in England per head of
population by 9% by 31 March 2027 and 14% by 31 March 2032.

Interim target 2:
Reduce leakage by 20% by 31 March 2027 and 30% by 31 March 2032.
An additional 4,000 megalitres (Ml) of water a day will
be needed in England by 2050 to meet future pressureson public water supply, due to population growth andclimate change causing drier conditions. Half will need to
be delivered through reducing demand for water and theremainder through increased supply. The long-term target to
reduce water demand seeks to close this gap by setting us ona course for more sustainable water consumption.
To achieve the statutory water demand target, we plan toreduce household water use to 122 litres per person per day(l/p/d), reduce leakage by 37% and reduce non-household(for example, business) water use by 9% by 31 March 2038.
This is part of the trajectory to achieving 110 l/p/d householdwater use, a 50% reduction in leakage and a 15% reduction
in non-household water use by 2050. The interim targets
are based on the progressive reductions needed to meet thelong-term target and the supply-demand challenge.

Government estate
The Greening Government Commitments (GGCs) seek toreduce the impact of government on the environment. ThisENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN 2023

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CLEAN AND PLENTIFUL WATERGGC is to reduce water consumption by at least 8% by 2025
from the 2017 to 2018 baseline. In 2021, government achieved
reductions of 14% water usage (against a 2014 to 2015baseline) saving an estimated £10.4 million in 2020 to 2021.

Good ecological status and good chemical
statusGood Status for surface waters is comprised of good
ecological status (GES) and good chemical status(GCS), key elements of the Water Environment (WFD)
Regulations, which require a water body to pass aseries of underlying assessments. The tests are applied
to rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters up to one
nautical mile. 126 elements are assessed across 4,600
water bodies.
Ecological status: This is assigned using various water,
habitat and biological quality tests. Failure of any one
individual test means that the whole water body fails toachieve good or better ecological status or potential.
Water bodies are classified from high to bad.
Chemical status: Chemical status is calculated byassessing 52 different chemical elements (individualand groups of chemicals). Water bodies are classified
as good or failing.
The European Environment Agency’s data shows thatthat it will be very challenging for most EU Member
States to achieve good ecological status for all water
bodies in the time frame of the Water Framework
Directive. England’s performance is comparable withequivalent Northern European countries on water
quality, bathing water and urban waste water treatment
directive compliance. Currently:• 16% of surface water bodies in England meet GES.
• Almost 80% of individual tests across all water
bodies meet the threshold for GES, but a water
body must achieve the required standard for
GES for every underlying assessment in order toachieve GES overall. Failure of one individual testmeans that overall the water body will fail to reach
GES. This concept is known as ‘one-out-all-out’.
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CLEAN AND PLENTIFUL WATEROur delivery plan
To deliver against our goal and targets, we are taking action
across a number of areas:
1 Improving wastewater infrastructure and watercompany environmental performance – many urban areas
don’t live up to modern standards for water management,
and we have been clear that the water environment should
be a top priority for water companies to manage.
2 Reducing pressures on the water environment fromagriculture – agriculture is a significant user of water
resources, and we want to get the balance right throughour future farming schemes and regulation in order toincentivise farmers to take the right action.
3 Enabling the sustainable use of water for people,
business and the environment - half of the additional
4,000 megalitres of water a day (Ml/d) needed in Englandby 2050 will need to be delivered through reducing
demand for water and the remainder through increased
supply.
4 Tackling pressures from chemicals and otherpollutants - many historic chemicals remain in our rivers,
despite being banned or restricted, and we continue tomonitor new chemicals being added to the market toassess their potential impact. Further detail on this work
is also set out in the ‘Managing exposure to chemicals andpesticides’ chapter.
5 Restoring natural function and iconic waterlandscapes – our water bodies have been physicallymodified for hundreds of years. Sometimes this has been
to provide an important service such as navigation, butsometimes these no longer provide a purpose, and cannegatively affect aquatic habitats and pose unnecessary
safety risks. We are working to restore natural function
where the modifications no longer serve a wider purpose.
6 Joined-up’ management of the water system - thecurrent water policy and regulatory framework iscomplex, with over 15 national plans and strategic
documents. We want to ensure that the specific purposes
for the plans is kept but that they are brought together ina more coherent way to enable joined up management inall catchments.
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1. Improving waste water
infrastructure and watercompany environment
performance
Improve wastewater infrastructure and watercompany environmental performance
Defra has put the water environment as a top priority in theStrategic Policy Statement to Ofwat in 2022, making clear
our expectation that water companies will clean up their act.
We have also set expectations for Ofwat to challenge watercompanies to demonstrate how they will achieve zero serious
pollution incidents by 2030. The Strategic Policy Statement(SPS) also requires Ofwat to support improvements to storm
overflows and protected sites.
We are currently working with water companies to establish
where they can do more and speed up delivery of ourvital work around water resilience and environmental
enhancement. We will also hold water companies to accountto deliver our expectations on improved management for
nutrient pollution, supported by the £2.5 billion invested inmeasures to tackle this challenge from 2020 to 2025.

Water company
fines for causing
environmental
harm will now be
used directly to
improve the water
environment

Water company environmental performance
Since 2015, regulators have concluded 59 prosecutions
against water and sewerage companies securing fines ofover £144 million. In 2021, regulators concluded sevenprosecutions against water and sewerage companies withfines of £90 million.
Defra is:• Developing a mechanism for fines and penalties onwater companies for causing environmental harm to
be used directly to benefit the water environment.
Fines and penalties from enforcement action are
currently returned to HMT’s consolidated fund. In
the future, fines and penalties imposed in relation
to environmental matters will be used for projects
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that specifically restore and enhance the water
environment.
• Developing proposals to consult on increases to the
maximum penalty and scope for penalty we can impose
upon water companies for environmental breaches.
• Increasing the water company enforcement budget by£2.2 million a year to ensure water companies are heldto account.

Improve wastewater treatment
Water companies need to reduce their pollution entering
the water environment through a combination solutions.
Greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater presently
constitute approximately 15% of all emissions from thewaste sector. Defra will:• Encourage water companies to reduce theirpollution through upgrading wastewater treatment
infrastructure and rolling out Nature-based Solutions
for example, integrated wetlands.

We are requiring
water companies to
upgrade wastewater
treatment works to
the highest nutrient
removal standards inpriority catchments
affected by excess
nutrients• Work with water companies to expand into moresustainable wastewater treatment techniques, andupgrading of existing treatments which use anaerobic
digesters to Advanced Anaerobic Digestion, which
involve less greenhouse gas and contribute to thecircular economy by enabling the waste to be reused.
• Require water companies to produce Drainage andWastewater Management Plans. These will provide
a framework for organisations to work together toimprove drainage and environmental water quality, andwill also help to reduce surface water flooding risk, as
set out in the reduced risk of harm from environmental
hazards chapter. Plans by water companies will be
produced on a non-statutory basis by May 2023,
and Defra will put in place the relevant legislative
provisions to make them statutory.
• Support Water UK’s Net Zero Route Map and further
develop research to understand process emissions
from the wastewater.

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Reduce nutrient pollution to enable sustainable
development
We are committed to tackling nutrient pollution at source
to restore our protected sites and support sustainable
development. Therefore, working closely together, Defra andthe Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities(DLUHC) have introduced a package of measures. This
includes action set out in the wastewater treatment section
above, as well as:• Introducing a new Nutrient Mitigation Scheme,
established by Defra, to facilitate building thousandsof homes while creating new wetland habitat. DLUHCand Defra have provided up to £30m of pump priming
investment to kickstart the scheme.
• Enhancing local capacity to enable sustainable
development with tools and guidance, £100,000 for
new catchment officers in each area, nutrient advisers
in the Planning Advisory Service and additional
capacity in Natural England.
• Provisions in the Levelling Up and Regeneration
Bill that will require water companies to upgrade
wastewater treatment works to the highest nutrient
removal standards in priority catchments affected byexcess nutrients. This will significantly reduce pollution
from existing homes in sensitive areas.
• Setting a stretching interim target to reduce nitrogen,phosphorus and sediment pollution from agriculture
to the water environment in catchments containing
protected sites in unfavourable condition due tonutrient pollution, requiring a 15% reduction by 31
January 2028, to drive the particular need to focus
and front load our interventions in these areas.
The government is committed to rapidly increasing
the supply of mitigation credits, to speed up planningpermissions and enable the building of new homes. It isalso committed to working with local planning authorities,
Natural England and the development industry to ensurethat sustainable development can be unlocked across thecountry as soon as possible.

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Tackling storm overflows
In August 2022, we also published the Storm Overflows
Discharge Reduction Plan. This Plan will require watercompanies to deliver the largest infrastructure programme
in water company history - £56 billion of capital investment
by 2050. The Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan
requires water companies to achieve the following targets:• By 2035, to have protected all our designated bathingwaters and the majority of our most sensitive andprotected habitats from storm sewage discharges.
• By 2050, to have eliminated all adverse ecologicalimpact from storm overflows.
• By 2050, to have ensured all storm overflows discharge
less than an average of 10 rainfall events per year.
We will ensure Event Duration Monitors are installed on allstorm overflows by the end of 2023. This is up from only 5%
in 2016.
Water companies are investing £3.1 billion from 2020 to2025, including £1.9 billion on the Thames Tideway Tunnel(which is due for completion in 2025). Water companies
are delivering over 800 storm overflow improvements
investigations across England over the 2020 to 2025 period.

There were around62,000 people(FTE) working in
wastewater andwater quality
management in
the UK in 2019

2. Reducing pressures on
the water environment fromagriculture
We expect that a combination of regulation and public
and private schemes will contribute at least 80% of the
progress required to deliver our target to reduce nitrogen,phosphorus and sediment pollution from agriculture into
the water environment. We expect the remainder will be
met through other improvements made by the farming
and environmental land management sector, such as
developments in soil and nutrient management.
We also expect the farming sector to improve water storageand management, and therefore the resilience of industry,

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CLEAN AND PLENTIFUL WATERas part of helping to meet our target to reduce the useof public water supply. These improvements will be madethrough changes to abstraction and water licensing, as wellas through offering grant funding, as set out in this chapter.
We aim to increase the percentage of water storage used by
the agriculture and horticulture sectors by 66% by 2050, tocontribute towards this water demand target.

Incentivise best practice through our new
farming schemes
We will:• Pay farmers to adopt more sustainable farming
practices that can improve water quality throughaccelerated and enhanced funding, by offering atleast six new Sustainable Farming Incentive standards
which will pay farmers for in-field flower-rich strips,
companion cropping and grassy field corners, andfor measures to protect watercourses throughCountryside Stewardship Plus.

We have increased
funding for our farminspectors to allow
over 4,000 site
inspections per year

• Co-finance the significant investment that is required
to bring farm slurry management and storage up
to date and prevent pollution. This is a short-term
intervention to help farmers bring their systems up todate, after which we will step up our enforcement inthis area to maintain compliance and prevent pollution
from slurry.
• Fund research and development of innovativetechnologies and techniques to enable the increased
effective use of manure and slurry as resources rather
than waste products.
• Complete Diffuse Water Pollution Plans to identify
the specific pressures affecting water dependent
protected habitats.

Increase investment in proactive measures toincrease regulatory compliance
Defra has:
• Increased funding for farm inspectors to allow over
4,000 site inspections per year, particularly targeting
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inspections in catchments where protected sites are in
an unfavourable condition.
• Provided £1.3m per year between 2021 and 2025 to
the EA to pilot methods to improve farmer complianceand environmental outcomes, through our Testing
Approaches to the Regulation of Agriculture project(Project TARA). These methods range from the useof remote monitoring (for example through drones)
to better identify and target potential sources ofpollution, to the development of local networks
between the EA and key farming stakeholders to
improve understanding of the regulations.
• Expanded the successful Catchment Sensitive Farming
programme with over £30 million of extra funding
to cover all farmland in England to offer advice andguidance on mitigating pollution.
• Launched the £10 million Water Management grantscheme to support on-farm reservoirs and investments
in best practice irrigation application equipment.
• Launched the Slurry Investment Grant providing up to£13m this year to support investment in covered slurry
stores in the highest priority areas of England.
We have also committed to reviewing our farming
regulations to make sure they are fit for purpose, and are
effective at delivering our outcomes and preventing waterpollution. This will dovetail with incentives provided throughour new farming schemes to support the recovery of thewater system alongside food production.

3. Enabling the sustainable
use of water for people,
business and the environment
Increase supply
Water companies are investing £469 million between 2020
and 2025 to investigate the strategic water resources
options required, like water transfers, inter-regional water

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transfers, reservoirs, water recycling and desalination. Thisis supported by a joint team called the Regulators’ Alliancefor Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID) andthe National Framework for water resources. We are also
providing grants towards technology, equipment andinfrastructure to support the sustainable use of water in the
agriculture sector through the Farming Investment Fund
In addition, Defra will:• Designate the National Policy Statement for Water
Resources Infrastructure, to improve planning
decisions and better enable new water supply
infrastructure delivery.
• Improve regulatory frameworks to facilitate new large
water resources infrastructure projects.
The impact of climate change on our water resources isalready apparent and will only increase over further years
without significant additional action. In response, Defra,with regulators, will:• Apply lessons learned from the dry weather in 2022 andmake any necessary improvements to the EA’s water
abstraction regime and drought planning, and watercompany statutory drought planning arrangements.
• Use powers to direct water companies to meet waterneeds through collaborative regional water resources
plans. Water companies will also produce and deliver
high quality Water Resource Management Plans
and Drought Plans with a healthy and more drought
resilient environment being central in their planning,
working across company boundaries in an integrated
way with different sectors. The plans will also show
how water supplies will be resilience to a one in 500year drought. We will reflect the improvements in the
National Framework for water resources.
• Update our evidence base for drought and flood
resilience using the £38 million from the UKRI
Infrastructure Fund.
• Build on work with regulators, through RAPID, toensure water companies continue to use the funding todevelop new strategic water resources infrastructure.

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Secure sustainable abstraction
Abstracting water sustainably is key to protecting ourwater environment and supplying water to people andbusinesses. We estimate that we need to reduce abstraction
by approximately 800 megalitres per day (Ml/d) by 2027 and1,400 Ml/d by 2050. Since 2008 the Restoring Sustainable
Abstraction programme has returned 48 billion litres ofwater a year to the environment, including 37 billion litresof water a year to chalk streams, and also removed the riskthat approximately 1.9 trillion litres could be abstracted fromunused or underused abstraction licences.
Building on this, we will:• Work at a catchment scale, including with regional
water resources groups, to understand environmental
risks and develop joint solutions with license holders todeliver sustainable abstractions.
• Bring remaining previously unregulated activities,
such as trickle irrigation, into abstraction licensing andmodernize the system for current abstractors by moving
it into the Environmental Permitting Regulations.
• Use the Water Resources Licensing Digital Service
to send e-alerts to require abstraction to reduce orcease when flow levels are low, and where necessary,
if we do not see the progress needed, we will utilise
new powers to vary or revoke permanent abstraction
licenses without compensation from 2028.

Manage demand
Demand management will be needed to meet the other halfof the approximately 4,000 Ml/d gap. We are committed
to reducing non-household water demand by 9% by 2037
to 2038. Defra has already consulted on introducing amandatory water efficiency label on water using products
by 2024 to 2025 and written to local authorities toencourage them to adopt tighter water efficiency standards
in new homes. Our Strategic Policy Statement to Ofwat sets
our priority of reducing leakage across the whole network,
and we expect water companies to take action to meet theleakage target discussed above.

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CLEAN AND PLENTIFUL WATERTo go even further, Defra is also working to develop
additional policy options to address the gap, including:• Delivering our roadmap on water efficiency in new
developments and retrofits.
• Increased smart metering for households andbusinesses through accelerated investment between
2020 and 2030.
• Supporting communications campaigns on the value ofwater and how we can use it more efficiently.
• Reducing non-household water demand by 9% by
31 March 2038 through smart metering, addressing
leakage and water audits for business.
• Between 2025 and 2030 Ofwat will deliver a new fundof up to £100 million to encourage and support thedevelopment of a range of new approaches to water
efficiency.

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Ladybower reservoir, Derbyshire.
We are improving planning
decisions and regulatory
frameworks for new watersupply infrastructure

CLEAN AND PLENTIFUL WATER

Water efficiency in new developments andretrofits
Working with the Future Homes Hub and otherstakeholders, we have developed a roadmap on water
efficiency in new developments and retrofits. We haveproposed 10 actions over the next decade:• Action 1 - Implement Schedule 3 to the Flood andWater Management Act 2010. This will require
the use of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS)
in new developments subject to final decisions
on scope, threshold and process, while also
being mindful of the cumulative impact of new
regulatory burdens on the development sector.
This will help to reduce the risk of flooding, storm
overflow discharges and pollution caused bysurface water runoff. It will also make the rightto connect surface water run-off conditionalon the approval of the drainage system by the
SuDS approving body. We will now be working on
the necessary regulations, processes, national
standards and impact assessments. This will
include a public consultation and implementation
is expected during 2024. We will consider
rainwater harvesting in developing the statutory
SuDS National Technical Standards.
• Action 2 - Review the Water Supply (Water
Fittings) Regulations 1999, the Water Supply(Water Quality) Regulations 2016 and/or any
other relevant legislation to address wastefulproduct issues with toilets and enable new water
efficient technologies.
• Action 3 – Develop clear guidance on ‘water
positive’ or ’net zero water’ developments androles for developers and water companies,
including water company incentives.
• Action 4 – Review water efficiency options
in planning, building regulations and throughvoluntary schemes for non-household buildings(for example, offices).

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CLEAN AND PLENTIFUL WATER• Action 5 – Work with Ofwat to ensure the waterindustry can play a central role in retrofitting
water efficient products in households,
businesses, charities and the public sector.
• Action 6 – Work across government to integratewater efficiency into energy efficiency advice andretrofit programmes.
• Action 7 - Review the Building Regulations
2010, and the water efficiency, water reuse anddrainage standards (regulation 36 and Part
G2, H1, H2, H3 of Schedule 1), considering thecompetence and skills to enable this transition.
We will encourage the use of a fittings-based
approach linked to the water efficiency label. We
will consider a new standard for new homes inEngland of 105 litres per person per day (l/p/d)and 100 l/p/d where there is a clear local need,such as in areas of serious water stress.
• Action 8 – Deliver the mandatory water
efficiency labelling scheme.
• Action 9 – Investigate dual pipe systems
and water reuse options for new housingdevelopment as part of the review of theplanning framework.
• Action 10 – Enable innovative water efficiency
approaches in buildings, including technologies
and approaches to funding and maintenance.

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4. Tackling pressures fromchemicals and other pollutants
Treat pollution from abandoned metal mines
Abandoned metal mines are responsible for about half themetals entering water bodies. Up until the year 2000, mines
could be abandoned without the mine operators having todeal with the legacy pollution. The Water and Abandoned
Metal Mines Programme was set up in 2011 between
Defra and the Coal Authority to develop schemes to treat
abandoned metal mine water pollution. The programmecurrently operates 3 successful mine water treatment
schemes which have improved 20km of rivers, and has
installed around 20 diffuse measures to improve water quality
across impacted rivers.
The Coal Authority, with funding from Defra, willl build an
estimated 40 additional mine water treatment schemes
and around 40 new diffuse interventions by 2038, including
constructing 8 mine water treatment schemes and 20 diffuse
interventions by 31 January 2028 in line with our interim
target.

Tackling plastic pollution
Microplastics in the water environment can derive from waterused for washing clothes, microbeads in personal care products,
and through tyre and road markings abrasions being washed intodrains by rain. Although wastewater treatment works remove
up to 99% of microfibres, they still enter water bodies whensludge from treatment works is spread on agricultural land.
In 2018 the government banned the production and sale ofmicrobeads in wipe-off cosmetic and personal care products.
To do more to address the problem of microplastics, Defra will
work with water companies to explore the management of
microplastics in sludge ahead of 2024.

Antimicrobial resistance
The presence of antimicrobials in sewage can potentiallyrelease into surface waters and groundwater, increasing therisk of Antimicrobial resistance (AMR). So in 2019 the UK

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set out a cross-government 20-year vision for AMR and a
National Action Plan to tackle this human and animal healthrisk. The action plan commits to, for example:  
• Maintain legislation to control the release of harmful
substances into the aquatic environment.  
• Gather evidence to understand the possible risks andhazards of AMR in the environment.  
We have also set up a £19.2 million cross-departmental
project, Pathogen Surveillance in Agriculture, Food and theEnvironment (PATH-SAFE), to improve our understanding ofsources of AMR, allowing even more targeted action.

5. Restoring natural function
and iconic water landscapes
Water bodies functioning naturally
Our water bodies have been physically modified for centuries.
Many of these modifications provide a vital service tosociety, such as navigation or flood risk management. Other
modifications, such as straightened rivers or redundant weirs,
no longer serve a purpose and can often negatively impact
aquatic habitats and the quality of the water environment, as
well as potentially posing unnecessary safety risks.
Defra will ensure that physical modifications that no longer
serve a wider purpose and may cause harm to the water
environment are mitigated or removed.

Protect chalk streams
Chalk streams are a rare and valuable habitat, often referred
to as the equivalent of England’s rain forests or Great Barrier
Reef. 85% of all chalk streams globally are found in England,
mainly in the south and east of the country, as well as dozens
of smaller chalk springs, rills and flushes.
Chalk aquifers are an important source of water for drinking,agriculture and industry. They support angling for trout, salmon
and coarse fish, are important for recreation and are a valued
part of the English landscape. They need good quality water

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CLEAN AND PLENTIFUL WATERin order for the different species of fish, plants and insects,
many unique to them – such as the southern damselfly – toflourish.
In recognition of this, Defra will continue to work with theCatchment Based Approach to support the implementationof the Chalk Stream Strategy. We will develop plans tooutline actions to improve each chalk catchment, including£1 million investment in partnership projects each year.

Restore our shellfish waters
We monitor the 101 shellfish water protected areas in Englandfor the presence of E. coli. In 2021, only 25% of shellfish waters
met the microbial standard. This low level of compliancereduced market opportunities for England’s 75 shellfish
farms, which produce around 3,000 tonnes of shellfish
annually.
We have identified 63 priority areas where there is significant
economic production and have the potential to meet theE.coli standard by 2030, or where action is needed to prevent
deterioration. Water companies are now in the process ofreviewing what action is needed in these areas ahead of
2024.
Defra has also identified some priority waters which are
predominantly affected by agricultural diffuse pollution. We will
target support for farmers to reduce pollution from agriculture.

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6. Joined-up management of
the water system
Support catchment partnerships
Managing water at a catchment level is essential forjoined up and efficient action on the ground. Catchment
partnerships such as the Catchment Based Approach drive
multiple benefits.
Defra will support catchment partnerships for greater
integrated water management, as a framework forcoordinating action between the public, private and third
sectors. To do this we will trial, evaluate and develop thecapability and capacity for an integrated approach to
managing water.

Improve the water policy and regulatory
framework
Defra will:• Reform the current framework and rationalise thenumber of regulatory plans to create a more efficientsystem, which is easier for stakeholders to navigate
and enables joined-up working to achieve catchmentlevel outcomes.
• Better integrate water and flood policy, for example byreforming river basin management plans and flood risk
management plans to maximise the multiple benefits.
• Roll out catchment permitting solutions for water
treatment by 2024, where appropriate, to embed
investment in Nature-based Solutions.

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Case study - REAction, catchment
partnership on the Rea Brook
Located in the Upper Severn, the Rea Brook catchment
just five years ago had little activity around water
environment improvement work. In 2018, Catchment
Based Approach (CaBA) partners secured Water
Environment Grant fnding from Defra/EA for the
REAction project.
Partners worked with local farmers and landowners todeliver management plans which supported sustainable
practices and improved on-farm ecosystem services,
as well as the removal of barriers to fish movement.
Over 8,500m2 of wetland habitat has been created, 2barriers to fish have been removed, 150 woody barriers
have been installed and over 8,000 trees have beenplanted. Water voles have been reintroduced and they
have assisted with Curlew habitat enhancement. Water
management plans have been developed on 45 farms,
25km of watercourse have been fenced off and 2km
of guttering has been installed on farm buildings. A
community water environment awareness event wasalso held linking the community to their catchment.
The REAction project left a legacy and triggered strong
collaborative activity in the catchment. Five years on
there are more than 30 partners including Seven Rivers
Trust, Rea Internal drainage board, Shropshire Council,
Natural Resources Wales, Forestry Commission, CPREthe countryside charity, Shropshire Hills, National Trust,Curlew Country and the Environment Agency now
working on 14 projects achieving multiple benefits forthe environment and people.

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Creating wetland habitat

Kingfisher bridge, with fishbarrier removed

CLEAN AND PLENTIFUL WATER

Monitoring and evaluation
We will monitor progress towards delivering the EIP23
through the Annual Progress Report and the Outcome
Indicator Framework. The framework contains 66 indicators,
arranged into 10 broad themes. The relevant indicators forclean and plentiful water are:
B1

Pollution loads entering waters

B2 Serious pollution incidents to water
B3

State of the water environment

B4 Condition of bathing waters
B5 Water bodies achieving sustainable abstraction
criteria
B6 Natural functions of water and wetland
ecosystems
B7

Health of freshwaters assessed through fish
populations

E8

Efficient use of waterLong-term trend data on water quality will also be used. The
F3 indicator on disruption or unwanted impacts caused bydrought was recently developed to focus on disruption or
unwanted impacts to public water supply due to drought.
The data underpinning this indicator was first reported by
all water and sewerage companies in summer 2022.

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CLEAN AND PLENTIFUL WATERWe are improving wastewater
infrastructure and water company
environmental performance

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CLEAN AND PLENTIFUL WATER

Goal 4
Managing exposure
to chemicals andpesticides
Tackling sources of pollution in our everyday environments

Tackle chemical
pollution atsource throughregulatory action,
including banningor restricting themost harmful
chemicals

Promote the safe andsustainable use of pesticides,
and increase the uptake ofIntegrated Pest Management
Target the greatest risks
with our monitoring
programme to understandchemical pathways andexposure in the environment

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Make sure chemicals in
waste are appropriately
managed, to support
the circular economy

MANAGING
MANAGINGEXPOSURE
EXPOSURETOTOCHEMICALSCHEMICALSAND
ANDPESTICIDESPESTICIDESChemicals and pesticides help us achieve many important goals, from securing
cleaner water and plentiful food, to thriving industry, and more effective medicines– and using them wisely is key to keeping people and wildlife safe.
So, making sure that the way we manufacture, use, manage, and dispose ofchemicals and pesticides is safe for communities and the environment is an
ongoing priority.
We have made good progress – by improving our understanding of monitoringneeds and response, harnessing scientific expertise to tackle emerging threats, andsupporting the hard work of farmers.
Now, having left the EU, we have the freedom to consider our approach – so we canphase out the most harmful and persistent pollutants in favour of more sustainable
alternatives, make polluters pay, and raise standards around the world.

Our 25 Year Environment Plan goal
We will make sure that chemicals are safely used and managed, and thatthe levels of harmful chemicals entering the environment (including throughagriculture) are significantly reduced.

Since 2018, we have:• Launched a chemicals evaluation and risk management programme under UK
registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals (UK REACH).
• Set out how we will support the agricultural sector to implement Integrated Pest
Management through our new farming schemes.
• Developed a prioritisation and early warning system for chemicals of emerging
concern (PEWS) which has led to new monitoring for some chemicals.
• Used our expertise as a scientific leader to influence global environment policy.

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MANAGING EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS AND PESTICIDESWe have the following targets and commitments:• Substantially increase the amount of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) material
being destroyed or irreversibly transformed by 2030, to make sure there are
negligible emissions to the environment.
• Seek to eliminate the use of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) by 2025 in line withour commitments under the Stockholm Convention.
• Reduce land-based emissions of mercury to air and water by 50% by 2030.
• At UN Nature Summit COP15, through the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity
Framework, we agreed to contribute to the global target of reducing pollution riskby 2030.

To deliver these, we will:• Publish a new Chemicals Strategy in 2023 to set out our priorities for addressing
risks from chemicals, how we will use our regulation and how we can encourage amove to more sustainable use of chemicals.
• Continue to use UK REACH to evaluate and manage the risks posed by chemicals tohuman health and the environment.
• Improve our understanding of chemicals in the environment, building on ourprioritisation and early warning system, to ensure regulation is targeted at thegreatest risk.
• Publish a revised UK national action plan for the sustainable use of pesticides toreduce the harm of pesticides and help farmers to transition to integrated pest
management with investment and advice.
• Support partners to manage waste streams that are contaminated with POPs to
ensure that they are destroyed at end of life and reduce the levels of POPs entering
the environment.
• Work with industry to register and remove from use all items of equipment that
contain polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) by 2025.
• Work with industry to increase the uptake of mercury abatement technology incrematoria through the publication of statutory guidance.
• Work with international partners to raise global standards for chemicals
management, and build chemicals management capacity in lower and middle
income countries with £6 million of Official Development Assistance investment.
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MANAGING EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS AND PESTICIDESIntroduction
The sound use of chemicals and pesticides can help us
achieve many of our most fundamental goals – fromsecuring cleaner water and more plentiful food, to making
more effective medicines.
Yet when the risks posed by chemicals are poorly managed, werisk undermining our efforts to meet many challenges – fromkeeping people safe, to improving food and water security, totackling climate change and helping nature recover.
So we must make sure that the way we manufacture, use,manage, and dispose of chemicals and pesticides is safe forpeople and the environment.
A new Chemicals Strategy, published this year, will set
out the action we will take to manage the risks posed bychemicals, and to continue to phase out the most harmful
and persistent pollutants in favour of safer and moresustainable alternatives. For pesticides a revised National
Action Plan for the Sustainable Use of Pesticides will be
published in 2023. This will aim to minimise the risks andimpacts of pesticides to human health and the environment,
while ensuring pests and pesticide resistance can be
managed effectively.

Targets and commitments
In the 25 Year Environment Plan, we committed to:• Fulfill our commitments under the Stockholm
Convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs)
as outlined in the UK’s most recent National
Implementation Plan.
• Substantially increase the amount of POPs material
being destroyed or irreversibly transformed by 2030
and seek to eliminate the use of polychlorinatedbiphenyls (PCBs) by 2025, to make sure there are
negligible emissions to the environment, in line withour commitments under the Stockholm Convention.
• Reduce land-based emissions of mercury to air andwater by 50% by 2030.

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MANAGING EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS AND PESTICIDES• Publish a Chemicals Strategy to tackle chemicals ofconcern.
At UN Nature Summit COP15, through the KunmingMontreal Global Biodiversity Framework we agreed
alongside the other parties to a global target to:• Reduce by half both excess nutrients and the overallrisk posed by pesticides and highly hazardous
chemicals.

Our delivery plan
Our focus for driving progress towards this goal is spread
across three areas:
1 Ensuring chemicals are safely used and managed –recognising that chemicals are an important part of oureveryday life, manage any risks posed by, and to continue
to phase out the most harmful and persistent pollutantsin favour of safer and more sustainable alternatives.
2 Minimising the risks and impacts of pesticides- reducing their impacts on human health and theenvironment, while ensuring pests and pesticide
resistance can be managed effectively.
3 Harnessing UK expertise internationally to improveglobal chemicals management - managing exposure
to chemicals and pesticides is a transboundary
issue, requiring global solutions and international
cooperation. As a global scientific leader on chemicals
management, the UK will use science diplomacy andexpertise to influence global environment policy.

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1. Ensuring chemicals aresafely used and managed
Manage and reduce persistent organic pollutants(POPs) in the environment
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are chemicals thatremain intact in the environment for long periods. Thismeans they become widely distributed across the country
and globally, accumulating in humans and wildlife. POPs
are toxic to both humans and wildlife and so have a harmful
impact on human health or on the environment. Given
the long-range transport of POPs and the harmful impact
they can have on human health and the environment, aninternational convention (the UN Stockholm Convention on
Persistent Organic Pollutants) has been agreed requiring
parties, including the UK, to take measures to eliminate or
reduce the release of POPs into the environment.
Many POPs have been banned for years, but there isan ongoing legacy of contamination. As well as being
problematic for health, this also impacts water quality.
We have:• Used our expertise as a scientific leader within the
Stockholm Convention on POPs and its supportinggroups and supported its objectives through the
UK’s contribution to the Global Environment Facility(GEF) to deliver environmental projects that aim to
rid the earth of the most toxic and harmful chemicals,
creating a clean and healthy planet for all, as partof our £330 million pledge. For the first time, theUK has nominated a substance to be listed under
the Convention, demonstrating our commitment toprotecting human health and the environment.

Around 44.3
tonnes of POPs in
waste electricaland electronicequipment are now
separated each year
and successfully
destroyed, rather
than being landfilled
or contaminating
recycling• Improved the multi-media emissions inventory (MMEI)(an inventory of estimates of UK emissions of several
unintentionally produced POPs to air, water, land andresidue) enabling us to track emissions and encourage
action to reduce them further.
• Taken action to manage POPs in waste electrical

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and electronic equipment. For instance, around 44.3
tonnes of POPs in waste electrical and electronicequipment are now separated each year andsuccessfully destroyed, compared to a baseline wherethese materials were landfilled or contaminatedrecycled materials.
We are:• Implementing our obligations under the Stockholm
Convention on POPs as set out in the latest UK
National Implementation Plan.
• Acting to ensure that approximately 1,200 tonnes ofPOPs used as flame retardants in domestic seating (forexample, sofas) are destroyed by incineration when
they become waste, rather than sent to landfill. Thisis likely to be the most significant source of release of
the POP decabromodiphenyl ether (DecaBDE) to theEuropean environment, around ten times greater inscale than any other waste stream.
• Supporting partners to manage POPs contaminationof carpet and automotives wastes.
• Initiating a programme of work to examine the levels ofPOPs occurring in construction and demolition waste.

There is evidence
that cetaceans,such as whales
and dolphins, aresuffering populationlevel effects from
PCBs in the marine
environment
which impair theirreproductive andimmune systems

Case Study: Persistent Organic Pollutantsin Waste Electrical and Electronic Devices
Many electrical products contain Brominated Flame
Retardants (BFRs), some of which are Persistent
Organic Pollutants (POPs). We are working to support
safe disposal of waste electrical and electronic devices(WEEE) by:
Having worked with others to investigate the extent
of the problem, including supporting a study by theIndustry Council for Electronic Equipment Recycling;

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MANAGING EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS AND PESTICIDESSupporting businesses to comply by publishingguidance to help business understand how to manage
this waste, informing them of their obligations inmanaging electrical waste, and using existing sector
networks and an additional support forum to help
enable compliance; and,
Taking an intelligence-led and risk-based approach toenforcement by dedicated chemical inspectors.
As a result, around 44.3 tonnes of the POP
Decabromodiphenyl ether (DecaBDE) in plastic is now
being separated from WEEE and successfully destroyedeach year, compared to a baseline where there was
no intentional destruction of POPs. Prior to this work,
these materials were all being landfilled or were
contaminating recycled materials.
Due to the cooperation between government, theregulator and industry, we have reduced the amountof new POPs entering the environment. This has
reduced the risks of them becoming widely distributed
geographically, accumulating in the fatty tissue ofhumans and wildlife. This work has also provided atemplate for subsequent cooperative work on otherwaste streams.

Eliminate the use of polychlorinated biphenyls(PCBs)The use of PCBs in production has been illegal in the UK
since 1987. They still exist, however, within some older
equipment, predominantly within our national energy
infrastructure.
Concentrations also remain high in the marine environment,with evidence that cetaceans such as whales, dolphins andporpoises are suffering population level effects from PCBs
which impair the animals’ reproductive functions and immune
systems, so we must continue our work to eliminate them.
We are working to ensure all items of equipment that
contain PCBs are registered and removed from use by 2025.

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MANAGING EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS AND PESTICIDESReduce land-based emissions of mercury to air
and water
Through our plans to remove unabated coal from the UK’s
energy mix by 2024, we have already seen a significant
decrease in mercury emissions, which is released to theatmosphere when coal is burned. Coal now accounts for
only 1.8% of the UK’s electricity mix, compared with 40%
almost a decade ago.
As a result of these reductions in mercury emissions fromUK power generation, and the decommissioning of the UK’s
only mercury chlor-alkali facility, emissions from crematoria
now represent a larger proportion of remaining total
mercury emissions.
We are working with industry to increase the uptake ofabatement technology in crematoria through the review ofthe statutory guidance for the sector.

Publish a Chemicals Strategy in 2023
The UK has responsibility for chemicals policy andregulation following Brexit.
Given the importance of chemicals and their benefits tosociety, we want to promote a thriving UK chemicals sector.
At the same time, chemicals are ubiquitous, can cause harm
to human health and the environment and need to be safely
used and managed throughout their life-cycle.
Through a Chemicals Strategy we will:• Set out our approach to managing priority andemerging chemicals of concern, such as Per- andPolyfluorinated Substances (PFAS), a large group of
persistent chemicals which are used in a wide rangeof products, including stain repellents and fire-fighting
foams; Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs),
substances that affect how hormones function; andthe combination effects that different chemicals canhave on the environment.
• Set out an approach to regulation that is risk-based,
while also adhering to the environmental principles
policy statement enshrined in the Environment Act.

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MANAGING EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS AND PESTICIDES• Set out how we will continue to use UK REACH toevaluate and manage the risks of chemicals as well as
consider improvements to UK REACH. Current work
under UK REACH is set out in the annual UK REACH
Work Programme, published by the Health and Safety
Executive.
• Set out how we will complete the transition to UK
REACH through development of a new UK REACH
Alternative Transitional Registration model; aninnovative approach focusing on improving ourunderstanding of the uses and exposures of chemicals
across Great Britain.
• Improve our understanding of chemicals in theenvironment, continuing to develop monitoring
methods to allow water bodies and other environments
to be scanned for a broader range of chemicals beyond
those already monitored.
• Use our Prioritisation and Early Warning System to
inform decision-making and regulation.
• Promote innovation to support the circular economy,
drive the use of safer and sustainable chemicals andreduce the risks to human health and the environment
caused by hazardous chemicals in waste.
• Develop new testing methods based on scientificadvances, which work towards increased efficiency ofchemical hazard assessment and can also reduce theuse of protected animals.

2. Minimising the risks andimpacts of pesticides
A pesticide may only be placed on the market following athorough scientific risk assessment that concludes all safety
standards are met. Pesticides that pose unacceptable risks
are not authorised. Decisions on the use of pesticides willcontinue to be based on careful scientific assessment of therisks, with the aim of achieving a high level of protection forpeople and the environment, while improving agricultural
production.
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MANAGING EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS AND PESTICIDESThe number of approved active substances used inpesticides has declined and is expected to continue todecline. There are increasing resistance issues where somepesticides are no longer effective methods of control andit is likely there will be additional pest control challenges
resulting from climate change in future years.
The link between pesticide use and biodiversity loss iscomplex, but there is growing evidence that pesticides havethe potential to impact non-target species such as pollinatorsand soil-dwelling invertebrates, which provide essential
services to farmers and growers and are crucial for a thriving
natural environment.
We want to encourage sustainable pest management
practices through Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to
reduce our reliance on pesticides, and where they areneeded, to deploy them in a more targeted way. IPM aims to
reduce reliance on chemical pesticides by making use of awider variety of crop protection methods, including lower riskalternatives and promoting natural processes. For example,
creating habitats for natural predators of plant pests, orusing crop rotations to break pest, weed and disease cycles.
When alternative methods are ineffective or unavailable,
IPM also aims to optimise and minimise the use of chemical
pesticides through targeted and precise application.

Deliver a National Action Plan for Sustainable
Use of Pesticides
We will:• Publish the UK National Action Plan for Sustainable
Use of Pesticides in 2023, alongside the devolved
administrations. The National Action Plan will put
IPM at the heart of a holistic approach to pest, weed
and disease management, while ensuring pests andpesticide resistance can be managed effectively.
• Minimise the risks and impacts of pesticides to humanhealth and the environment through the greater
uptake of IPM across all sectors and the development
and introduction of alternative approaches ortechniques, to reduce reliance on the use of
conventional chemical pesticides.

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MANAGING EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS AND PESTICIDESInvesting in research and development
We have:• Supported a number of IPM research and development
projects. These include research into non-chemicalalternatives for pests such as cabbage stem flea
beetle and the collection of more data to understandchanging pest pressures.
• Supported a theory of change project to further
understand how best to increase the uptake ofeffective IPM.
• Set out how we will support the agricultural sector to
implement IPM through our new farming schemes• Invested in tests and trials as part of our future farming
schemes to develop an online IPM tool and guidance forfarmers on making effective IPM decisions.
We will:• Continue to support research and development withupcoming projects including understanding the yield
impacts and benefits of IPM approaches, and further
building the evidence base for the environmental
impacts of pesticides.
Natural processes can reducereliance on chemical pesticides

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MANAGING EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS AND PESTICIDES• Provide financial incentives through our new farming
schemes, including the Sustainable Farming Incentive
to support greater uptake of IPM on-farm and reducereliance on using pesticides.

Support safe and compliant use
To make sure that pesticides are used safely and sustainably,
we want to support pesticide users to achieve high levels ofcompliance with any conditions on their use.
We have:• Put controls in place for anyone working with plant
protection products. This includes an obligation for
all operators to register with Defra, together with aprogramme of risk-based inspection visits. This will
enable us to better understand compliance with thelegislation and to target our pesticide enforcement
resources more effectively.
• Invested in 18 Pesticide Enforcement Officers at the
Health and Safety Executive who will play a key role indelivering an official controls programme.

3. Harnessing UK expertiseinternationally to improveglobal chemicals management
Managing exposure to chemicals and pesticides is atransboundary issue, requiring global solutions andinternational cooperation. As a global scientific leader on
chemicals management, the UK will use science diplomacy
and expertise to influence global environment policy.
We have:• Jointly led international efforts to establish a newframework for international chemicals management,
bringing together governments, industry and civil society.
• Successfully proposed the listing of Medium ChainChlorinated Paraffins (MCCPs) as a new POP under
the Stockholm Convention, using our evidence and
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MANAGING EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS AND PESTICIDEStechnical expertise to lead on this internationally.
MCCPs are used in products including polyvinyl
chloride (PVC), adhesives, and paints.
• Contributed scientific and technical expertiseto Organisation for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment working parties to shape guidelines
on the sound management of chemicals andstandardisation of methods.
• Worked with international partners to raise global
standards for chemicals and pesticides management,with £6 million of ODA investment.
We will:• Continue to play a prominent and positive role in
the negotiations for a new Science Policy Panel forpollution (the ‘IPPC’ for pollution). The UK was one of
the first countries to provide funds with a contributionof £250,000 to develop the panel proposal. Continue
to lead work on the listing of MCCPs throughdeveloping the Risk Management Evaluation for
consideration by the Stockholm Convention’s POPs
Review Committee in September 2023.

As a global scientificleader on chemicals
management,
the UK will use
science diplomacy
and expertise to
influence global
environment policy• The UK will continue to lead efforts to improvethe effectiveness of our Multilateral Environment
Agreements - for example, pushing for a stronger
compliance mechanism for the Stockholm Convention,and strongly advocating that chemicals recommended
for listing under the Rotterdam Convention are agreed.

Build global capacity for chemicals management
Drawing on the UK’s globally respected domestic expertise,
Defra will invest £6 million of Official Development
Assistance funding over three years to build capacity inlower- and middle-income countries. This will support
scalable projects on sustainable agriculture (in Vietnam)
and sustainable waste management (in South Africa).

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MANAGING EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS AND PESTICIDESMonitoring and Evaluation
We will monitor progress towards delivering the EIP23
through the Annual Progress Report and the Outcome
Indicator Framework. The framework contains 66 indicators,
arranged into 10 broad themes. The relevant indicators for
managing exposure to chemicals and pesticides are:
H3 Emissions of mercury and persistent organic
pollutants to the environment.
H4 Exposure and adverse effects of chemicals on
wildlife in the environment.
J5

Prevent harmful chemicals from being recycled.

We provide long-term chemicals monitoring in England
to assess and manage risk from substances known to beharmful and inform policy development. Defra will continue
to develop monitoring methods to allow water bodies tobe scanned for a broad range of chemicals beyond thosealready monitored. This information, along with establishedtargeted screening, will be fed into the prioritisation andearly warning system programme to inform decision
making and regulation.

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MANAGING EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS AND PESTICIDESIntegrated Pest Management(IPM) is at the heart of ourapproach to minimise the risksof pesticides to the environment.
Our policies will help farmers
access the tools they need toincrease their use of IPM.

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MANAGING EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS AND PESTICIDESGoal 5
Maximise ourresources, minimise
our waste
Key policies to reduce waste and maximise our resources
Launch a call for evidence todevelop a plan to eliminate
municipal biodegradable
waste sent to landfill

Implement Extended Producer
Responsibility to move the costof dealing with household
packaging waste from taxpayers
and councils to businesses

Support councils
to crack down on
littering

Implement a Deposit
Return Scheme fordrinks containers

Implement consistentrecycling for households
and businesses
Ban the supplyof more single
use plastics

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Resources on our islands – indeed on our planet – are finite and precious. Their
extraction and manufacture can cause environmental harm. We want to make iteasier for people to do the right thing to maximise the use of these resources andminimise their waste.
In 2018, we published our Resources and Waste Strategy which set out long-term
commitments and ambitions to eliminate avoidable waste by 2050.
However, the pandemic has set us back. People needed new single-use products
like facemasks and test kits, and understandably prioritised public health by buying
products with additional packaging. Between 2019 and 2020 there was a large
increase in residual waste, as the household recycling rate fell by 1.5 percentage
points and total waste from households increased by 0.5 million tonnes.
We need to get back to the better habits we were starting to learn and to support
people to make it easier to do so. Our plan aims to make it the norm to reduce,reuse, and recycle so we can reduce residual waste and make our economy truly
circular and sustainable.

Our 25 Year Environment Plan goal
We will minimise waste, reuse materials as much as we can and manage materials
at the end of their life to minimise the impact on the environment.

Since 2018, we have:• Published the Resources and Waste Strategy, setting out our approach toeliminating avoidable waste by 2050.
• Published the Net Zero Strategy in 2021, committing us to working towards thenear elimination of biodegradable municipal waste to landfill from 2028, andproviding free separate food waste collections for all household from 2025.
• Provided approximately £9 million in funding a year to the Waste and Resources
Action Programme (WRAP) for action on resource efficiency and minimising waste,
which includes support for foodwaste prevention, action on recycling, textiles andplastic packaging.

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MAXIMISE OUR RESOURCES, MINIMISE OUR WASTE• Introduced a Plastic Packaging Tax, charging £200 per tonne on plastic packaging
manufactured in, or imported into the UK, that does not contain at least 30%
recycled plastic.
• Increased the single-use carrier bag charge to 10p in 2021. Bag usage at major
retailers has fallen by 97% since the charge was introduced in 2015.
• Restricted the supply of plastic straws and cotton buds and banned drinks stirrers.
• Increased our packaging recycling rate from 62.1% in 2018 to 63.2% (provisional) in
2021 and tonnes recycled from 7.347 million tonnes in 2018 to 8.019 million tonnes
in 2021 – an additional 672,000 tonnes.
• Funded WRAP to help businesses measure and report their food waste which has
helped the food supply chain to report a reduction in food waste by over 19,000
tonnes (8%), equivalent to almost £62 million.
• Launched a Chewing Gum Task Force with Keep Britain Tidy and the gum industry totackle gum littering with up to £10 million funding available over 5 years.
• Provided new powers for councils to tackle anti-social behaviour.
• Provided new powers to combat waste crime.

We have the following targets and commitments:• We will eliminate avoidable waste by 2050 and double resource productivity by 2050.
• We will explore options for the near elimination of biodegradable municipal waste
to landfill from 2028.
• We will eliminate avoidable plastic waste by 2042.
• We will seek to eliminate waste crime by 2042.
• We will halve ‘residual’ waste (excluding major mineral waste) produced per personby 2042. For the purposes of the target, we define ‘residual’ waste as waste that issent to landfill, put through incineration or used in energy recovery in the UK, orthat is sent overseas to be used in energy recovery.

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MAXIMISE OUR RESOURCES, MINIMISE OUR WASTE• The residual waste target is underpinned by the following interim targets, by 31
January 2028:• Reduce residual waste (excluding major mineral waste) produced per personby 24%.
• Reduce residual waste (excluding major mineral waste) in total tonnes by 21%.
• Reduce municipal residual waste produced per person by 29%.
• Reduce residual municipal food waste produced per person by 50%.
• Reduce residual municipal plastic waste produced per person by 45%.
• Reduce residual municipal paper and card waste produced per person by 26%.
• Reduce residual municipal metal waste produced per person by 42%.
• Reduce residual municipal glass waste produced per person by 48%.

To deliver these, we will:• Implement consistent recycling for households and businesses, to boost recycling rates.
• Introduce a Deposit Return Scheme for plastic and metal drinks containers from
October 2025 to drive very high recycling rates, to incentivise citizens to do their civic
recycling duties and bring positive recycling behaviours into public consciousness.
• Implement packaging Extended Producer Responsibility from 2024 to move thecost of dealing with household packaging waste from taxpayers and councils to the
packaging producers.
• Mandate recycling labelling for packaged products by 31 March 2026 except forplastic films and flexible which we will mandate by 31 March 2027.
• Ban the supply of single-use plastics like plastic plates and cutlery from October
2023. We will also explore options further, including with stakeholders, for the
potential for technological innovation in the production of coffee cups, andbehavioural science in how they are used.
• Introduce a mandatory digital waste tracking service to modernise existing waste record
keeping and implement reforms to the waste carriers, brokers and dealers regime
and bring forward legislation to tackle abuse of certain types of waste exemptions.
• Launch a call for evidence to support development of a plan to achieve the nearelimination of biodegradable municipal waste going to landfill from 2028.

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Introduction
Resources on our islands – indeed on our planet – are finite
and precious. Their extraction and manufacture can cause
environmental harm. We want to make it easier for people todo the right thing to maximise the use of these resources andminimise their waste.
Success relies on us, as a society, to change our relationshipwith how we use resources. In 2018, we published ourResources and Waste Strategy which set out long-term
commitments and ambitions to eliminate avoidable waste
by 2050. We were making great strides forward in people’s
attitudes towards reuse, with recycling rates increasing overthe longer term, but when COVID-19 arrived we were knocked
back. We reverted to single use plastics as a default, to protect
our own health. People needed new single-use products like
facemasks and test kits, and understandably prioritised publichealth by buying products with additional packaging. Between
2019 and 2020 there was a large increase in residual waste, as
the household recycling rate fell by 1.5 percentage points andtotal waste from households increased by 0.5 million tonnes.
Everything we use and consume requires resources that comefrom somewhere. We need to reclaim the ground lost and remind
people of the positive action they have got out of the habitof doing over the last few years. Our plan aims to make it thenorm to reduce, reuse, and recycle so we can reduce residual
waste and make our economy truly circular and sustainable.
We cannot continue with our stagnant household and businessrecycling rates, leaving households and businesses to navigate
complex collection rules. We know that consumers want totake the right action but too often they ‘wishcycle’ — confused
about what they can and cannot recycle, often putting items in
the recycling bin in the hope they are doing the right thing andending up contaminating what could have been recycled.
Transition towards more circular resource use is an essential
part of the action we need to take to tackle greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions and improving the state of the natural world.
To achieve this, we are making sure that the polluter pays
principle is implemented and to design waste out of the way
we do things right across our economy–and keep harmfulwaste out of our environment. We will help each of us to cut
back on single-use items that most of us can do without.
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Targets and commitments
Long term target:
By 31 December 2042, the total mass of residual waste excluding major
mineral wastes in a calendar year does not exceed 287 kg per capita.

Interim target 1:
By 31 January 2028, the total mass of residual waste excluding major
mineral wastes in the most recent full calendar year does not exceed
437 kg per capita.
We set a stretching long-term target to halve ‘residual’ waste(waste that is sent to landfill, put through incineration orused in energy recovery in the UK or overseas) by 2042. Thisis an intentionally broad target, which will include the mostenvironmentally harmful materials like plastics, rather thanbanning a single type of material and risk producers moving
to a different, more harmful material.
This interim target reflects the trajectory that will be required
for the long-term target. Achieving the interim target will
mean a 24% reduction of residual waste from 2019 levels,
setting us on track towards achieving the long-term target,
which is equivalent to a 50% reduction from 2019 levels.

We will halve‘residual’ waste(excluding major
mineral waste)
produced per personby 2042Interim target 2:
By 31 January 2028, the total mass of residual waste excluding major
mineral waste in the most recent full calendar year does not exceed
25.5 million tonnes.
This sets an overall waste tonnage interim target alongside
the per capita target. This will ensure that progress towards
the long-term target also involves a substantial reductionin the overall tonnage of waste sent to residual end-oflife treatment, irrespective of any unexpected population
change. Achieving this target will reduce the total mass ofresidual waste by 21% from 2019 levels.

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Interim target 3:
By 31 January 2028, the total mass of municipal residual waste in ayear does not exceed 333 kg per capita.
Interim target 3 covers the narrower scope of municipal
waste. This is waste from households plus waste similar incomposition to household waste, such as commercial waste.
We propose this target because it captures where current
policy interventions, the Collection and Packaging Reforms,
are focused. It also provides a reference point for thematerial-based interim targets, which currently can only besatisfactorily measured at a municipal level. Achieving thistarget will reduce the total mass of municipal residual waste
by 29% compared to 2019 levels.

Interim targets 4-8:
By 31 January 2028, the total mass of:• Residual municipal food waste in the most recent full calendar
year does not exceed 64 kg per capita. This is equivalent to a
50% reduction from 2019 levels.
• Residual municipal plastic waste in the most recent full calendar
year does not exceed 42 kg per capita. This is equivalent to a
45% reduction from 2019 levels.
• Residual municipal paper and card waste in the most recent fullcalendar year does not exceed 74 kg per capita. This is equivalent
to a 26% reduction from 2019 levels.
• Residual municipal metal waste in the most recent full calendar
year does not exceed 10 kg per capita. This is equivalent to a
42% reduction from 2019 levels.
• Residual municipal glass waste in the most recent full calendar
year does not exceed 7 kg per capita. This is equivalent to a 48%
reduction from 2019 levels.

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We are setting material-based interim targets to ensure
all key waste material streams, not only the heaviest, arereducing in tonnage. Further, including a plastic waste
interim target specifically will enable us to track ourprogress against our previous commitment to eliminate all
avoidable plastic waste by 2042.

Other targets andcommitments
Resources and Waste Strategy and Net Zero
Strategy ambition
We have also set out our long-term commitments to:• Reduce food waste, including achieving the
Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 to halve per capita
global food waste at the retail and consumer levels by2030.
• Significantly reduce and where possible prevent
all kinds of marine plastic pollution – in particularmaterial that came originally from land.
• Develop policies towards the near elimination of
biodegradable municipal waste to landfill from 2028 aspart of the Net Zero Strategy.
Family recycling cardboard
at recycling centre

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MAXIMISE OUR RESOURCES, MINIMISE OUR WASTE• Achieve a municipal recycling rate of at least 65% by 2035.
• Seek to eliminate waste crime and illegal waste sites by
2042 prioritising those of highest risk.
• Deliver a substantial reduction in litter and littering behaviour.

Government estate
The government has ambitions for waste on its own estate. In
2021 we achieved our target of sending less than 10% of waste tolandfill. We also reduced our waste by 51% against a 2014 to 2015baseline, saving an estimated £33.5 million in 2020 to 2021 alone.
The current Greening Government Commitments, to be met by2025, are to:• Reduce the overall amount of waste generated by 15%
from the 2017 to 2018 baseline.
• Reduce the amount of waste going to landfill to less than
5% of overall waste.
• Increase the proportion of waste which is recycled to atleast 70% of overall waste.
• Remove Consumer Single Use Plastic (CSUP) from thecentral government office estate.

Our delivery plan
To deliver against our goal and targets, we are taking action
across a number of areas:
1 Delivering our collection and packaging reforms –implementing reforms to collections and packaging,producer responsibility and introducing a deposit returnscheme.
2 Enabling people to take the right action – providing
incentives and ensuring the infrastructure, informationand skills are in place.

In 2020 113,000
people worked
in the waste andwaste treatment
sector in the UK

3 Reducing our use of materials – preventing waste fromoccurring in the first place and managing it better when
it does, doubling resource productivity.

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4 Tackling waste crime – so as not to allow our ambition
to be undermined by criminality.
5 Global leadership in tacking waste and pollution –tackling plastic pollution in our interconnected oceans.

1. Deliver our collection andpackaging reforms
Deliver consistent collections
Different local authorities currently collect different
materials for recycling, which leads to incorrect messaging
about what can or cannot be recycled, making it harder forhouseholds to recycle. We will be supporting frequent andcomprehensive rubbish and recycling collections.
Defra will:• Introduce a consistent household and business waste
collections policy. This will ensure the same recyclable
waste streams (paper and card; glass; metal; plastic;
food waste; and garden waste (from households only))are collected for recycling from all households andbusinesses. The measure that will make the biggest
impact in driving progress towards our targets isrequiring separate food waste collections, as many local
authorities already do. We will provide capital funding
for local authorities in England to prepare to implement
free separate food waste collections for all households.
• Require this core set of recyclable waste streams to
be collected from households and businesses, with the
exception of plastic films and micro-firms which will
have a two year exemption .

Implement Extended Producer Responsibility for
Packaging
We know producers want to prioritise the sustainability of theirpackaging, but that can sometimes be more costly or come at
the expense of on-shelf visual appeal. By reforming the current
packaging producer responsibility system we can introduce
measures to incentivise producers to make better more

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sustainable decisions in the design and use of packaging.
Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) will
move the full net cost of dealing with packaging waste
generated by households from local taxpayers and councils
to businesses that handle and use packaging.
Once EPR is fully operational this shift of cost from local
authorities to producers is estimated to be around £1.2
billion per year across all local authorities. Packaging waste
recycling targets will be set for six packaging materials(plastic, card, steel, aluminium, glass and wood) for eachyear from 2024 to 2030.
EPR will be introduced on a phased basis from 2024, focusing
on payments for household packaging waste in the first phase.
We are engaging with stakeholders to shape the future
vision of waste reforms through industry wide sprint events,
deep dive sessions and fortnightly forums. This will also
help ensure business readiness for reform related changes.

2. Enabling people to takethe right action
Work to make sure people understand how andwhy to reduce waste
We want to help people make choices so we can move to atruly circular and sustainable economy.
Since 2018, Defra has:
• Launched a £15 million pilot scheme to reduce food waste.
Funding has been awarded to many projects including
employing specialists to help businesses measure andact on food waste. Results include an additional 15,000
tonnes of surplus food redistributed. A further £10
million supported resource efficiency projects with thegoal of diverting, reducing, and better managing waste.

Our policies aim to reduce andprevent food waste• Awarded £12 million to the redistribution sector since2019 to make sure more surplus food gets to those
who have a need.

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MAXIMISE OUR RESOURCES, MINIMISE OUR WASTE• Funded and supported behaviour change campaigns to
help business and consumers waste less food.
• Increased our packaging recycling rate from 62.1%
in 2018 to 63.2% (provisional) in 2021 and tonnes
recycled from 7.4 million tonnes in 2018 to 8 million
tonnes in 2021 – an additional 672,000 tonnes.
Defra will:• Continue to support the RecycleNow campaign, which
communicates clear information on high impact
actions individuals can take to recycle.
• Mandate recycling labelling for packaged productsby 31 March 2026 except for plastic films and flexible
which we will mandate by 31 March 2027.
• Fund WRAP to continue food waste prevention work.
This includes guidance, research and campaigns
including Food Waste Action Week. This funding will
also support governance of the Courtauld Commitment
2030, a cross sector voluntary agreement to halve
food waste between 2007 and 2030.
• Consider options to improve food waste reporting bylarge food businesses in England. By increasing thenumber of businesses measuring and publicly reporting
their food waste, we expect to drive action to reduce it.

Eliminate avoidable plastic waste by 2042
Since its introduction in 2015 the single-use carrier bag
charge has reduced the total number of single-use carrierbags sold from 2.1 billion in 2016 to 2017 to 496 million in
2021 to 2022. The average person in England now buys
around 3 single-use carrier bags each year from the mainsupermarkets, compared with 140 in 2014. We further
decreased their usage through the increase of the 5p
charge to 10p and its extension to all businesses in 2021.

Single-use plastic
plates and cutlery
will be banned from
October 2023

We are going further, working towards all plastic packaging
on the market being recyclable or reusable by 2025. Since
2018, we have:• Restricted the supply of single-use plastic drinking straws,
plastic-stemmed cotton buds and plastic drink stirrers.

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MAXIMISE OUR RESOURCES, MINIMISE OUR WASTE• Introduced a Plastic Packaging Tax, charging £200
per tonne on plastic packaging manufactured in, or
imported into, the UK that does not contain at least
30% recycled plastic.
• Announced a mandatory takeback requirement for
fibre-based composite cups, as part of EPR.
Defra will:• Ban the supply of single-use plastic plates, cutlery,balloon sticks and expanded and extruded polystyrene
food and drinks containers from October 2023.
• Review progress of the mandatory takeback requirement
for fibre-based composite cups requirement and consider
whether the obligation should be extended to all sellersof filled fibre-based composite cups.
• Explore options further, including with stakeholders,for the potential for technological innovation in the
production of coffee cups, and behavioural science in
how they are used.
• Consider next steps following our call for evidence onother problematic items including wet wipes, cigarette
filters and sachets.

We are making it easier torecycle your waste electronicand electrical items

Make it easier to recycle electrical items
We all end up with unwanted or unusable waste electrical andelectronic equipment, but it can be difficult or inconvenient forpeople to do the right thing, making existing communication
campaigns challenging to resonate effectively. Since 2020
Defra has mandated large retailers to offer a free, 1 for 1
take back service for old electrical appliances.
To make this easier going forward, Defra will:• Consult on improvements to the producer responsibility
scheme for waste electronic and electrical equipmentin 2023 making it easier for people to properly disposeof their electrical waste including ensuring provision ofadequately funded communications to consumers.
• Consult on improvements to the batteries regulations
to increase collection of batteries from the household,

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strengthen producer responsibility schemes, andaddress supply and safety challenges around novel
battery technology. This will also support thetransition to electric vehicles.

Eliminating biodegradable waste to landfill
In the absence of oxygen (below the surface), anaerobic
degradation of biodegradable waste produces methane andcarbon dioxide. Methane’s global warming potential is roughly
80 times greater per tonne emitted than carbon dioxide over
20 years, and 25 times greater over 100 years.
To achieve the near elimination of biodegradable waste
to landfill, we will launch a call for evidence to support
development of a plan to achieve the near elimination of
biodegradable municipal waste going to landfill from 2028.

3. Reducing our use ofmaterials
Publish the new programme to maximise
resources and minimise waste for England
We are designing our policies to move to a more circular modelof resource use. Since 2018 the government has extended thelife range of household products such as washing machines andtelevisions through Ecodesign and Energy Labelling regulations.
Defra will publish the new maximising resources andminimising waste programme in England. The programme
will set out our priorities for action across 7 key sectors construction, textiles, furniture, electronics, vehicles, food,and plastics, packaging and single-use items - to manage
resources and waste in accordance with the waste hierarchy.

Implement a Deposit Return Scheme

The Deposit Return
Scheme for drinks
containers will be
introduced from
October 2025

UK consumers go through an estimated 14 billion plastic drinks
bottles and nine billion drinks cans a year. Not only does thisrepresent a substantial amount of single-use material, but it
also drives littering. Drinks bottles and cans regularly feature
among the most commonly found items on UK beaches.

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Recycling rates of drinks containers have stagnated at 70%
but by charging a deposit when a container is bought andrefunding it on return we expect at least 90% of plastic
bottles and aluminium and steel cans to be collected.
Defra will introduce a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for
drinks containers, for cans and plastic bottles. We intend
this to start from October 2025.

4. Tackling waste crime
Support councils to tackle anti-social behaviour
such as litter and fly-tipping
Anti-social behaviour by a minority can make life miserable
for many. As part of cross-government efforts to crack down
on anti-social behaviour, we will support councils by enablingthem to improve enforcement. Since 2018, Defra has:
• Given councils new powers to tackle littering from vehicles.
• Helped councils make it easier for people to do theright thing with their litter by publishing guidance on‘binfrastructure’ in 2019 and providing nearly £1 million
to help councils purchase new bins.
• Awarded over £450,000 in grant funding in 2022 tohelp several councils tackle fly-tipping at hotspots;
published a report on the drivers, deterrents andimpacts of fly-tipping; and published the first part of a
fly-tipping toolkit on presenting robust prosecutions.
• Introduced a fixed penalty for householders who failin their household waste duty of care and publishedmaterials to help councils raise awareness amongresidents of their duty of care.
• Launched the Chewing Gum Taskforce in 2022 which will
see major chewing gum producers invest up to £10 million
over five years to help tackle chewing gum littering. The
Task Force has recently announced funding of £1.25
million to help more than 40 councils across the UK clean
gum off pavements and invest in long-term behaviourchange to prevent gum being dropped in the first place.

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Defra will:• Award a further £800,000 available in grant fundingfor councils to tackle fly-tipping.
• Continue to deliver commitments in the Litter
Strategy for England (published in 2017), such as
reviewing the Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse.
• Publish the remaining parts of the fly-tipping toolkit.
Amongst other content, this supports local authorities to
set up and run effective partnerships to tackle fly-tipping
and promote duty of care around household waste.
• Provide statutory guidance on the proportionate useof litter fining powers.
• Bring forward further measures in due course to tackle
anti-social behaviour.

Strengthen powers to take action against waste
crime
We are strengthening powers to crack down on waste related
criminal activity, which costs the economy about £1 billion eachyear. Legitimate businesses are undermined by rogue operators
who dump or export waste illegally. We want to increase
penalties and better detect illegal activity to stamp this out.
Since 2018, we have:• Strengthened the powers to tackle waste crime, byintroducing new powers to stop illegal waste sites posing
a risk to the environment, including the ability to lock up
sites and to force rogue operators to clean up all theirwaste. Agencies now have stronger powers of entry andaccess to evidence in prosecuting waste crimes.
• Launched the Joint Unit for Waste Crime in January
2020 to tackle serious and organised crime in the sector.
Since then, the sharing of intelligence and tacticalcoordination between the law enforcement agencies has
led to regular action to disrupt the activities of organised
crime groups in the sector, with some significant impacts.

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Building on reforms already made, Defra will:• Introduce a mandatory digital waste tracking service
to modernise existing waste record keeping. This will
enable regulators to better detect illegal activity andtackle waste crime, including fly-tipping, illegal waste
sites, and illegal waste exports.
• Tighten the waste exemptions regime to stop criminals
using exemptions to hide illegal waste activity.
• Strengthen the regulation of those controlling andtransporting waste to require more background checks
and to make it easier for regulators to take action
against non-compliant operators.

5. Global leadership in
tackling pollution
Pollution happens at a global as well as a domestic scale.
Pollution from mismanaged waste may be burned, dumped
on land, and can end up in the ocean and then washes up
on our shores. We tackle this by regulating export of wastes
from the United Kingdom and engaging internationally todrive up standards and ensure effective global regulation.

Regulating export shipments of waste
Legislation is in place to control exports of waste. Thislegislation imposes strict conditions on the types of wastethat can be exported and sets out procedures that waste
exporters must follow.
Exporters must ensure that waste is dealt with appropriately
throughout the shipment and at the receiving facility.
Exporters found guilty of an offence under the regulations
can be fined and/or imprisoned for up to two years.
In 2021 we updated the UK plan for Shipments of Waste, theplan strictly limits when waste can be shipped to or fromthe UK for disposal.

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Defra will:• Ban the export of plastic waste to countries thatare not members of the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD). This will help
ensure that the waste we export is recycled to UK
equivalent standards.
• Internationally, following the UK’s active participation in
the negotiations, from 1 January 2025 waste electricaland electronic equipment will only be able to be exported
if the destination country agrees. This increases
protection for vulnerable countries from unwanted
imports, reducing the human health and environmental
hazards stemming from undocumented e-waste.

Play a leading role in tackling waste andpollution globally
Since 2018 the UK government has:
• Worked with WRAP and the Ellen MacArthur
Foundation to launch the UK Plastics Pact. The Pact
has brought together businesses from across thewhole plastic lifecycle to tackle plastic waste. We
have also provided WRAP with funding to support thedevelopment of Plastic Pacts around the world.
• Co-led (with Japan and China) work to update
international guidelines under the Basel Convention on
the environmentally sound management of plastic wastes.
• Championed high ambition at the negotiations fora new treaty on plastic pollution, so this treaty candeliver the international action needed to end plastic
pollution by 2040.
• Launched the UK Methane Memorandum at the UN
Climate Summit COP27, to specifically address what
the UK has done to reduce methane emissions, sharing
our best practice with others.
• Demonstrated global leadership on methaneand produced a Methane Action Plan to improve
effectiveness at cutting emissions across relatedindustry sectors. As well as committed to developing

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new monitoring techniques and regulatory approaches
to reduce methane emissions in the waste sector.
And we will go further to:• Work with partner countries through the UK’s Blue
Planet Fund to strengthen policies and regulations
needed to eradicate plastic pollution and mismanaged
waste. This includes continuing to invest in the Global
Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) to establish up to
25 plastic partnerships with countries by 2025 toreduce plastic pollution and waste. We have alreadyestablished partnerships with Indonesia, Ghana,Vietnam, Pakistan, Nigeria, Maharashtra in India andEcuador. GPAP also supported 11,000 waste pickers tocontinue working during the COVID-19 pandemic byproviding personal safety packages.
• In Ghana, our collaboration with Miniplast, a national
manufacturer of industrial and household products, led
to an increase in the company’s recycling capacity toover 1000 tonnes per month, with targets to increase
this to 5000 tonnes by 2025.
• Our Blue Planet Fund investment into the United
Nations Tide Turners Plastic Challenge Badge project
has supported over 500,000 participants in 35
countries by 2022 including Kenya, India and Malaysia.

Case study: UK Plastics Pact
Plastic waste is one of the biggest global environmental
challenges we face, and it requires collaborative action
to tackle this issue. The UK Plastics Pact (UKPP) is an
initiative to create a circular system that keeps plastic
in the economy and out of the natural environment. Ledby the charity Waste and Resources Action Programme(WRAP) and supported by government through funding,
it is a coalition whose members cover the entire plastics
value chain and are responsible for, approximately two
thirds of the total plastic packaging placed on the UK
market.

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Since 2018, there has been an 84% reduction in
problematic and unnecessary single-use plastic items,with a total of 620 million of these items being taken
off UK shelves by members. We’re also seeing positive
action on the recyclability of plastic packaging. Up
from 66% in 2018, 70% of plastic packaging from
Pact members is now recyclable at home. To further
progress towards this target, WRAP is encouraging
businesses and consumers to adopt reuse systems andhabits. Nearly half of members are already runningpilots and trials in this space, and a further third plan to
do so by 2025.

Monitoring and evaluation  We have a suite of indicators that measure progressagainst the Resource and Waste Strategy and informits Evaluation Plan. From these we developed waste andresource related indicators in the Outcome Indicator
Framework (OIF) which, alongside the Annual Progress
Reports, monitor progress towards delivering the EIP. The
Outcome Indicator Framework contains 66 indicators,
arranged into 10 broad themes.
The relevant Outcome Indicator Framework indicators for‘Maximise our resources, minimise our waste’ are listed
below:
C1

Clean seas: marine litter

J1

Carbon footprint and consumer buying choices

J2

Raw material consumption

J3

Municipal waste recycling rates

J4

Residual waste arising by type and sector

J5

Prevent harmful chemicals from being recycled

J6

Waste crime.

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Our collection and packaging
reforms will make it easier forhouseholds to recycle

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Goal 6Using resources fromnature sustainably
Key policies to make sure we are using our natural resources sustainably
Maintainsustainable andlong-term supplyof timber andwood products

Promotesustainability
in international
supply chains

Enhance soil healthand deliver a highquality, resilient foodsystem through our
new farming schemes

Use domestic legislation
to sustainably manage
our fish stocks

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USING
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NATURESUSTAINABLY
SUSTAINABLY

The natural environment is a valuable asset and a major source of national wealth.
It is essential for securing our basic needs, maintaining our biodiversity andsustaining our economy; and, in 2020, the value of the UK’s natural capital was
estimated to be £1.8 trillion. Protecting and enhancing our natural capital will
help deliver benefits, including long-term flood risk reduction, boosts to wildlife,
improvements to water and air quality, and opportunities for biodiversity net gain.
Using our precious, finite, natural resources more sustainably and efficiently is an
essential part of the action we need to take to meet our environmental challenges.
This means maximising their availability in a sustainable way.
The impact of our use of resources extends beyond our borders. We are continuing
to develop sustainable supply chains and growing the market for sustainably
produced commodities globally.
There is good work underway – but we need to scale up quickly to protect andenhance our natural capital for every generation to come.

Our 25 Year Environment Plan goal
Use resources from nature, such as timber, fish and food, more sustainably andefficiently.

Since 2018, we have:• Championed international forest protection and restoration and sustainableagriculture, including through the Glasgow Leader’s Declaration on Forestsand Land Use as UN Climate Summit COP26 President, the Policy Dialogue on
Accelerating Transition to Sustainable Agriculture, and the launch of the Forest
Agriculture and Commodity Trade (FACT) dialogue.
• Published the England Trees Action Plan setting out our long-term vision for
England’s forestry sector to 2050 and the measures we will take to boost tree planting
and improve woodland management, including for sustainable timber production.
• Taken back control of our waters, letting us manage our own fish stocks to increase
their sustainability through the first UK Fisheries Act 2020 since 1981.
• Published our government Food Strategy setting out how we will broadly maintaindomestic food production whilst meeting our net zero and other commitments.
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USING RESOURCES FROM NATURE SUSTAINABLYWe have the following targets and commitments:• Halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation globally by 2030.
• Ensure that all fish stocks are recovered to and maintained at levels that can
produce their maximum sustainable yield.
• Through our new farming schemes, bring at least 40% of England’s agricultural soil into
sustainable management by 2028, and increase this to 60% by 2030.
• Deliver a sustainable, nature positive, affordable food system that provides choice
and access to high quality products.

To deliver these, we will:• Implement legislation to make it illegal for larger businesses operating in the UK
to use key forest-risk commodities that have been grown on land that is illegally
occupied or used.
• Deliver a package of measures to protect forests internationally and support
sustainability, in response to by advice from the Global Resource Initiative.
• Implement Fisheries Management Plans to reduce negative ecosystem impacts andhelp to deliver the recovery of stocks.
• Continue to deliver the agricultural transition to reinvest £2.4 billion per year overthe course of this Parliament to incentivise farmers and land managers to improvesoil health, restore peatland and establish and restore woodlands and forests,
through our new farming schemes.

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Introduction
The natural environment is a valuable asset and a major
source of national wealth. It is essential for securing ourbasic needs, maintaining our biodiversity and sustaining our
economy; in 2020, the value of the UK’s natural capital was
estimated to be £1.8 trillion. Protecting and enhancing our
natural capital will help deliver benefits, including long-term
flood risk reduction, boosts to wildlife, improvements to waterand air quality, and opportunities for biodiversity net gain.
The flow of services and products directly obtained fromecosystems such as agricultural biomass, water extraction
and timber was £27.6 billion in 2020. Using these precious,
often finite, natural resources more sustainably andefficiently is an essential part of the action we will take tomeet our environmental challenges. For some resources,
such as timber and fish, this means maximising availability ina sustainable way, whilst generating environmental benefits.
For other resources, such as peat, it means reversing
historical overuse and restoring and protecting peatlands.
There is good work already underway – but we need to scale
up quickly to protect and enhance our natural capital forevery generation to come. This chapter sets out how we aremanaging valued natural resources including timber andforestry, fish, food and soil.
The impact of our use of resources extends beyond ourborders. So we are continuing to develop sustainable supply
chains and growing the market for sustainably produced
commodities globally.

Targets and commitments
Sustainable Supply Chains
Halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030,
in line with our commitment under the Glasgow Leaders’
Declaration on Forests and Land Use.
Implement due diligence legislation for forest risk
commodities and support the progress of the Forest andClimate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP) launched in 2022.

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Planting more trees
Planting more trees is critical to achieving net zero,providing more habitat and growing our future domestic
timber resource. In the 25 Year Environment Plan we
recognised this and committed to increasing woodland
cover in England to 12% by 2060.
As set out in the ‘Thriving plants and wildlife’ chapter, wehave gone further in our environmental targets, publishedin December 2022, and set a target of 16.5% of England to
be trees and woodland by 2050. We expect this to include
12% woodland cover, with the remainder made up by nonwoodland trees. This is key for our Net Zero Strategy andto deliver our manifesto commitment to plant 30,000 ha oftrees per year across the UK by the end of this Parliament.

Managing fisheries more sustainably
Develop Fisheries Management Plans as a way of managing
fisheries more sustainably and driving progress towards thisgoal. They will include plans on how to maintain and restore
fish stocks to sustainable levels. The timetable for deliveryof the 43 Fisheries Management Plans is set out in the
Joint Fisheries Statement, published in November 2022.

Improving and protecting soil healthThrough new farming schemes, bring at least 40% ofEngland’s agricultural soil into sustainable management by
2028, and increase this to 60% by 2030.

A sustainable, nature positive, affordable foodsystemThe government’s Food Strategy set out our objective
to deliver a sustainable, nature positive, affordable foodsystem that provides choice and access to high quality
products. This aims to support healthier and home-growndiets for all.

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Our delivery plan
Continuing to drive progress towards this goal will requireconcerted action across a range of sectors, with direction set
by government but delivery often in the hands of industry:
1 Shifting to more sustainable supply chains – Global
trade has helped countries meet increasing demand
while spreading prosperity. Shifting to sustainablesupply chains gives us the opportunity to promoteand support production that uses lower emissions andbetter protects the environment.
2 Maintaining a sustainable and long-term supply oftimber and wood products – planting and establishing
more trees and woodlands will play an important rolein supporting the green economy, levelling up rural
areas and creating thousands of new jobs.
3 Managing fisheries more sustainably – the fishingindustry forms the foundation for, and contributes
significantly to, the continued prosperity of coastal
communities around the UK. The industry prides itself
on delivering valuable employment opportunities tootherwise remote or rural areas and providing healthy,
sustainable food to the UK as a whole.
4 Improving and protecting soil health – healthy soil
will provide natural protection against the impacts ofclimate change, such as flooding and drought and will
increase the diversity of our plants and animals andtheir ability to thrive.
5 Supporting a prosperous, healthy and nature
positive food system – our food system is dependent
on maintaining a healthy and sustainable naturalenvironment, providing us with the inputs we need tocontinue to grow, rear and produce food domestically.
This is complemented by international trade to provide
our high level of food security.

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1. Shifting to moresustainable supply chains
Tackle deforestation in international supply chains
Around 90% of global deforestation is driven by agriculture,much of it to produce the commodities which areinternationally traded and which we use daily. So action wetake at home and support we can provide abroad can makea real difference.
We have:• Championed international forest protection andrestoration and sustainable agriculture, supporting
partnerships, dialogues, and trade between producer
and consumer countries that will support thetransition to sustainable supply chains and protecting
forests. This includes the Forest, Agriculture andCommodity Trade (FACT) Dialogue, Glasgow LeadersDeclaration on Forests and Land Use (GLD), and Forest
and Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP).
• Signed a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) withIndonesia in March 2019, a bilateral agreement between
a timber-producing country and the UK. VPAs aim to
reduce illegal logging by strengthening the sustainability
and legality of forest management, improving forest
governance, and promoting trade in legally andsustainably produced timber. We expect to progressother VPAs with partners such as Ghana and Vietnam.

We championed
international
forest protection
and sustainableagriculture
during our COP26
Presidency• Convened the Global Resource Initiative (GRI)
independent taskforce to provide advice on how we
could reduce the global environmental footprint of our
supply chains. Their recommendations focused on theissue of addressing forest loss. In our response, wehave set out how we are now delivering a package ofmeasures on this. Our approach to taking forwards therecommendations of the GRI includes:• Supporting producers to shift to moreenvironmentally and economically sustainable
land use including through Overseas

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Development Aid (ODA) programming and thedevelopment of markets for sustainably produced
agricultural products.
• Increasing market demand and strengthening pricesignals for sustainably produced commodities.
• Supporting the development of strong
partnerships between commodity producer andconsumer countries and the private sector to
support collective global action.
We will continue to deliver our package of measures on
addressing forest loss, including:• Using our trade agreements and trading relationships to
support UK ambition on forestry, nature and sustainablesupply chains to support the UK’s strong environmental
and climate commitments.
• Leveraging our role in global food supply chains toachieve greater sustainability of commodity production
and trade, which will support halting and reversing
forest loss.

Tackle illegal deforestation in our supply chains
A significant proportion of deforestation is illegal, around
95% in some key forests. Globally, recent research
estimates that at least 69% of tropical deforestation
for commercial agriculture between 2013 and 2019 was
conducted in violation of national laws.
The Environment Act introduced new provisions to make itillegal for larger businesses operating in the UK to use key
commodities that have been grown on land that is illegally
occupied or used.
We will now operationalise these provisions through secondary
legislation. Businesses in scope will also be required toundertake a due diligence exercise on their supply chains,
and to publicly report on this exercise every year, or risk finesand other civil sanctions. The government has committed to
implementing these regulations at the earliest opportunity.

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Ensure high levels of environmental protectionin our approach to trade
The government has been clear that it will not weaken ourcurrent environmental protections and will continue toensure a high level of protection of the environment in new
trade agreements.
We will:• Use our trade agreements and our bilateral andmultilateral trading relationships, as well as
Multilateral Environmental Agreements, to support
UK ambition on forestry, biodiversity nature, andsustainable supply chains.
• Seek to include provisions to deepen cooperation on
natural resources and ozone depleting substances
through our trade agreements.
• Encourage trade on a sustainable footing that
contributes to the delivery of global environmental
targets at the World Trade Organisation. The UK isan active Member in three trade and environment
forums: the permanent multilateral Committee on
Trade and Environment; and the plurilateral Trade andEnvironmental Sustainability Structured Discussions
and Dialogue on Plastic Pollution.

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2. Maintaining a sustainable
and long-term supply oftimber and wood products
Encourage productive planting to increase supplyof domestic timber
In 2021 Defra published the England Trees Action Plan
setting out our long term vision for England’s forestry
sector to 2050 and the measures we will take to boost tree
planting and improve woodland management, including forsutainable timber production.
Defra will work in partnership with the commercial forestry
sector and others to boost tree planting and overcome
barriers to this activity by:• Creating guidance on how to encourage more welldesigned multi-functional woodland creation alignedwith the UK Forestry Standard, such as continuous
cover forestry. This will support the planting of amix of conifer and hardwood species in a way which
maximises the benefits of our woodlands for carbon,
nature and for timber.
• Funding a £1 million project to better understandthe financial implications of woodland creation, tohelp build the evidence base and economic case forplanting trees.
• Improving regulatory processes to make tree planting
a simpler, quicker and more attractive option for land
managers on lower productivity land, while retaining
strong environmental and biosecurity safeguards.
• Delivering the mechanisms set out in the ‘Thriving
plants and wildlife’ chapter to boost woodland creation
rates in England. This aims to increase the long-term
availability of soft and hardwoods.

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Make best use of our domestic timber resource
Our timber supports sustainable wood product markets,
rural jobs and timber processing sectors. We will encourage
greater rates of sustainable woodland management andtimber harvesting across England, while supporting naturalregeneration and restocking of existing woodlands. We will
also work with other government departments and industry
to support the safe and sustainable use of timber in thebuilt environment and in public procurement.
Since 2018, Defra has:
• Supported farmers and land managers with theCountryside Stewardship Woodland Management
Plan grant to support sustainable management of
their woodlands in line with UK Forestry Standard
requirements.
• Awarded £4.27 million to support the purchase oflarge items of forestry equipment under the previous
Countryside Productivity scheme.
• Introduced a new Timber in Construction Innovation
Fund, which will provide £1.5m of funding to increase
and facilitate the use of homegrown wood and wood
fibre in construction from sustainably managed
English woodlands. The fund will support projects
which aim to increase the volume of carbon stored
in the built environment, better utilise our hardwood
resource and bring novel or improved wood-richproducts, systems and/or processes to market.
Defra will:• Provide grants through the Farming Equipment andTechnology Fund to enable land managers to purchaseforestry equipment, such as forwarders, tree shears,
forestry grabs, trailers and winches. As of November
2022, 490 pieces of forestry equipment with a value ofover £890,000 were supported under the first roundof FETF.
• Open new rounds of the Woods into Management
Forestry Innovation Funds through the Nature for
Climate Fund. This will stimulate the development
and testing of new ideas to help improve the ecological

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condition of woodlands and their resilience to climatechange through increased demand for wood andincreased levels of woodland management. For example:• The £4.5 million Regional Woodland Restoration
Innovation Funds supports innovative projects toencourage and broaden innovation in the forestry
sector. This aims to improve the ecological conditionof existing woodlands and create a market pull
for locally sourced timber and coppice products.
• The £1.25m Routes to Market for Ash Timber
Innovation Fund supports projects to develop newuses for ash timber from trees felled due to ash
dieback. This includes the delivery of new furnituresupply chains for ash boards and plywood. The
fund has already supported research into the useof rotary veneer technology to add value to small
diameter ash logs from small woodlands, helping to
improve potential revenue opportunities and makemore efficient use of this felled ash timber resource.
• The Temporary Infrastructure Innovation Fund ismaking up to £1.25 million available to support
projects exploring innovative means to overcome
vehicle access barriers to neglected or undermanaged woodland.
• The Timber in Construction Innovation Fundis providing up to £1.5 million to support thedevelopment of innovative timber products,
supply chains and ways of working with wood.
• Finalise development of the Timber in Construction
Policy Roadmap, to outline the steps required to safely
increase the use of timber in construction in England.
• Work across government to increase demand forsustainable timber products by identifying opportunities
in public procurement policies and reviewing thegovernment’s timber procurement policy.
• Continue to support delivery of Nature for Climate
Fund funded land acquisition to accelerate tree
planting and secure a future supply of timber,including by introducing a freehold element to run
alongside existing leasehold and grant offers.
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Enhance tree nursery capacity to give us apipeline of healthy and diverse seeds and saplings
The nursery sector is currently able to deliver 150 million
trees per year, which needs to increase significantly
to enable the sector to fully deliver on our targets andcommitments. Defra will deliver investment through:• The £1.2 million Seed Sourcing Grant, which is supporting
the sector in increasing the quantity, quality anddiversity of Seed Stands and Seed Orchards in England.
• The Tree Production Innovation Fund, which is investing£5.7 million in projects to encourage innovation in thenursery sector and overcome tree production barriers
by increasing seed germination and establishments
rates, automating labour-intensive processes anddeveloping sustainable weed control solutions.

In the UK in
2022, 245,000
thousand people
were working
in agriculture,
forestry andfishing• The £8.8 million Tree Production Capital Grant,
which is supporting nurseries and seed suppliers tomodernise their facilities to improve the quantity,
quality, diversity and biosecurity of planting stock
available for planting in England, for example byadopting mechanisation and automation.

Support the skills, technical knowledge to build
capability for the future
Our tree planting ambitions will require thousands of
new jobs in the forestry sector to plant and manage ourcurrent and future treescapes. This is a huge opportunity tocontribute to levelling up rural areas across the country.
Defra will:• Deliver a Forestry Training Fund to unlock access topractical forestry training courses for new entrants tothe sector and provide upskilling opportunities for the
existing workforce.
• Expand the Professional Forester scheme, so that
individuals can “earn and learn” via a three-year
degree level apprenticeship.
• Continue to work with industry to support increased

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opportunities for apprenticeships, T Levels and othertechnical training routes into the forestry sector, whilelooking to resolve barriers to education and training
provision.
• Scope options for a digital skills hub to bring together
key resources on forestry education, careers andskills opportunities, and work with the Department for
Education to explore how best to connect schools withcareers in nature-based sectors, such as forestry.

Case study - Stourhead (Western) Estate –Owned by Nick Hoare
Stourhead (Western) Estate is an example of how
sensitive woodland management can support
productive forestry alongside the delivery ofenvironmental benefits and improved resilience topests, diseases and climate change. Located within
Cranborne Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty,
the site contains over 650 hectares of forest which
produces around 6,500m3 of timber each year. The
estate is managed using innovative continuous coverforestry (CCF) practices to maximise the delivery of
biodiversity benefits while still continuing to generate acompetitive income from timber sales.
The estate is one of the best examples of permanently
irregular, mixed coniferous stands in the UK, withspecies including Douglas fir, cedar and spruce. It
consists of interspersed conifer and broadleaf planting
where CCF has been practiced for the last 20 years.
CCF is not suitable for all types of woodland or for all
locations but where it can be used it helps to createa structurally, visually and biologically more diverse
woodland capable of delivering quality sustainabletimber and a wide range of ecosystem services. The
irregular structure enables the estate to support a
wealth of biodiversity, including 248 moth species,
13 bat species (including both Lesser and Greater
Horseshoe and Barbastelle), 26 bird species and 128
plant species. This holistic approach to forestry also
makes the woodland more resilient to pests, diseases
and climate change.

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The Estate is preparing positively for the future. By
widening the range and genetic diversity of the UKgrown tree species being planted and adopting modern
approaches to woodland management, it is developing
forest stands with a high resistance to pests, diseases,
extreme weather and climate change. The Estate
expects to plant nearly 80 hectares of additional trees
in 2023 to expand the woodland and further increase
the economic and nature benefits it provides.

3. Managing fisheries moresustainably
Sustainable management of fisheries requires appropriate
management of our diverse stocks. The economic
sustainability of our seafood sectors and of fishing-dependentcommunities can only be built on environmental sustainability.

Apply an ecosystem-based approach to marine
and fish stock management

The Fisheries Act
2020 gives the
UK full control of
its waters for the
first time since1971, allowing us tosustainably manage
our seas

Since 2018, Defra has:
• Delivered a new legal framework for fisheries
management which commits us to balancing
environmental, economic and social considerations
when managing our fisheries.
• Published the Joint Fisheries Statement with thedevolved administrations in Scotland, Wales andNorthern Ireland. Recognising that action on fisheries
and the marine environment can be most effective
when we take coordinated action across our sea,
the statement sets out our policies for achieving, or
contributing to the achievement of, the Fisheries Act’s
eight fisheries objectives.
• Put in place fisheries agreements with our partners
across the North-East Atlantic, including the EU, Norway
and the Faroe Islands. These are important parts of
unlock sustainable fishing across all of our seas, setting

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shared goals and catching limits regardless of nationalityof boat. To further support this, we have joined 5priority Regional Fisheries Management Organisations,as well proactively arguing in organisations like theFood and Agriculture Organisation for stronger ocean
governance measures globally.
• Committed to maintain funding to EU levels over thisParliament. In England a significant proportion of thismoney is part of the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme,a grant scheme which is investing in safeguarding thelong-term sustainability, resilience and prosperity ofthe seafood sector.
• Established the £100 million UK Seafood Fund funding
infrastructure, science and innovation, and skills andtraining projects throughout the UK seafood industry.
This includes funding to reduce carbon emissions
through electric boat engines, solar panels and newtechnology as well as improving sustainability throughbetter research into fish stocks. In the first round of
the Infrastructure scheme this included nearly £9million to processors in Scotland and over £10 million
to processors in Grimsby and Cornwall.
Defra will:• Deliver Fisheries Management Plans, with the firstplans coming in 2023. We will work closely with thefishing sector and other stakeholders. In addition tosustainably managing stocks, these plans will seek
to support the delivery of the appropriate objectives
from the UK Marine Strategy. These plans will
promote selectivity, reduce negative impacts on theecosystem and help to deliver the recovery of stocks.
• Publish each year a transparent and scientificallyrobust assessment of the sustainability outcomes of
our annual fisheries negotiations. This assessment will
analyse our performance in the quota-setting processagainst scientific advice. Once all negotiations for2023 are complete, we will publish this year’s report.
• Continue to invest in the multi-year Marine Natural
Capital and Ecosystem Assessment Programme(mNCEA). This will build a robust evidence base which

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brings together ecological, societal, and economic
information. This is already being put to use inconsidering how best to use our forage fish, including
sand eels and Norway pout, to support the wider
ecosystem.

Tackle illegal, unregulated and unregistered(IUU) fishing activity
Illegal, unregulated and unregistered fishing activity results
in a loss globally of between $10-23 billion a year in illicit
catches, as well as severely impacting our ability to manage
our stocks sustainably.
We have established the IUU Fishing Action Alliance with
the USA and Canada. It will drive action to implement
international agreements, improve monitoring control andsurveillance and promote data sharing.
We will also:• Continuing to promote effective monitoring, control,
surveillance and enforcement internationally.
• Advocate for increased data sharing so we can more
effectively manage our shared resources. This helps
third countries to manage UK vessels when they are in
their waters, as well as making sure that the productthey have on board is legal.
• We are taking action to improve the robustness of ourseafood supply chains by requiring all licensed vessels
fishing in English waters, regardless of nationality orsize, to report their location, speed and direction via
Vessel Monitoring Systems devices in 2023. This will
provide positional data for all licensed fishing vessels
for the first time, improving our ability to control,
enforce and manage their activity.

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4. Improving and protecting
soil healthSupport farmers and land managers
Approximately 70% of England’s soil is agricultural. So
Defra has introduced the arable and horticultural soils
standard and improved grassland soils standard under the
Sustainable Farming Incentive. Farmers are being rewarded
for actions that protect the soil from erosion, increase soilorganic matter, and enable the plants and organisms thatlive in the soil to function effectively. This includes theintroduction of herbal leys and the use of grass-legume
mixtures or cover crops.

We are supporting
our farmers to bring
60% of England’ssoils into sustainable
management by
2030

Defra will continue to incentivise farmers and land
managers under our new agri-environment schemes tomanage land in a way that improves and protects the overall
health and structure of the soil.
By 2028 we will bring at least 40% of England’s agriculturalsoil into sustainable management through our new farming
schemes, increasing this to up to 60% by 2030.

Establish comprehensive baseline data
We monitor soil health as part of the Natural Capital andEcosystem Assessment (NCEA), but on top of this Defra will:• Establish a soil health indicator under the 25 Year
Environment Plan Outcome Indicator Framework.
• Publish a baseline map of soil health for England by 2028.
• Support farmers and land managers to establish theirown soil health baseline, so they can best manage thehealth of their soil.
• Provide a methodology and tools to collect consistent
information about the health of the soil under all landuses.
• Share current guidance and best practice with farmers
and land managers to improve their knowledge andwork with them on how to improve soil health.
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Prevent valuable soil resources from being sent
to landfill
In 2016, soil made up 58% of material sent to landfill in the
UK. In construction projects, the careful re-use of soil can
avoid soil being designated a waste material and to bringit back to beneficial use, helping create more green spaces
and increasing biodiversity. We are working to:• In 2023, publish a revised Code of Practice for thesustainable use of soil on construction sites, which will
help to reduce the amount of soil sent to landfill.
• Begin development of a Soil Re-Use and Storage Depot
scheme to help prevent soil that would otherwise beclassified as waste going to landfill, and encourage
remediation and re-use of soil. We will start piloting
this by 2026.

Secure the integrity of future soil carbon codes
There are several proprietary soil carbon codes and growinginterest in an agricultural soil carbon market. However, there
are concerns around the additionality and permanence ofincreases in soil carbon storage for climate change mitigation
benefits. Any soil carbon code must be underpinned byscientifically robust methodologies to protect buyers andsellers and ensure the integrity of the market.
Defra will support the development of high-integrity
markets for ecosystem services. This includes minimum
requirements that carbon codes should adhere to.

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5. Supporting a prosperous,
healthy and nature positive
food system
Our new farming schemes are designed to support
the foundations of food production and the naturalenvironment, recognising the key role that farming and foodsupply have to play in restoring our natural environment.
Food production relies on long-term environmental
foundations such as access to water, the presence ofpollinators and fertile soil; a healthy environment will help
us to improve our food security.
Our food security is dependent on strong domestic production,balanced with sustainable international trade. The government
Food Strategy set the objective to deliver a sustainable,
nature positive, affordable food system, as well as to broadly
maintain the current level of food we produce in England.
We have made several commitments in the government
Food Strategy to help us deliver a sustainable and resilient
food system:

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The government
food strategy set
out our ambition todeliver a sustainable
and resilient foodsystemWe are developing Fisheries
Management Plans (FMPs) as away of managing fisheries moresustainably and driving progress
towards this goal. Lobsters area species included as one of the
6 ‘frontrunner’ FMPs.

USING RESOURCES FROM NATURE SUSTAINABLY• We will publish a Land Use Framework for England in2023.
• To drive more sustainable practices across the entire
food system we have committed to deliver a new fooddata partnership. This will ensure a level playing field sothat food businesses can more effectively compete in
the areas of health, sustainability and animal welfare.
• Through the food data partnership, we will also develop
a mandatory methodology for eco-labels. This aims toprovide a consistent approach across industry where ecoinformation is voluntarily used, mitigate any potential
greenwashing; and promote accurate information to
consumers around the environmental impact of their food.
• We are investing in agri-food innovation across the
supply chain, including joint investment with UK
Research and Innovation in food systems researchand innovation, as well as in farming and seafood
innovation. We will work with farmers and growers toensure regulation supports this innovation to support
better outcomes for the environment.
• The International Development Strategy confirmed
our commitment to promoting climate-resilient,sustainable food systems globally. We will continue
to work internationally to promote sustainable foodsupply chains. For example, under our Presidencyof the UN Climate Summit COP26 we took forward
the Agricultural Breakthrough to make sustainableagriculture the most attractive and widely adopted
option for farmers by 2030 through the Policy Dialogue
on Accelerating Transition to Sustainable Agriculture.
• We will consider options to address risks of carbon
leakage within the food system. Our reporting on
the environmental and health impacts of the foodsystem will include an assessment of our global
environmental impact.
• We are developing an updated approach to public sector
food and catering. We have consulted on the sourcing of
public sector food, menu choices, and catering practices.
This includes proposals around on the sustainablesourcing of products, new standards for caterers tomeasure and minimise food waste, and to remove waste.
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Monitoring and Evaluation
We will monitor progress towards delivering the EIP23
through the Annual Progress Report and the Outcome
Indicator Framework. The framework contains 66 indicators,
arranged into 10 broad themes. The relevant indicators
for using resources from nature more sustainably andefficiently are:J2

Raw material consumption

C10 Productive seas: fish and shellfish stocks fishedsustainably
C11 Productive seas: status of sensitive fish andshellfish stocks
D3

Area of woodland in England

E1

Area of productive agricultural land

E2

Volume of agricultural production

E3

Volume of inputs used in agricultural production

E4

Efficiency of agricultural production measured
by Total Factor Productivity

E5

Percentage of the annual growth of trees inEnglish woodlands that is harvested

E6

Volume of timber brought to market per annum
from English sources

E7

Healthy soils

E8

Efficient use of water

E9

Percentage of our seafood coming from healthy
ecosystems, produced sustainably

For timber and forestry, the Forestry Commission’s Key
Performance Indicators also report on “Percentage ofwoodland that is sustainably managed”. Increasing the areaof woodland that is sustainably managed is likely to support
an increase in domestic timber supplies. Forest Researchalso publish forecasts of expected future softwood andhardwood availability through the National Forest Inventory.
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To further support this in fisheries, we have committed tohave robust and transparent processes in place to ensure
UK-produced fish is legal, including requirements aroundvessel monitoring for all boats.
For soil, our new soil health baseline will help track soil
health. We are also developing a voluntary soil structure
monitoring scheme, to help those that actively manage soil.
This will focus on farmland initially and develop to consider
other habitats, including urban. The Natural Capital andEcosystem Assessment will also include soil monitoring.
For food, we will monitor delivery of the Food Strategy
including drawing together evidence on the impacts ofindividual policies to determine the overall progress of thestrategy. The government must also report on food security
to Parliament at least once every three years. The next foodsecurity report is due in 2024.

Broadleaf and conifer trees

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Goal 7
Mitigating andadapting toclimate change
Key policies and actions to mitigate climate change, and adapt to its impact
Continue our role as a
global leader in tacklingclimate change andbiodiversity loss

Fund the restoration of over
35,000 hectares of peatlands
in England by 2025 throughthe Nature for Climate
Peatland Grant Scheme

HMG

Invest in farmers andland managers to
mitigate flood risk andother climate-related
impacts through our
new farming schemes

Keep global warming
below 2°C, and aim
for 1.5°C in line with
the Paris Agreement

Publish our next
National Adaptation
Programme, setting out
actions governmentand others will take tobuild climate resilience

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MITIGATINGMITIGATINGAND
ANDADAPTING
ADAPTINGTOTOCLIMATE
CLIMATE CHANGE
CHANGE

Leaving the environment in a better state than we found it requires us to mitigate
and adapt to climate change.
Due to climate change, we will see more intense and changeable weather andcoastal erosion; an increase in risks from pests, pathogens and invasive nonnative species; and knock-on impacts to our ecosystems, habitats, species andagricultural, forestry and marine productivity. This means that we must go further
to build the climate resilience of our ecosystems.
The relationship is also two-way: we can only reach net zero with Nature-based
Solutions. Our habitats are crucial carbon sinks, and deliver increased co-benefits
compared to other carbon solutions. As set out during our presidency of the UN
Climate Summit COP26, we must deploy nature at scale domestically and aroundthe world in order to keep 1.5°C alive.
Nature and land-based sectors therefore must go beyond net zero and becomecarbon negative by 2050 in order to support the rest of the economy. We
will support that transition, by investing in the necessary innovation andtransformational change across the country.

Our 25 Year Environment Plan goal
Take all possible action to mitigate climate change, while adapting to reduce its
impact.

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Since 2018, we have:• Put Net Zero into law, the first developed country to do so, and published the Net
Zero Strategy, which sets out our policies and proposals for decarbonising all
sectors of the UK economy to meet our net zero target.
• Increased total spend from the Nature for Climate Fund on peat restoration,
woodland creation and management to more than £750 million by 2025.
• Promoted advances in climate resilient crops through the Genetic Technology Bill
to mitigate impacts of climate change.
• Built the climate resilience of UK business and infrastructure through adaptation
reporting by 120 organisations in the water, energy, transport, financial andtelecommunication sectors.
• Held the Presidency of the UN Climate Summit COP26 in 2021 where all parties
agreed to the Glasgow Climate Pact, the first to interlink the issues of climatechange and biodiversity loss.
• Announced an Agricultural Breakthrough at COP26 where parties agreed to makeclimate resilient, sustainable agriculture the most attractive and widely adopted
option for farmers by 2030.

We have the following targets and commitments:• A UK-wide legally binding target of net zero emissions by 2050, including carbon
budgets 4, 5, and 6 from 2023 to 2037; and our 2030 Nationally Determined
Contribution.
• Produce a UK Climate Change Risk Assessment to identify risks, followed by a
National Adaptation Programme to address those risks every five years.
• Under the Montreal Protocol we are committed to phasing out the production ofozone-depleting substances; under the Kigali amendment, we are committed toreducing HFC consumption by 85% by 2036.
• Under the Paris Agreement, we are committed to limiting global warming to well
below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, and aiming for 1.5
degrees under our presidency of the UN Climate Summit COP26.

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To deliver these, we will:• Publish the third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) in 2023 that will set out
our five year strategy to build the UK’s climate resilience.
• Later in 2023 we will update on our progress and plans to reach net zero.
• Publish a Land Use Framework in 2023 to setting out how we will balance multiple
demands on our land including climate mitigation and adaptation.
• Investing in farmers and land managers to mitigate flood risk and other climatechange-related impacts in our natural environment, through our new farming
schemes.
• Continue our role as a global leader in tackling climate change, biodiversity loss andland degradation and push for an integrated approach to international action.
• Deliver our commitment to spend £11.6bn of International Climate Finance between
2021 and 2026, including at least £3 billion on solutions that protect and restore
nature.
• Expand the number of organisations in scope for adaptation reporting on theirclimate resilience preparedness.
• Fund the restoration of over 35,000 hectares of peatlands in England by 2025
through the Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme.

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Introduction
Climate change was identified by the Intergovernmental
Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem
Services (IPBES) as one of the direct drivers of biodiversity
loss. Building the resilience of our environment, by creating
more joined up and buffered places for nature as well as
tackling hazards which are increased by climate change, iscrucial to leaving our environment in a better state.
As global temperatures increase, we will see more intenseand changeable weather and coastal erosion; an increase inrisks from pests, pathogens and invasive non-native species;
and knock-on impacts to our ecosystems, habitats, species
and agricultural, forestry and marine productivity.
In 2021 we published the Net Zero Strategy which sets out
cross-government policy to meet net zero by 2050. Naturebased Solutions, like restoring peat and planting trees, are
key to delivering our climate change agenda. They deliver
multiple benefits for climate, biodiversity, and people, andwill therefore play a critical role in our plans to tackle theinterrelated climate and biodiversity crises.
Our land-based sectors are integral to the UK’s wider
approach to net zero as a significant carbon sink. Throughout
this document we have set out the actions to deliver net
zero on our land reflecting the inherent link between
nature, biodiversity and our climate goals, focusing on thecontribution that farming and a reduction in fluorinatedgases use can make to tackling climate change and delivering
our nature ambitions. Waste decarbonisation is set out inthe ‘Clean and plentiful water’ and ‘Maximise our resources,
minimise our waste’ chapters, and our plan for trees is set
out in the ‘Thriving plants and wildlife’ chapter.

Our Net Zero
Strategy,
published in 2021,
set out policies
and proposals for
decarbonising all
sectors of the UK
economy to meet
our net zero target
by 2050. This
Environmental
Improvement Plan
sets out land use
considerations
for net zeroalongside nature,
biodiversity andclimate adaptation
goals

As well as seeking to achieve net zero to mitigate theimpacts of climate change, we must also adapt to become
more resilient to the changing climate – and help othercountries to adapt.

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Targets and commitments
Net zero
The 2019 Climate Change Act, updating the 2008 Climate
Change Act, set out:
• A legal requirement to reduce net greenhouse gas
emissions by at least 100% (net zero) by 2050 relative
to 1990 levels.
• A framework of carbon budgets to ensure continued
progress towards the net zero target, capping emissions
in successive five-year blocks. We have seperately
published the fourth (2023 to 2027), fifth (2028 to2032), and sixth (2033 to 2037) carbon budgets.
• A requirement for a Climate Change Risk Assessment(CCRA) every 5 years, responded to by a National
Adaptation Programme (NAP) for England.
In addition to our carbon budgets, at the UN Climate
Summit COP26 we agreed an ambitious Nationally
Determined Contribution through the UN process to reduce
emissions in 2030 by at least 68% compared to 1990 – thehighest reduction target set by a major economy to date.

International commitments
Fulfil the Montreal Protocol, including the Kigali amendment
to phase down the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) by
85% by 2036.
At the UN Climate Summit COP27, we:• Confirmed the government would triple funding forclimate adaptation as part of our international climate
finance, from £500m in 2019 to £1.5bn in 2025.
• Announced a range of investments worth over £100
million to support developing economies to respond toclimate-related disasters and adapt to the impacts ofclimate change.

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Our delivery plan
To deliver against our goal and these commitments, we are:
1 Reaching net zero domestically – Nature-based
Solutions are crucial to helping to meet our climate
ambitions. Changes in farming practice are required
to limit the emissions whilst maintaining agricultural
profitability and increasing productivity; combinedwith other work across different sectors.
2 Building resilience by adapting to climate change –while we aim to limit global warming to 1.5°C, evidenceshows that we must be prepared for warming up to
4°C. Adapting to climate impacts is embedded acrossour 25YEP goals and throughout the EIP.
3 Leading action internationally to tackle climatechange – our domestic climate change goals alone
will not be sufficient to keep temperature rises
below 1.5°C; international collaboration is essential
to leave the environment in a better place for future
generations.

1. Reaching net zero
domestically

We will restore and manage ourpeatlands

Net emissions from natural resources (agriculture, forestry
and other land use, waste and fluorinated gases) in England
were responsible for 54.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide
equivalent (MtCO2e) in 2020.
Alongside the delivery plan below, later in 2023, government
will update on our progress and plans to reach net zero.

Reduce our agricultural emissions through our
new farming schemes
Agricultural emissions contributed 27.3 MtCO2e inEngland in 2020. Changes in farming practice are required
to limit the emissions whilst maintaining agricultural
profitability and increasing productivity. We will regulate
where appropriate and necessary, and pay farmers andland managers to go beyond regulatory requirements to
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deliver carbon savings through our new farming schemes.
This includes providing incentives and grants to farmers
to decarbonise agricultural emissions through adopting
sustainable land management approaches, new technology,
and innovative practices to improve farm efficiency.
To achieve our greenhouse gas emissions targets, we willtake a range of measures, as informed by our research andevidence projects including on:• Land management: good land management canhelp increase carbon storage and reduce emissions
in agriculture, including integrating cover crops
and nitrogen-fixing break crops in rotations. We are
exploring how we can pay for a range of actions
through our new farming schemes to support farmdecarbonisation and Nature-based Solutions. This
includes the potential to support environmentallysensitive tillage practices, such as no till and direct
drilling.
• Innovation and technology: wide-spread applicationof innovation, science and technology can betransformational. We are exploring these throughinnovation and productivity schemes such as the £270
million Farming Innovation Programme and the Farming
Investment Fund. We’re also exploring innovations at
different stages of development including methane
inhibiting feed additives for livestock and improving fueland energy efficiency on farms.

The government
estimates that,along with otherregulations,the policies
underpinning the
Net Zero Strategy
and the British
Energy Security
Strategy could
support up to
480,000 green
jobs in 2030

• Improving skills and productivity: skills development
and productivity improvements can drive reduced
emissions. Examples include improving herd health andmaking use of nutrient management plans.
Defra will:• Continue to review uptake of relevant actions under
the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Countryside
Stewardship Plus and Landscape Recovery.
• Further invest in innovation schemes (such as Farming
Innovation Programme) and monitor progress to
inform development of future measures.

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• Publish a government response in 2023 to the callfor evidence on methane suppressing feed products,
which could support more sustainable beef and dairy
production. An application for use of 3-nitroxyproponol(3-NOP) is currently under consideration for use as amethane suppressing additive in dairy cows and cows
for reproduction by the Food Standards Agency andFood Standards Scotland. We recognise the potential
for these products to help decarbonise livestock
farming systems.
• Publish a government response to our call for evidence
on agricultural and land-use Monitoring, Reporting andVerification within the UK Emissions Trading Scheme(ETS) consultation.
Many of the actions farmers can take to enhance thenatural environment and contribute towards net zero willcontribute to multiple targets. For example, planting trees
and restoring peat to create habitats are critical actions for
mitigation of climate change.
Agroforestry systems can also contribute to net zero andsupport soil health and water quality whilst providing
shade for crops and livestock. Our aim is for silvo-arable
agroforestry (where arable crops are grown with trees) to
become much more widespread to support the woodland
and tree cover target. We will support this transition
through Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside
Stewardship Plus, with new offers being launched from2024. Countryside Stewardship Plus will also pick up fromthe current Nature for Climate Fund to be the primary
vehicle for other tree planting from 2025 onwards,
supported by Landscape Recovery.
We will continue to monitor reductions against carbon
budgets and introduce further measures as necessary to
reduce and sequester emissions in these sectors.

Calculate carbon through Monitoring, Reportingand Verification (MRV)Farm-level MRV of greenhouse gas emissions will help enable
farmers and other land managers to better understandtheir sources of emissions and open up new financial
opportunities, such as combining private commercial
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opportunities with our new farming schemes support. It
will increase confidence in traded carbon in the private
sector and could unlock greater consumer choice and hencemarketing opportunities for farmers through eco-labelling
opportunities.
In June 2022, the government made a commitment in the
Food Strategy to develop a mandatory methodology whichmust be used by those who wish to use eco-labels or makesustainability claims about their products. MRV will help with
providing consistent emissions data to use on such labels
which will enable consumers to make informed choices in linewith their values.
We will agree a standardised methodology on the calculationof carbon. This will help prepare for the possible inclusion ofagriculture in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme.

Drive long-term, stable demand for woodland carbon
We are exploring the inclusion of greenhouse gas removals
in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme, including the potential
inclusion of high integrity woodland carbon, such as
Woodland Carbon Units. A call for evidence on this issue
closed in June 2022, and a Government Response will be
published in due course.

Manage, restore, and protect our peatlands, andend the use of peat in horticulture
Peatlands, with their acidic, low oxygen conditions, lockaway organic carbon and have created England’s largest
terrestrial carbon store. They provide a home for rare
wildlife, regulate our water supply, and support flood
protection and drought management. But only 13% ofEngland’s peatlands are in a near natural state. Drainedand degraded peatlands are a significant ongoing source ofcarbon emissions.
Our England Peat Action Plan set out the government’s
long-term vision for the management, protection andrestoration of our peatlands, so that they provide a wide
range of benefits to wildlife, people and the planet. The aim
is to restore approximately 280,000 hectares of peatland in
England by 2050.

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Restore damaged peatlands
The Nature for Climate Fund is already providing over £33
million to restore 20,000 hectares of peatlands, with afurther bidding round in 2023. This helps to implement the
England Peat Action Plan which set out a series of actions
to restore these important carbon sinks.
To further restore and protect our peatlands, Defra will:• Fund over 35,000 hectares of peatlands to be restored
in England by 2025, through the Nature for Climate
Peatland Grant Scheme.
• Beyond 2025, the main delivery vehicles for peat will
be incentives through the government’s new farming
schemes:• From 2024, Countryside Stewardship will provide a
key funding stream for wetter modes of farming.
• Landscape Recovery will provide long-term
funding to support large-scale peatland
restoration projects.
• The Farming Innovation Programme supports
applications for research and development in
paludiculture.
• Continue to work with partners to develop thePeatland Restoration Roadmap, which will set out
a detailed trajectory for restoration to 2050. This
will capture detailed actions required to achieve ourrestoration target. It will be informed by data fromthe England Peat Map and findings of the Lowland
Agricultural Peat Task Force.
• Mobilise private investment by developing the Peatland
Code further, including by expanding the Code tocover lowland peat and exploring further carbon
pricing opportunities for the sector. We have funded
the accreditation with the UK Accreditation Service,established the UK Land Carbon Registry to permit thesale of carbon savings through the Code, and funded
research to support the launch of version 2 which will
apply to a broader range of peatland habitats.

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Support responsible management measures toimprove lowland peat
Degraded lowland peat accounts for 3% of England’s overall
greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing these emissions, byrewetting our agricultural peat soils, is essential to meeting
legally-binding net zero targets. We are committed tohalting the degradation of our lowland peat soils whichcauses such significant harm to the environment. We
are committed to working with farmers and other land
managers to halt the degradation of our lowland peat soils.
Defra will:• Build on the recommendations of the Lowland
Agricultural Peat Task Force, setting the foundations torewet peat soils and change the way we farm on them.
• Launch a £6.6 million lowland peat research anddevelopment programme.
• Continue to deliver the £5.6 million Paludiculture
Exploration Fund.
• Develop new farming scheme options to support
the restoration of lowland peat and wetter farming
methods.
• Publish the new England peat map.
• Continue to implement the England Peat Action
Plan, ensuring it prioritises emissions savings. We will
be examining what actions are now required beyond
planned incentive schemes to stop the deterioration of
our peat soils and their associated emissions. We will
update on next steps in due course.

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Case study: The Lapwing Estate - Reverse Coal
The Lapwing Estate covers 5,000 acres of landnear Doncaster, crossing the county borders of
Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire.
Home to one of the country’s leading organic farms,
the estate is now being used to re-think how lowland
agricultural peat soils can be more responsibly managed.
A project called “Reverse Coal” is underway to abate
emissions, store carbon and produce food. The
project has received funding from BEIS as part ofits Greenhouse Gas Removal project and academic
support from the UKCEH and University of Lincoln.
Using water from an onsite reservoir, the projectis seeing lowland peat fields re-wet to reduce andpotentially reverse emissions. On the re-wetted
peat, short willow coppice is set to be grown andpyrolyzed to create biochar, then buried in a containedwaterlogged condition to store carbon. The energy
released from this reaction will be used to power a
vertical farm to house food crops displaced from thepeat. The project operates on a closed system.
We are encouraging farmers to
introduce agroforestry systems

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Protect our peatlands from further harm
We have:• Introduced regulations that ban the burning ofvegetation on deep peat on our most protected sites inEngland, unless licensed.
• Continued to work closely with the professionalhorticulture sector on speeding up their transition
to peat-free alternatives ahead of a ban for the
professional horticulture sector, recognising thatthe professional horticulture sector faces additional
technical barriers that will take longer to overcome.
We will ban the sale of peat for use in the amateur gardening
sector by 2024 when legislative time allows. This builds onwork with the sector since 2011, and investments made inpeat-free alternative growing mediums.

Reduce F-gas consumption and production
Fluorinated gas (F-gas) total 9.9 MtCO2e emissions in Englandin 2020. Global action to reduce the use of HFCs was agreed
under the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. This is
expected to avoid 0.1°C of warming by 2050 and 0.4°C by 2100.

We’re ahead ofschedule in meeting
the Kigali target,
having alreadyphased down HFCs
placed on the market
by 55%The UK is ahead of schedule in meeting the Kigali HFC
phasedown target of 85% reduction in consumption by
2036, having already phased down HFCs placed on themarket by 55%.
Current legislation on refrigeration, air-conditioning andheat pumps, is already driving a move away from F-gas
use as industry innovates and takes up alternative options;additional action could see even greater reductions.
We will also continue to work with the NHS on changing
prescribing practices to reduce F-gas emissions by improving
management of pulmonary diseases and switching patientsto different types of inhalers where the product is at least as
good as current models. Industry are also taking action by
developing and securing regulatory approval of MDIs (typesof inhalers) that use propellants with lower global potential.
We will explore options to accelerate the reduction ofemissions. We will consider investing in research anddevelopment to support this.
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2. Building resilience byadapting to climate changeManage climate risk
Examples of work across our goals to manage climate risk
include:• Delivering over £3 billion in climate financing overthe next five years, including £200 million for a new
Climate Innovation Facility to scale-up technologies tohelp deal with the impacts of climate change, such as
drought-resistant agriculture and sustainable forestry,
in markets where private investors have been reluctant
to take on the risk alone.
• Launching a £10 million Water Management Grant
Scheme which will help prepare land managers for
future climate impacts on clean and plentiful water.
• The Nature Recovery Network will help to make ourhabitats and species healthier and more resilient toclimate impacts. This will improve society benefits
from ecosystem services such as flood resilience, waterprovisioning and healthier pollinator populations.

We will publish
the Third National
Adaptation
Programme (NAP3)
in 2023, which will
provide policies
and objectives foradaptation• Investing in climate science and research, such as
the latest UK Climate Projections, which increases
understanding of how the climate will change to 2100,
with better understanding of climate extremes.
• Supporting government departments and othergovernment bodies to consider climate risks in projectappraisals and investments through HMT Green Book
supplementary guidance.
• Promoted advances in climate resilient crops throughthe Genetic Technology Bill to mitigate impacts ofclimate change.
• Built the climate resilience of UK business andinfrastructure through adaptation reporting by 120
organisations in the water, energy, transport, financial
and telecommunication sectors.

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We know more action is needed. The Climate Change Risk
Assessment identifies 61 climate risks and opportunities
that need action to improve resilience to a changing climate.
The government will:• Publish the third National Adaptation Programme(NAP3). NAP3 will set out the range of adaptation actions
against climate risks to all sectors for a five-year period(2023 to 2028). It will provide policies and objectives
for adaptation, filling the gap between current action
and the growing level of climate change risk.
• Continue to work across government to ensure
adaptation is embedded in departmental decision
making across policy themes.
• Use the NAP3 and EIP23 to co-ordinate and monitor
actions and policies that will contribute towards our
25YEP goals, ensuring their delivery and management
are suitable and adaptive to a changing climate.
• Pay for natural flood risk management and othermeasures to adapt to the impacts of climate change inthe countryside, through our new farming schemes.

Case study: Storm Arwen: from devastation
to woodland regeneration
Climate change is one of the biggest threats to ourforests. With more extreme weather, drought andwildfire, increasingly putting pressure on forests,
our management plans are now heavily focused onprotecting and future proofing our precious woodlands.
The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) workwith Landmarc Support Services to manage land andfacilities across the Ministry of Defence’s 190,000
hectares of UK training estate. In 2021 Storm Arwenbought strong winds of up to 100mph causingwidespread damage across the Defence Training Estate.
The scale of work to clear windblown and fallen trees
was considerable, covering an area of 6,000 hectares
and more than 20,000 windblown trees.

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Whilst the immediate impact of Storm Arwen wasdevastating, from a longer-term forestry perspective,
it provides an opportunity to re-structure the affectedwoodlands to make them more resilient; not only to
climate change but also to pests and diseases, such asash dieback.

3. Leading action
internationally to tackle
climate change
Reset the global relationship on nature throughinternational leadership on climate change andbiodiversity loss
The UK recognises that action needs to be taken internationallyto meet the stretching goals of the Paris Agreement and theKunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

We are an active participant ofinternational treaties, including
the UNFCCC and CBD

We are recognised as global leaders, through our presidencyof the UN Climate Summit COP26, the critical role we played
at the subsequent Climate Summit COP27 and UN Nature
Summit COP15 negotiations and as President of the G7.
During our presidency, we secured the Glasgow Climate Pact,
recognising the explicit link between climate change andbiodiversity for the first time in a UN agreement
We will:• Implement the 10 Point Plan for Financing Biodiversity,
which provides the blueprint for how to financenature’s recovery and has been endorsed by over 40
countries across six continents.
• Drive progress on an agricultural breakthrough, whenparties to the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC) agreed to make climateresilient, sustainable agriculture the most attractive
and widely adopted option for farmers everywhere by2030 – which is being enhanced through the Policy

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Dialogue to Accelerate Transition to Sustainable
Agriculture and Food Systems.
• Support local action on forestry, including delivering
our commitments to the IPLC Forest Tenure Pledge,
supporting the donor working group and delivery of
the FCDO Global Land Governance Programme, andcontinuing to support delivery of the Glasgow Leaders’
Declaration on Forests and Land Use.

Promote Nature-based Solutions internationally
Nature-based Solutions are a mechanism by which biodiversity
loss, climate change and poverty can be addressed in asustainable way and are therefore central to the delivery of the
global Sustainable Development Goals. Nature-based Solutions
bring together our environmental and net zero goals.
We will build on the G7 commitment to the 2021 Nature
Compact through the successful negotiation of amultilaterally agreed definition of Nature-based Solutions at
the United Nations Environment Assembly.

Provide and promote international climate finance
The UK is a global leader in its contribution to international
climate finance. We hope this incentivises other nations
to provide financial support to help the global effort tomitigate and adapt to climate change.
The UK will continue to support the use of Nature-based
Solutions, through our International Climate Finance andother Official Development Assistance. These funds provide
support for:• £20.7 million in Disaster Risk Financing to support
countries which face climate-related disasters, helping
them to afford insurance and to access reliable
funding, more quickly, after a disaster.
• £13 million to support vulnerable countries to adapt
to climate impacts, and towards efforts to avert,
minimise, and address loss and damage.
• £20 million for our Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chain
Solutions programme to enable developing countries to

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International
Climate Finance isa UK government
commitment tosupport developing
countries to
respond to thechallenges andopportunities ofclimate change.
EIP23 sets out
some of how
our funding will
support thispledge, throughthe use of naturebased solutions
and climate
adaptation

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make rapid progress on reducing hydrofluorocarbons
and adopt energy efficient cooling solutions in bothvaccine and food cold chains.
• Ensure that in 2023, all new bilateral UK Official
Development Assistance spending aligns with the Paris
Agreement.
We will also:• Deliver our commitment to doubling our International
Climate Finance contribution to at least £11.6 billion
between 2021 and 2026, including investing at least £3
billion of International Climate Finance in development
solutions that protect and restore nature, with at least
half of this spent on forests.
• Deliver key programmes that will support developing
countries to help meet global commitments to better
protect 30% of land by 2030, including the £100
million Biodiverse Landscapes programme and further
funding of up to £29 million announced at the UN
Nature Summit COP15.
• Support developing countries to better integrate nature
in decision-making. The UK is providing £9 million
to the UNDP Climate Promise, a key UN programme
supporting countries to deliver against the Paris
Agreement including through Nature-based Solutions.
• The UK is providing £40 million to a Global Centre
on Biodiversity for Climate to support research anddevelopment that can generate evidence and unlock
new approaches to addressing biodiversity and climate
challenges simultaneously.
• Deliver the £500 million Blue Planet Fund to support
developing countries to protect and restore marine
environments including through access to UK scientificexpertise. This includes funding for biodiversity loss,
sustainable fisheries, pollution, and climate change:• The UK Ocean Country Partnership Programme:delivering marine science technical assistanceacross marine pollution, biodiversity loss andsupporting sustainable seafood.

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• The Global Fund for Coral Reefs: combating the
global threats to coral reefs and protecting themarine biodiversity that they host.
• The Global Plastic Action Partnership: taking
collaborative action on tackling plastic pollution
in developing countries.
• The Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance:
applying science and incentivising investments into
critical ecosystems like mangroves, that provide
resilience against climate change, supporting theworld’s most vulnerable communities.
• The Global Ocean Accounts Partnership:
supporting the development and maintenance of
ocean natural capital accounts.

Our £500 million
Blue Planet Fund will
support developing
countries to protect
and restore marine
environments• The Climate and Ocean Adaptation and Sustainable
Transition: building coastal adaptation, resilienceand prosperity in developing countries witha focus on Nature-based Solutions, coastal
livelihoods and vulnerable coastal communities.
• The Sustainable Blue Economies programme:
supporting ODA eligible Small Island Developing
States to strengthen the management of theirmarine environment and resources to build
sustainable blue economies and strengthen theirclimate resilience.

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Monitoring and Evaluation
Monitoring progress in adaptation
Globally, monitoring the success of actions taken forclimate change adaptation is a major gap. We have begun
an adaptation indicators programme, working with theOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD) on its international indicators project. This will add
value to the currently available insights of the Outcome
Indicator Framework, which reports a number of indicators
relevant to climate change adaptation, in turn supporting
the NAP3 programme to be more targeted in its monitoring.
Adaptation at sea requires specific action. The UK will carryout monitoring and assessment of the resilience of marine
biodiversity to climate change in 2023.

Monitoring progress in mitigation
The Climate Change Committee publishes an annual
progress report providing a comprehensive overview of thegovernment’s progress in reducing emissions. Government
will respond to the Committee’s 2022 progress report by theend of March 2023. We also produce an annual greenhousegas inventory, with the latest emissions, to allow us tomonitor its progress towards international and domestic
targets. In addition, each year, we publish updated Energy
Emissions Projections, analysing and projecting futureenergy use and greenhouse gas emissions in the UK.
Defra has engaged academics involved in the developmentof the global warming potential to inform our Net Zero
Strategy. The standard metric for reporting greenhousegas emissions under international agreements is the 100year Global Warming Potential. It measures the ability of agas to trap energy in the climate system over 100 years. It
is currently the best method for comparing the intensity ofgreenhouse gas emissions across and between sectors andcountries.

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The global warming potential of different gases are:• Carbon dioxide (CO2): 1• Methane (CH4): 28• Nitrous oxide (N2O): 265
We will monitor progress towards delivering the EIP23
through the Annual Progress Report and the Outcome
Indicator Framework. The framework contains 66 indicators,
arranged into 10 broad themes. The relevant indicators for
mitigating and adapting to climate change are:
A2 Emissions of greenhouse gases from natural
resources
J1

Carbon footprint and consumer buying choices

To provide a baseline for monitoring peat condition andlocation, Defra is developing a new England Peat Map and a
Peat Restoration Register.  
Monitoring is embedded in our farming reforms. Our
monitoring work in the Future Farming and Countryside
Programme involves developing and tracking metrics –including how our activities are contributing to net zero.
For measures being delivered by standards within our new
farming schemes, our uptake forecasting and environmental
impact modelling within our monitoring and evaluation
programme will track who is doing the action, so we cantrack live progress towards trajectories.

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Our policies will help us adapt
to, as well as help mitigate,
climate change.

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Goal 8Reduced risk of harmfrom environmental
hazards
Key policies to help us manage environmental hazards

Plant woodland toslow the flow of waterand reduce flooding
risk along with othernatural flood
management options

Use green infrastructure
to reduce the risk andimpact of extreme heatand surface water
flooding through street
trees and Sustainable
Drainage Systems

Promote wetland andpeatland restoration asa natural way to tackle
wildfires, flooding, anddrought

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN 2023

Manage coastal
habitats, such as
through sanddune restoration,
to better protect
against erosion
and flooding

Construct traditional built flood
defences to better protect
communities against flooding

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REDUCED RISK OF HARM FROM ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDSNatural hazards pose a risk of harm to our health, the environment, and to our
economy. We are experiencing a greater number of longer, more intense wildfires,floods, and droughts – and temperatures and sea levels are rising. Millions of us
are already affected by environmental hazards, and that number will grow as our
climate changes.
We need to act now to secure a safe, healthy environment that supports our lives
and our economy in a way that is both effective and cost-effective. That is why wehave made significant investments to improve coastal and flood defences.
Now, we will go even further – from rewarding our farmers for taking action, to
continuing to support communities that suffer repeated flooding, and implementing
sustainable solutions that harness the power of nature and technology to keep ourtowns and cities cool in a warming climate.

Our 25 Year Environment Plan goal
We will reduce the risk of harm to people, the environment and the economy fromnatural hazards including flooding, drought, and coastal erosion.

Since 2018, we have:• Better protected 314,000 homes between 2015 and 2021 by investing £2.6 billion inflood defences.
• Invested a further £170 million in 2020 to accelerate delivery of shovel-ready flood
defence schemes.
• Published our Policy Statement setting out the government’s long-term ambition
to create a nation more resilient to flood and coastal erosion risk.
• Published the National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy,
providing a framework to guide the delivery of flood and coastal erosion
management and protection.
• Launched a £200 million Flood and Coastal Resilience Fund to test innovative
practical resilience actions and develop new ways of planning for the long term.

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REDUCED RISK OF HARM FROM ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDSWe have the following targets and commitments:• Invest in flood and coastal defence projects to better protect more properties.
• Double the number of government funded projects which include Nature-based
Solutions to reduce flooding and coastal erosion.
• Maintain at least 94% of major flood and coastal erosion risk management assets
fit for their designed purpose, through to March 2025. Our long-term aim is for thisto reach 98%.

To deliver these, we will:• Deliver projects funded by the £100 million Frequently Flooded Allowance, as partof the capital programme of investment, to support communities who have sufferedrepeated flooding.
• Invest a further £22 million per year, on top of baseline funding, for maintaining our
flood defences between 2022 to 2023 and 2024 to 2025.
• Mitigate surface water flooding by making sustainable drainage systems mandatory
in new developments, as set out in detail in the ‘Clean and plentiful water’ chapter.
• Invest in improving our flood forecasting capability for surface water flood risk.
• Deliver our £200 million flood and coastal resilience innovation fund to support thedevelopment of new innovative solutions to reduce risk.
• Reward farmers for actions to reduce risks and impacts from floods, droughts, andwildfires through our new future farming schemes.
• Provide grants from the £10 million natural environment investment readiness fundto explore revenue generation from Nature-based Solutions to reduce flood risk.
• Upskill those involved with land management and the public on managing wildfire risks.
• Roll out more green infrastructure in towns and cities to help reduce peak temperatures.

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REDUCED RISK OF HARM FROM ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDSIntroduction
Natural hazards pose a risk of harm to people, theenvironment, and to our economy. Conversely, we know thata safe, healthy environment provides both the essential
underpinning of our lives and a vital engine of our economy.
Currently, the incidence, intensity and duration of risks likewildfires, rising temperatures, flooding and rising sea levels
is increasing as our climate changes.
Millions of us are already affected to the tune of hundredsof millions of pounds – and these numbers will grow, athome and around the world, as the population increases
and the impact of climate change grows.
So, we must take action to boost our resilience now –through early action that will minimise costs and maximise
our impact. To meet the scale of the challenge ahead weneed everyone to play their part – including businesses
and those responsible for key infrastructure. We wantto encourage and incentivise a greater range of nongovernment investment to build our resilience to flood andcoastal erosion risks. We can achieve this by encouraging
new and innovative methods, such as green finance, and byraising awareness of the benefits of investment.
We will continue to reduce the risk of harm fromenvironmental hazards, so that our country is more resilientin the long-term, including taking account of future climatechange impacts.
Our priorities are to:• Create a nation more resilient to future flood andcoastal erosion risk.
• Reduce impacts of droughts so that water companies
can maintain supply in all except the most extreme
droughts (set out in detail in the ‘Clean and plentiful
water’ chapter).
• Protect against wildfires, working with a range ofbodies to reduce incidents of wildfires and manage
them when they do occur.

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The extreme
temperatures
experienced during
July 2022 were thehighest in recorded
history for many
places across the UK

REDUCED RISK OF HARM FROM ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS• Following the joint hottest summer on record in
the UK, reduce risks from heat, taking coordinatedaction across sectors to reduce exposure to hightemperatures.
We will look for co-benefits in the actions we take to build
resilience. For example, Nature-based Solutions which havebeen developed to reduce flood risk include actions to slow
the flow of water, create natural storage and replenish flood
plains and peatlands. These actions can build resilienceagainst other hazards such as droughts and support ourother goals, such as in the ‘Thriving plants and wildlife’
chapter.
We are working to reduce risk, and to mitigate the impact
when hazardous events do take place. To mitigate impacts,
we are improving community and property resilienceand improving our response and recovery capability. The
focus of EIP23 is the action we are taking to manage risk
reduction whilst delivering environmental improvement, so
we have not included our work to improve health outcomes
and reduce property impacts.

Targets and commitments• Invest in flood and coastal defence schemes to better
protect more properties from flooding and coastal
erosion impacts.
• We will double the number of government funded
projects to reduce flooding and coastal erosion
through nature based solutions.
• Through to March 2025 we will maintain at least
94% of major flood defences to be fully fit for theirdesigned purpose. Our long-term aim is for this to be
98% of major flood defences.

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REDUCED RISK OF HARM FROM ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDSOur delivery plan
To deliver against our goal, we are:1 Upgrading and expanding our national flood
defences and infrastructure - existing flood defences
led to an estimated saving of around £1.7 billion in
potential economic costs from the flooding that took
place between November 2019 and March 2020 alone.
2 Using nature to reduce flood and coastal erosion
risk – we are looking for opportunities to take actions
which have co-benefits across many EIP23 goals.
3 Managing the flood risk from surface water - thisaffects 3.2 million properties in England.
4 Better preparing our communities – to support theunderstanding of the impacts of these hazards andhow people and communities can be better prepared.
5 Supporting sharing best practice and innovative
approaches at a local level – recognising thatgovernment can support local partners on the groundcoming together to maximise local action.
6 Building resilience to increasing wildfire risk –recognising the negative impact that wildfires have on
biodiversity, air quality, and to human life.
7 Reducing risks from heat – as our climate changes,
looking for natural ways to reduce peak temperatures
where we live.

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1. Upgrading and expanding
our national flood defences
and infrastructure
Investment in flood and coastal erosion schemes
The current flood investment plan sets out the schemes
identified to protect more properties. We will also:• Accelerate delivery for flood defence schemes in 23
areas with an additional investment of £170m. These
schemes will better protect more than 10,000 local
businesses and safeguard around 100,000 jobs.
• Deliver an expected 80 schemes through the £100m
Frequently Flooded Allowance to support communities
where 10 or more properties have flooded twice ormore in the last 10 years.

Around 2,500
workers in GreatBritain in 2020
were constructing
water projects,
and our floods
programme is set
to support 10,000
jobs

Reservoir safety
As set out in the ‘Clean and plentiful water’ chapter we
recognise that we need to build more reservoirs. As we dothis, we also need to make sure new and existing reservoirs
are safe.
We are modernising reservoir safety by taking forward
the recommendations from the Reservoir Review reports
so we have a reservoir safety regime fit for now and thefuture. This includes all registered reservoirs having onsite
emergency flood plans and involves:• Working with industry to ensure we build up thecapacity of inspecting engineers now and for the future.
• Ensuring all inspections by supervising and inspecting
engineers are systematic, detailed, and impartial, toprovide robust and clear advice to owners.
• Improving the risk classification of reservoirs andsafety management practice of owners and operators.

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REDUCED RISK OF HARM FROM ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDSContinue to invest in the maintenance ofexisting defences
As well as building new assets, it is important for us tomaintain our existing flood and coastal defences, so theyremain functional and are resilient to climate change. We willcontinue to invest in flood and coastal defence maintenance,with an extra £22 million per year in 2022 to 2023 and 2024
to 2025 to secure and maintain a high level of readiness.

2. Using nature to reduce
flood and coastal erosion risk
Use Nature-based Solutions for flood management
Whilst hard infrastructure will still be needed to manage
flood risk in future there are also ways of managing floodrisk naturally which supports progress towards our otherenvironmental goals and targets.
We began this work by delivering the £15 million Nature
Flood Management Programme, which supported 60
projects between 2017 and 2021.
We will:

We will double
the number ofgovernment-fundedflood resilience
projects using
Nature-based
Solutions• Use the learning from the Natural Flood Management
Programme to improve development and deliveryof future natural flood management projects. This
includes highlighting the value of forging strong
community-based partnerships, supported by effective
local leadership.
• Double the number of government-funded flood
resilience projects using Nature-based Solutions.
• Continue the deployment of the £750 million Nature
for Climate Fund to deliver woodland creation andpeatland restoration projects which will have natural
flood management co-benefits.
• Make sure Local Nature Recovery Strategies include
proposals for Nature-based Solutions which improve
flood risk management where appropriate.

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REDUCED RISK OF HARM FROM ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDSWe are also working with private companies to invest innatural flood management:• The £10 million Natural Environment Investment
Readiness Fund provides grants to explore revenue
generation from Nature-based Solutions to reduce floodrisk and address other challenges such as water quality.

Case study: The Wyre Natural FloodManagement (NFM) Project
A successful pilot project demonstrating how private
investment can be blended with public sector funding
to finance natural landscape restoration to deliver ourenvironmental goals.
The Wyre NFM Project was initiated in 2019 by a groupof partners - working closely with local farmers including United Utilities, Rivers Trust, FloodRe, Co-op
Insurance and Environment Agency, with support from
Triodos Bank, to create a commercial business case fornatural flood management. The actions were part ofa catchment-based approach in the River Wyre, whichsuffers from significant flooding and water quality
issues that impact adversely on local communities,businesses and future development.
The project will deliver over 1000 targeted measures
such as tree planting, creation of temporary water
storage areas, leaky dams and a network of hedges
to significantly reduce flooding to local communities
at risk. These will be repaid through the sale of thebenefits accrued from the enhanced or improved
functioning of the ecosystem services such as flood risk
reduction, carbon sequestration, increasing biodiversity
and improving water quality.

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Incentivise actions for the farming sector to
reduce flood and coastal erosion risk throughour new farming schemes to:• Actively manage or restore land so that it is available
to store flood waters.
• Slow the flow of flood water in prioritised catchments
in England, reducing downstream flood risk.
• Restore river, intertidal and coastal habitats to restore
natural protections from floods and coastal erosion.
This will help increase our resilience to climate change,
including sea level rise.
• Improve farm productivity through more efficientuse of water, and to secure water supplies for crop
irrigation, through the Farming Investment Fund.
• Take action to improve soil health, as set out in the‘Using resources from nature more sustainably andefficiently’ chapter. This will improve infiltrationand storage of water, helping to mitigate the risk offlooding and drought, alongside other co-benefits forbiodiversity, food production, and carbon storage.
We have also expanded the Catchment Sensitive Farming
Initiative, covered in the ‘Clean and plentiful water’ chapter,
to add provision of flood risk management and resilienceto the list of environmental outcomes sought from farmers
and land managers.

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Case Study: Hills to Levels, Somerset
The Hills to Levels project started in 2015 as a holistic
approach to addressing flood risk through changes
in land management in Somerset, delivered by theFarming and Wildlife Advisory Group South West. The
project has used numerous smaller management
techniques with the idea that every farm, fieldand stream has a role to play across the 2871km2
catchment.
This project was possible with the help of key
stakeholders, including the Environment Agency,
the RSPB, Wildlife Trusts and the Somerset Rivers
Authority.
As of June 2022, 1,115 natural flood management
structures have been implemented, including leaky
dams, runoff attenuation features (such as leaky
ponds and swales), floodplain re-connection, andcross-slope hedge and tree planting schemes. As wellas protecting properties downstream, many featuresoffer wider environmental benefits such as the creationand enhancement of habitat. For example, 8.5km ofhedgerow and 19ha of woodland have been planted inSomerset under Hills to Levels umbrella projects. Manyof these schemes will also contribute to future carbon
sequestration.
The project focuses strongly on land management,with 200 soil husbandry visits and 62 soil management
plans delivered to date. Hills to Levels has also run four
reverse auctions in the county, delivering grant funding
for land management interventions, including 1562haof maize management to reduce runoff, and 346ha
grassland subsoiling to improve soil structure andinfiltration since 2018.

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3. Managing the flood risk
from surface water
Surface water flooding generally occurs after extreme
rainfall when water cannot immediately drain away or soak
into the ground.
We are delivering our Surface Water Management Action
Plan to support local authorities with their responsibilities
to manage the risks from surface water flooding.
We will also:• Consider recent recommendations made by the
National Infrastructure Commission. The government
will publish a response to the recommendations in
2023.
• Invest in improving our flood forecasting capability in“hotspot” areas to improve surface water flood risk
information, and improve the speed of communicationof storm forecasts to local responders.
• Support local authorities to manage surface water floodrisk, including improving surface water flood risk maps.
• As set out in the ‘Clean and plentiful water’ chapter,
we are requiring water companies to produce Drainage
and Wastewater Management Plans.

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Surface water
flooding generally
occurs after extreme
rainfall when watercannot immediately
drain away or soak
into the ground

Leaky wooden barriers on theRiver Lune in Cumbria, helping
to restore peat and reduce
flooding downstream

REDUCED RISK OF HARM FROM ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS

4. Better preparing ourcommunities
Increase the public’s understanding of the risk offlooding for their home
We want to encourage everyone to be aware of their riskof flooding and/or coastal erosion, including as those riskschange with a changing climate. We will:• Improve our digital services which allow homeowners
to check their flood risk. This will include incorporating
improved surface water risk information from local
authority mapping and data from the new national
assessment of flood risk by 2025.
• Continue to promote take up of our flood warning
service. In England all places at high risk of flooding
from rivers and seas will be covered by the flood
warning service from 2022 to 2023. Check for
Flooding provides access to issued flood warnings,
together with information on rainfall, and river, sea
and groundwater levels.
• Support an industry-owned voluntary code of practiceto promote consumer and business confidence inmeasures to reduce the impact of flooding on buildings.

Support the effective management of flood andcoastal erosion risks in the planning system
Planning policy is already clear that inappropriate
development in areas at risk of flooding should be avoided
by directing development away from areas at highest
risk. Where this is not possible, development should be
flood resilient and resistant, safe for its users for thedevelopment’s lifetime, and not increase overall flood risk.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing andCommunities has:
• Amended the National Planning Policy Framework
to make sure that all sources of flood risk, including
future flood risk, are considered in the planning

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system. This should mean that any new development issafe for its lifetime and that it doesn’t increase the riskof flooding elsewhere.
• Published a significantly updated Planning PracticeGuidance on Flood Risk and Coastal Change inAugust 2022.
We will:• Continue to provide robust and constructive advice toplanning authorities and monitor how and where thisis not followed.
• Make sustainable drainage systems mandatory in new
developments, as described in the ‘Clean and plentiful
water’ chapter.
• Work with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing
and Communities, and planning authorities, to ensurethat planning legislation, guidance and advice reflects
the most up to date understanding of flood risk.
We will also set policy direction for Property Flood
Resilience measures that supports consumer and industry
confidence, and therefore take-up.

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REDUCED RISK OF HARM FROM ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS5. Supporting sharing bestpractice and innovative
approaches at a local level
Local partners need to take ownership and responsibility
for managing and mitigating flood and coastal erosion risk.
We want to provide the right tools to enable locally driven
innovation and solutions to be embedded.
We have launched a £200 million Flood and Coastal
Resilience Innovation Fund. This will explore and promote
good practice to achieve local resilience. The programme will:• Provide funding to 25 local areas to test anddemonstrate innovative practical resilience actions– such as the Making Space for Sand initiative inCornwall and The Blue Heart project in East Sussex.
• Develop long-term adaptation pathways for theThames and Humber estuaries, the Severn Valley, andYorkshire. These projects will look ahead at least 50
years at what flood defences are needed. These trials
will develop ways of planning ahead in the long term to
make wise investment choices for the decades to come.
• Set up a £36 million Coastal Transition Accelerator
Programme, trialling opportunities in East Riding ofYorkshire and North Norfolk to adapt to a changing
climate in areas at significant risk of coastal
erosion. Learning from this programme will be sharedwith other coastal communities to inform futureclimate resilience and adaptation.
We are also:• Reforming local flood risk management planning sothat every area of England will have a more strategic
and comprehensive plan that results in long-term local
action to manage flood risk. This will complement theactions set out above, securing long term investment
plans for each area of England. Flood plans will join
up with other place-based plans - for example Local
Nature Recovery Strategies - to support an integrated
approach to land, water and the environment.

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REDUCED RISK OF HARM FROM ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS• Working with local authorities to ensure that Shoreline
Management Plans remain current and relevant,regularly reviewing the best evidence to inform andrefine recommendations and focus investment onpriority areas.

6. Building resilience toincreasing wildfire risk
The Climate Change Risk Assessment recognised thatwildfire is an increasing threat, and a coordinated approachis essential to mitigate and adapt to its impacts on people,
property, infrastructure, and the environment, including
natural capital and our natural carbon stores; as well as toplan the most effective response to wildfire incidents.

Confirm responsibilities, duties andcommunications to help prevent and mitigate
the risk of wildfires
Open access land can be legally restricted when there is adanger of exceptional fire risk. Byelaws can also be brought
in to limit activity that could increase the risk of fires inparticular places across the country.
We have taken specific actions to reduce risk:• Introducing licencing to manage the burning ofprotected blanket bog.
• Using the Peat Grant Scheme under the Nature for
Climate Fund to restore degraded peatland and make it
more resilient to wildfires.
The Home Office, as the lead department for wildfires has also:• Published the Wildfire Framework for Englandthat sets out the shared responsibilities acrossgovernment. This framework will be reviewed andrevised as necessary on an annual basis.
• Provided support and guidance to local authorities
and other statutory bodies to ensure effective
communications during periods of high wildfire risk.

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REDUCED RISK OF HARM FROM ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDSUpskill those involved with land management
and the public on managing wildfire risks
We need upskilling across society to tackle the increased
risk from wildfires. We have worked with partners acrossgovernment and beyond, including the National Fire Chiefs
Council, to design and deliver an accredited vegetation
fire training programme. That continues to upskill land
managers by consolidating knowledge and skills to prevent
future wildfires and improving prescribed fire operations.

7. Reducing risks from heat
The extreme temperatures experienced during July 2022
were the highest in recorded history for many placesacross the UK. High temperatures will increase risks to life,
wellbeing and productivity and are already impacting people
in the UK. Our work on adaptation, as set out in the climate
chapter, is important to tackle this.

There are natural
solutions for
managing heatin our towns andcities which deliver
co-benefits for our
biodiversity goals, aswell as cooling ourhomes and streets

Use nature to reduce peak temperatures
There are natural solutions for managing heat in our towns
and cities which deliver co-benefits for our biodiversity
goals, as well as cooling our homes and streets.
Environmental enhancements such as tree planting canreduce the impact of extreme heat. Urban areas with trees
are cooler in summer and warmer in winter. Well positioned
trees also improve the environmental performance ofbuildings by acting as a buffer or ‘overcoat’ reducing
thermal gain in summer.
We have published a Local Authority Tree and Woodland
Strategy Toolkit to support local authorities to develop
their own local tree and woodland planting strategies.
We will:

Urban areas with trees arecooler in summer and warmer
in winter• Deliver on our commitments to build more parks andincorporate green infrastructure in towns and cities.
• Extend the Urban Tree Challenge Fund to support theplanting and establishment of trees in urban areas.

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REDUCED RISK OF HARM FROM ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDSSupport heat adaptation for buildings
Improving the energy efficiency of new homes is important,
but we need to manage any unintended consequences ofincreasing the risk of overheating. This not only impacts
productivity and causes people discomfort but can be
dangerous for the very old and very young.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing andCommunities has:
• Introduced a new overheating requirement in thebuilding regulations. This means that new residentialbuildings must now be designed to reduce overheating.
• Ensured that the National Planning Policy
Framework is clear that Local Plans should consider
the long-term implications of climate change, including
the risk of overheating from rising temperatures.
This can be achieved in a variety of ways, for example
through natural ventilation in buildings, or through theprovision of multi-functional green infrastructure.

Develop a Single Adverse Weather and Health Plan
The health risks from natural hazards are linked and impact
on each other, particularly as our climate continues tochange, a clear plan that draws the impacts and challenges
together will help support better preparedness.
The UK Health and Security Agency is developing this planfor England in 2023. The plan will:• Support preparedness for the impacts of climatechange by providing guidance on hot and cold weather,drought, flooding and thunderstorms.
• This will inform actions across the health system andlocal communities to reduce the health impacts ofadverse weather.
• It will also include commitments to improved early
warning alerting systems (heat health and cold weather
alerts) to enable early action to be taken in response.

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REDUCED RISK OF HARM FROM ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDSMonitoring and Evaluation
We have committed to develop a national set of indicatorsthat will enable us to track progress on our aim ofincreasing resilience in flood and coastal erosion risk
management. These will build on what is already set out in
Defra’s Outcome Indicator Framework. We will provide an
update on progress in spring 2023.
Delivery of the £5.2bn capital programme is monitored
on an ongoing basis and is reported on annually. Ourevaluations include:• A post-programme assessment of the 2015 to 2021
capital programme, published in April 2022.
• A planned evaluation of our current £5.2bn capital
investment programme.
• On-going evaluations of our Flood and CoastInnovation Programme (expected to report at the endof this programme in 2027).
• An evaluation of the Property Flood Resilience Repair
Grant.
We will monitor progress towards delivering the EIP23
through the Annual Progress Report and the Outcome
Indicator Framework. The framework contains 66 indicators,
arranged into 10 broad themes. The relevant indicators for
reduced risk of harm from environmental hazard are:
F1

Disruption or unwanted impacts from flooding
or coastal erosion

F2

Communities resilient to flooding and coastal
erosion

F3

Disruption or unwanted impacts caused bydrought

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REDUCED RISK OF HARM FROM ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDSGoal 9Enhancingbiosecurity
Key policies to enhance biosecurity, to protect nature and livelihoods

Secure official
Bovine TB freestatus for Englandby 2038

Publish a revised version of
government’s Tree HealthResilience Strategy to help
improve our tree healthInvest in the Science
Capability in Animal Healthprogramme to protect
against future zoonotic
disease outbreaks

Tackle non-native
species to help ourown nature thrive

Implement a new Target
Operating Model at theborder to stop high-risk
plants entering Great Britain

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Inform people ofpractical steps
they can take toreduce plant andanimal health risks

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ENHANCING BIOSECURITY

Across our landscapes and in the waters around these islands, our native flora andfauna have evolved within webs of wildlife that have changed relatively slowly overmillions of years – so when a new species is suddenly introduced, that delicate
balance can be overturned very quickly and with devastating consequences.
The risks of pests, pathogens, and invasive non-native species that were already on
the rise with the growth of trade and travel is increasing as our climate changes –and with the intensification of farming, so too has the risk of diseases being passed
from animals to humans.
We need to act now to enhance biosecurity so we protect public health, wildlife, andfarm animals, increase the resilience of our plants and trees, and bolster British trade.
That is why we have taken action – including improvements to import regimes,
controls, and certification for plants.
Now we will do even more – from creating more bio-secure supply chains, toencouraging responsible habits, and investing in our scientific capability to protect
against the outbreak of animal diseases in the future.

Our 25 Year Environment Plan goal
We will enhance biosecurity to protect our wildlife and livestock and boost theresilience of plants and trees.

Since 2018, we have:• Published a new Plant biosecurity strategy for Great Britain in 2023, andimplemented a stronger plant import regime, strengthening controls against threats
like Xylella and emerald ash borer, and introducing the phytosanitary certification of
all imports of plants for planting and a ban on imports of the highest risk trees.
• Established the Non-Native Species Inspectorate to reduce the risk of non-native
species becoming established, and made notable progress towards eradicating 9
species from the UK, as well as tackling asian hornet incursions.
• Published a Tree Health Resilience Strategy aiming at no net loss to the extent,
connectivity, diversity and condition of our domestic treescape. Planted the UK’s
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231

first archive of tolerant ash trees and delivered new grant schemes to fund therestocking and restoration of landscapes degraded by disease.
• Delivered a £5.8 million quarantine laboratory and a new centre for forest
protection, to provide a hub for world leading research, education and training ontree pests and diseases.

We have the following targets and commitments:• Reduce the number of establishments of invasive non-native species by atleast 50% in 2030, compared to levels seen in 2000, supporting delivery of theconvention on biological diversity global target on invasive alien species.
• Ensure at least 97% of export health certificates (EHCs) and licences are issued
correctly within agreed timeframes to support safe and secure trade.
• Invest in our Science Capability in Animal Health programme at Weybridge.
• Achieve official bovine tuberculosis free status for England by 2038.

To deliver these, we will:• Deliver the five-year action plan of the 2023 Plant biosecurity strategy for
Great Britain. Mitigating threats such as Xylella, by strengthening our risk-based
biosecurity regime even further, creating more biosecure plant supply chains andencouraging the adoption of more responsible behaviours across society.
• Continue to develop the new Non-Native Species Inspectorate to improve
enforcement of existing controls, implementing action plans for the main pathwaysof introduction, and seeking to eradicate the highest risk invasive species.
• Publish a revised version of government’s Tree Health Resilience Strategy, aiming
to improve the baseline diversity, health and condition of our trees, woods andforests, and drive the long-term changes needed to adapt to climate change anddisease pressures such as ash dieback.
• Seize the opportunity of Brexit to implement a new Target Operating Model which
will enable a targeted and risk-based regime of border import controls. We will also
invest in a new Science Capability in Animal Health programme at Weybridge, toprotect against future zoonotic disease outbreaks.
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Introduction
Successful ecosystems are where plants and animals thrive
in a habitat suited to their needs. Our species have evolved
and adapted specifically to the habitats across our country.
When a new species is suddenly introduced, that delicate
balance can be overturned very quickly with devastatingconsequences.
The UK has world-leading biosecurity measures andcapabilities. Our approach to biosecurity is internationallyrecognised as delivering the highest standards of protection
from pests, disease and invasive non-native species. Thisis underpinned by world-class scientific experience andcapabilities from both within the government’s science baseand the wider UK science and research community.
However, as the climate warms and we regularly travel
to and trade with more countries, we are facing a wider
range of pests, pathogens, and invasive non-native species.
Between the 1960s and 2020, the number of invasive
non-native species established in or along 10% or more ofGreat Britain’s land area has increased in the freshwater,terrestrial and marine environments.
In 2022, the UK has experienced its largest outbreak ofbird flu, and infections could rise even higher over thiswinter. The outbreak has led to the death of 97 million birds
globally (3.8 million in the UK). In response and to reducethe impact on the environment and support farmers, wehave imposed mandatory housing for all poultry, amended
our culling compensation scheme and relaxed the saleregulations of defrosted poultry.
It is estimated that ash dieback, caused by an airborne fungal
pathogen, will cost our economy £15 billion in the coming
decades and lead to the loss of over 90% of our native ash.
Xylella fastidiosa, another highly damaging plant pathogen,can affect over 550 plant and tree species, and has had
severe impacts in parts of Europe, where it is estimated it has
the potential to cause annual production losses of up to €5.5
billion. Its arrival here would have major implications for thenursery sector and the biodiversity of our woodlands.
Moreover, biosecurity threats can become threats tohumans as well. Over the past 30 years, more than 30 new,

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or newly recognised, human diseases have been identified,including SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19.
Around 70% of these have been zoonoses – diseases thatare naturally transmissible, directly or indirectly, fromanimals to humans.
Our aim is to enhance biosecurity against these threats – toprotect public health, wildlife, and farm animals, increase
the resilience of our plants and trees, and bolster British
trade reflecting the UK’s priorities after Brexit.

Targets and commitments
Reducing the establishment of invasive nonnative species (INNS)
In 2022, we committed to reducing the rates of introductionand establishment of INNS by at least 50%, by 2030. This
supports our delivery of the Convention on Biological
Diversity Global Target on Invasive Alien Species.

Upholding high health standards to trading partners
In 2020, we committed to issuing 97% of Export Health
Certificates (EHCs) and licences correctly within agreed
timeframes. In 2021 to 2022, this was fully met by the
Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).

We are investingin our Science
Capability in Animal
Health programme
at Weybridge toensure we areprepared to manage
future threats

Investing in world-leading scientific capability
We will invest in a new Science Capability in Animal Healthprogramme at Weybridge, to protect against future zoonotic
disease outbreaks, and bolster our role in fighting current
and emerging animal and plant health diseases.

Progress on freedom from bovine tuberculosis
We will continue to implement and enhance our longterm strategy, which aims to secure freedom from bovine
tuberculosis for England by 2038.

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Our delivery plan
Delivering our biosecurity goal, targets, and commitments
will require a range of actions that improve our biosecurity
safeguarding and response measures:
1 Tackling invasive non-native species – to protect
native species and the ecosystems that rely on them.
2 Protecting and enhancing animal and plant health –building our capabilities domestically and implementing
a new biosecurity regime to protect our borders.

1. Tackling invasive non-native
species
Invasive non-native species are one of the top five driversof biodiversity loss globally. There are around 2,000 nonnative species established in Great Britain across terrestrial,
marine, and freshwater environments, and the rate of new
establishments is increasing as a result of climate change,
trade, and other human activity. However, we are leadersin Europe in tackling new establishments, with notable
progress towards eradicating nine species, as well as
successfully removing 100% of all invasive Asian hornet
nests since their first appearance in 2016.

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We have successfully
removed all invasive
Asian hornet nests
since 2016

ENHANCING BIOSECURITY

Case study: The Asian hornet
The Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) is an aggressive
predator of honeybees and other insects. In 2004, it
was unintentionally introduced to France and has now
spread across Europe. It reached the Channel Islands in2016.
We anticipated its arrival in Great Britain, allowing us
to put in place a contingency plan, an alert mechanism
encouraging members of the public to report potential
sightings and an effective triage system. This allowed
us to respond rapidly when it was first detected in GB
in 2016. Staff from the Animal and Plant Health Agency
quickly found and destroyed the nest in under a week.
While this eradication was successful, there have been
repeated introductions over the years, with APHA staff
responding to eradicate nests in each case. By the endof 2021, 12 nests had been detected and destroyed, witha maximum number of 3 nests found in a single year.
This is in contrast to areas that have not been able todeliver rapid eradication, such as Flanders in Belgium.

We will build on this work to protect against invasive nonnative species by:

Delivering an effective response to invasive nonnative species
The new Great Britain Invasive Non-Native Species
Strategy will provide the framework to co-ordinate theactions of government, agencies and external partners. As
part of implementation, Defra will:• Implement Pathway Action Plans which seek toprevent the introduction of invasive species. These
plans will coordinate the work done by Defra, byworking closely with voluntary organisations, industry
and the public to tackle some of the main pathwaysof introduction, including horticulture, recreationalboating, angling, zoos and botanic gardens.

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ENHANCING BIOSECURITY• Enhance enforcement through the continued
development of the Non-Native Species Inspectorate
which seeks to prevent new species from establishingin GB by improving compliance with existing controls
through intelligence-led inspections, and risk
awareness raising with trade bodies and businesses.
Update the regulatory list of species of special concern
to ensure that the most harmful species are regulated
effectively, including to control import and sale.
• Implement contingency responses to and eradicationsof the highest risk species of greatest concern.
• Continue to look for ways to offer funding and support
for landowners and local action groups to tackle
widespread invasive non-native species, including
through our new farming schemes.
• Continue to raise awareness of invasive species
biosecurity across organisations, industry bodies, andthe general public, recognising that often people are
not fully aware of invasive species and their impacts.

Removing invasive non-native species from thewater environment
Aquatic species are more invasive than terrestrial ones. To
slow the spread of invasive non-native species and limit the
impacts on the water environment, Defra will:• Continue to support the development and deploymentof biocontrol, such as introducing the weevil to tackle
floating pennywort.
• Maximise the effectiveness of awareness raising
campaigns, such as ‘Check, Clean, Dry’ and ‘Be Plant Wise’.

Tackling grey squirrels and their impact
Grey squirrels are a widespread, invasive non-native species
and a key threat to our native red squirrel. They outcompete
red squirrels for food and can spread the squirrel pox virus
to them. The economic cost of damage from grey squirrels
to our woodlands, not including costs to our biodiversity, isestimated at £37 million per year in England and Wales.   

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Since 2014, significant work has been completed to manage
the adverse effects of grey squirrels, including:• Introducing new Countryside Stewardship grants to
support landowners to manage grey squirrels in theirwoodlands.
• Establishing a national partnership, the UK Squirrel
Accord which has been essential in taking forward greysquirrel fertility control research.
Further action will be needed. Defra will update the 2014
Grey Squirrel Action Plan detailing commitments to support
landowners to manage the numbers of grey squirrels andimpacts of grey squirrels on woodlands, native biodiversity
and ecosystem services more effectively. This includes:• Embedding effective grey squirrel management
into woodland and new farming schemes, including
considering funding for capital items, such as traps.
• Encouraging, where appropriate, public bodies andadjoining landowners to work collaboratively with eachother to improve the effectiveness of grey squirrel
management, such as coordinating the use of traps
and other management methods.

2. Protecting and enhancing
animal and plant healthContinue to improve our safeguarding measures
To ensure that trading partners, consumers, and industry
can be confident in the UK’s biosecurity and high healthstatus, Defra will:• Implement a new Target Operating Model, that will set
out our targeted and risk-based regime of border importcontrols for goods from the EU and the rest of the world.

We havestrengthened
protections against
threats like Xylellaand emerald ash
borer• Deliver the 2023 Plant Biosecurity Strategy for
GB - enhancing our horizon scanning, strengthening
our regulatory regime, creating more biosecure plant
supply chains and encouraging the adoption of more
responsible behaviours across society.
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ENHANCING BIOSECURITY• Continue to review and enforce robust measuresagainst Xylella - including controls on countries where
Xylella is known to occur, which ban imports of coffee
and Polygala, and introduce stringent requirements forthe inspection, testing and pre-quarantine of high-risk
species such as olive, lavender, rosemary and almondprior to import.
• Ensure outbreak readiness, through the regular update
and rehearsal of our contingency plans for responding
to and investigating emergency threats to animal andplant health, including Avian Influenza and Xylella.
• Explore additional measures for high-risk tree imports,that are a combination of further prohibitions,enhanced inspections and enforced holding forprescribed periods (in isolation or on nursery sites).
This will include rigorous analysis of the evidence,
consultation with industry and consideration of land
space requirements and operation costs.
• Maintain a robust UK aquatic animal health regime
enforced by the Fish Health Inspectorates of the four
UK administrations.
• Continue to lead on Antimicrobial Resistance. Sales ofantibiotics for use in livestock have reduced by 55%
since 2014 to the lowest ever recorded level.
• Through the Animal Health & Welfare Pathway provide
advice and financial support for livestock farmers in
England in improving on-farm standards of health andwelfare, with a key focus on the control or eradication ofpriority endemic diseases amongst cattle, pigs, and sheep.
• Continue to provide financial support and guidance forlandowners to help them manage and recover fromtree pests and diseases.
• Publish a revised version of government’s Tree HealthResilience Strategy, which aims to improve thebaseline diversity, health and condition of our trees,
woods and forests, and drive the long-term changes
needed to adapt to climate change and pest and diseasepressures such as ash dieback and the European sprucebark beetle (Ips typographus).

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Build our scientific capability and expertise
To build science capability and make best use of both
existing and innovative technology, keeping pace withchanging threats and ensuring preparedness for the future,
Defra will:• Rebuild and provide £200 million for a specificprogramme of investment in the Science Capability
in Animal Health programme at Weybridge. New
equipment and specialist testing facilities will meanscientists can identify pathogens for existing andemerging disease threats and maintain our highbiosecurity standards against Bovine TB, Salmonella
and Avian Influenza.
• Continue to develop the Centre for Forest Protection
providing a hub for UK and international research ontree pests and diseases. To understand the genetic
variation within our tree population, the potential tooptimise traits of interest such as disease resistance,
and to support the restoration of threatened species
such as elm and ash.
• Ensure a skills pipeline for the next generation ofanimal and plant health scientists, including new
apprenticeship and fellowship opportunities andpostgraduate courses.

Maintain progress on managing bovine TB
Bovine TB (bTB) remains a pressing animal health challenge
in England. Along with the recent investment in our
Weybridge facilities Defra will continue to work towards
achieving bTB free status in England by 2038 by:• Running UK field trials to secure marketing
authorisation for a cattle vaccine which can be
deployed within the next five years.
• Evolving badger control policy by phasing out thecurrent intensive culling policy and supporting badger
vaccination and surveillance.

Eradicating bovine TB will ensure
healthy cattle for our future• Improving diagnostic testing to root out the disease
more effectively.

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ENHANCING BIOSECURITY• Incentivising industry behaviours to prevent the
spread of bTB through the increased uptake ofeffective biosecurity measures and managing the risk
posed by movement of cattle. This includes funding
the TB Advisory Service, which offers cattle keepers
free bespoke advice to help reduce the risk of TB, andcommissioning TB accreditation schemes through theCattle Health Certification Standards body.
• Creating partnership across government, industry andstakeholders through more effective governance atevery level.

Monitoring and Evaluation
To ensure the Plant Biosecurity Strategy is credible,
robust and is delivered fully, it is essential that new
systems are put in place to assess how we are progressing
against the vision, outcomes and commitments set out
in the strategy, and to track, measure, and evaluate thestrategy fully over its lifetime. We will develop an evaluation
framework and provide an update on progress after three
years, followed by a final evaluation in five years.
For invasive species, the number of new establishments istracked by the Non-Native Species Information Portal, whichfeeds into a relevant indicator in the Outcome Indicator
Framework. We are exploring a range of other indicatorsand metrics for this portal to measure our progress intackling invasive species, including for the reduction of
introductions and changes in the distribution of species.
Defra’s Outcome Delivery Plan includes an indicator of thepercentage of cattle herds that are bovine tuberculosis free.
This is updated quarterly.
We will also monitor progress towards delivering the EIP23
through the Outcome Indicator Framework. The relevant
indicators for biosecurity are:
H1

Abatement of the number of invasive nonnative species entering and establishingagainst a baseline.

H2 Distribution of invasive non-native species andplant pests and diseases.

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We work diligently toprevent plant pests
and diseases entering
our country

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Goal 10Enhancing beauty,
heritage andengagement with thenatural environment
Key policies to help us
access and engage withnatureReinforce thenatural, geological,
and cultural heritageof our landscapes

Support farmers to improve ourprotected landscapes throughthe Farming in Protected
Landscapes programme

Complete delivery
and evaluation of theLevelling Up Parks
Fund by March 2024

Make the 2700
mile England
Coast Path fully
walkable by 2024
Upgrade theexisting Coast to
Coast path to a
National Trail

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Deliver theAccess for All
programme

ENHANCING BEAUTY, HERITAGE AND ENGAGEMENTWe all understand that spending time in nature is part of what makes the United
Kingdom such a special place.
Our landscapes and coastlines are our national treasures, at the heart of our heritage
and the story of these islands – and they have so much to offer our health and wellbeing
as well as our economy. We want everyone to enjoy them and appreciate the hard work
and way of life of our rural farming communities, so we all play our part in helping nature
recover. We also recognise that to restore nature, we need to enjoy its beauty responsibly.
We have made significant progress – including extending the England Coast Path,helping children understand and enjoy wildlife, and improving access to nature fordisadvantaged urban communities.
Now, we will do even more – from designating new protected landscapes, to improving
green spaces close to where people live, and helping the next generation becomechampions for nature.

Our 25 Year Environment Plan goal
We will conserve and enhance the beauty of our natural environment, and makesure it can be enjoyed, used by and cared for by everyone.

Since 2018, we have:• Opened nearly 400 more miles of England Coast Path and published our plans formore than 99% of the route.
• Opened around 250 more miles of walking and cycling routes since 2020,
including through the Active Travel Fund and the National Cycle Network upgrade
programme, helping more people to enjoy healthy activity in nature.
• Launched the Green Social Prescribing programme to prevent and tackle mental ill health.
• Delivered the Children and Nature programme and Green Recovery Challenge Fund tosupport children from disadvantaged backgrounds to have better access to nature.
• Launched the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme to enable farmers andother land managers to deliver projects for climate, nature, people and place.
• Launched the Levelling Up Parks Fund to create or significantly refurbish over 100
green spaces. The fund also targeted the 100 most deprived urban communities
across the UK which also lack accessible green space.

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ENHANCING BEAUTY, HERITAGE AND ENGAGEMENTWe have the following targets and commitments:• Work across government to fulfill a new and ambitious commitment that everyone
should live within 15 minutes’ walk of a green or blue space.
• Make the England Coast Path fully walkable by the end of 2024.
• Deliver a new National Trail along the route of the Coast to Coast path by 2025.

To deliver these, we will:• Increase the accessibility of green and blue spaces through the £14.5 million ‘Accessfor All’ programme.
• Create or significantly refurbish over 100 green spaces through the Levelling Up
Parks Fund.
• Complete our delivery of the England Coast Path and the new Coast to Coast
National Trail.
• Green the Green Belt as set out in the Levelling Up White Paper by identifying key
areas for nature restoration through the roll out of Local Nature Recovery Strategies.
• Invest in a new national landscapes partnership for National Parks, Areas of
Outstanding Natural Beauty, and National Trails.
• Extend the delivery of our successful Farming in Protected Landscapes programme,using lessons learned to inform future farming schemes.
• Publish our ambitions for improving the quantity, quality and permanency ofwoodland access.
• Invest in active travel, with a vision for half of all journeys in towns and cities tobe cycled or walked by 2030. £35 million funding has already been committed thisfinancial year.
• Continue to progress assessments to designate two new Areas of Outstanding
Natural Beauty (AONB) and two AONB extensions.
• Scale up green social prescribing across the healthcare system.
• Develop the Climate Action Award pilot, and roll out in 2024. This will recognise theachievements of children and young people in taking action to increase biodiversityand develop their skills and knowledge of climate change.
• Deliver a new Natural History GCSE by 2025.
• Continue contributions to targeted grant schemes which support our work on heritage.

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ENHANCING BEAUTY, HERITAGE AND ENGAGEMENTIntroduction
We want everyone to be able to enjoy our nature andnational heritage in landscapes and coastlines across thecountry. In line with the Countryside Code, we need torespect and conserve nature, and encourage managed
access – so that everyone can enjoy and secure thosetreasures for every generation to come.
Many of the actions we have set out to deliver in EIP23
will, in protecting and improving our natural environment,
increase its natural beauty and enable even greater
enjoyment of it. In this chapter we have set out how we aretaking action for people across the country to increase ourconnection with the environment that surrounds us. This
will in turn encourage greater care for the environment andfurther action to improve it.

Targets and commitments
We will:• Work across government to fulfill a new and ambitious
commitment that everyone should live within 15
minutes’ walk of a green or blue space.
• Make the England Coast Path fully walkable by the endof 2024.
• Deliver a new National Trail along the route of the Coast
to Coast path by 2025.
• Continue to work with navigation authorities asappropriate, recognising the value of access to blue
space, particularly within inner city environments. For
example, announcing future funding for the Canal andRiver Trust to support local access improvements andawareness.
• Conserve and enhance the natural, geological andcultural diversity of our landscapes, and protect ourhistoric and natural environment for the benefit andenjoyment of future generations.

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ENHANCING BEAUTY, HERITAGE AND ENGAGEMENTOur delivery plan
Our actions include:
1 Improve access to nature – creating new routes,
more green and blue spaces and increasing theiraccessibility to people of all backgrounds.
2 Protect our landscapes and their heritage –recognising the pride in place that comes withembracing shared histories in communities across thecountry, and particularly the role that farmers play as
the original custodians of the land.
3 Nature for wellbeing – connecting with nature as away of improving physical and mental health.
4 Connecting children and nature - boosting thenumber of young people who can connect with nature.

1. Improve access to nature
Improve routes to and through nature

We will make theEngland Coast
Path fully walkableby the end of thisParliament

Paths to and through nature improve access, creating
ways to enjoy nature responsibility and safely, providing
significant benefits to people’s health and to the economy.
Physical health benefits from active visits to National Trails
alone are estimated to save the NHS between £46 and £107
million per year.
We have:• Opened nearly 400 more miles of the England Coast
Path since 2018 and published our plans for more than
99% of the route.
• Published our proposal for the new Coast to Coast
National Trail.
We will:• Have a fully walkable new 2700-mile England Coast
Path by the end of 2024.
• Upgrade the existing Coast to Coast route between St

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Bees and Robin Hood’s Bay to a National Trail. We will
make the path more accessible to people of different
abilities. We will also develop link routes and circularroutes to provide more options for users and work
to improve inclusivity for visitors on bikes, mobility
scooters, wheelchairs and on horseback.
• Continue to develop policy to add more accessible
routes to and through nature and enhance existing ones.

Create more green and blue spaces and enhanceexisting ones, and support responsible accessand behaviour
Alongside improving access routes, we also need to create
more green and blue spaces. This will help ensure thateveryone has the opportunity to connect with nature.
We have:• Launched the £9 million Levelling Up Parks Fund to
improve the equality of access and quality of green
space in over 100 neighbourhoods across the UK,
identified through the Index of Multiple Deprivation.
The fund includes £2 million from Defra to support
tree planting parks.
• Refreshed the Countryside Code, including a version
for countryside visitors and a version for land
managers, so that everyone can enjoy and benefit
from nature while giving it the respect it deserves.

Everyone should have theopportunity to connect withnatureWe will:• Continue to develop policy to increase the amountof high quality green and blue spaces for people toenjoy, in both rural and urban settings, and to support
responsible, permissive access to nature.
• Continue to promote the refreshed Countryside Codewith key partners including the National Farmers
Union, Country Land and Business Association and theCampaign to Protect Rural England.
• Green the Green Belt as set out in the Levelling Up
White Paper by identifying key areas for nature
restoration through the roll out of Local Nature
Recovery Strategies.

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Create more woodland, and improve access to
new and existing woodland
The annual mental health benefits associated with visits to
the UK’s woodlands are estimated to be £185 million, andfor England specifically, visits are estimated to save the NHS£141 million per year in reduced treatment costs.
We have:• Supported land managers to provide woodland accessthrough our Countryside Stewardship and England
Woodland Creation Offer schemes.
• Published the Local Authority Tree and Woodland
Strategy Toolkit, providing guidance for local
authorities to develop effective tree and woodland
strategies to harness the long-term benefits that trees
can bring to local communities, including for publicaccess.
• Invested over £250 million across the Urban Trees
Challenge Fund, Local Authority Treescapes Fund and via
England’s Community Forests and our Woodland Creation
partners to support tree planting and regenerationin urban and peri-urban areas, particularly in areas
with high levels of social and tree canopy deprivation.
In 2022, 82% of the woodlands planted by England's
Community Forests have full or partial public access.

The annual mental
health benefits
associated withvisits to the UK’s
woodlands alone, areestimated to be £185
million

To take this further, we will:• Continue to work with land managers, businesses, civilsociety bodies and community groups to encourage
greater access to existing woodland and incentivise
woodland creation, including in and around towns andcities.
• Work with local authorities and relevant parties toensure urban tree planting is well designed, delivers
multiple benefits and avoids trade-offs, such as issues
for air quality and human health.
As committed in the England Trees Action Plan, publish
our ambitions for improving the quantity, quality, andpermanency of woodland access, including how we will:

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ENHANCING BEAUTY, HERITAGE AND ENGAGEMENT• Improve information and data on current provision ofwoodland access for all uses and rights; their proximity
to people, and the communities they might support toallow better targeting of resources and provide better
information to the public.
• Consider options to review existing forest roadinfrastructure on the public forest estate and consider
extending access rights and opportunities for cyclists
and horse-riders across this estate.

Support the development of green infrastructure
Good quality green infrastructure is important for health andwellbeing, air quality, nature recovery and for delivering net
zero targets, as well as for adapting to climate change by
providing urban cooling and reducing flood risk. It can help
to address issues of social disparities and environmental
decline, whilst also making better places to live.
We have:• Launched the Green Infrastructure Framework:
Principles and Standards for England. This will help
local planning authorities and planning developers
to create or improve green and blue infrastructure,
particularly where provision is poorest.

Good quality green
infrastructure isimportant for healthand wellbeing, air
quality, nature
recovery and fordelivering net zero

• Updated the Outdoor Recreation Valuation Tool (ORVal)model. This tool is used to demonstrate in monetary
terms the recreational value of parks and paths. We
have also published detailed analysis of this model.
We will:• Monitor and evaluate the impact of the GreenInfrastructure Framework.
• Support local authorities and developers to understandwhat good access means and how it can be improved.
• Encourage more urban street trees, using theamended National Planning Policy Framework which
has an expectation that all new streets are tree-lined
and that opportunities are taken to include trees
elsewhere in developments (such as through parks
and community orchards). Urban trees can intercept
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rainwater and regulate storm water run-off, clean air
through trapping particulate air pollution, sequester
carbon and provide valuable community spaces.

Make green and blue spaces more inclusive andsupport more people to benefit from nature
Green and blue spaces can support communities throughproviding opportunities for a diverse range of people toconnect with nature. We know that over 90% of adults
report that time spent outdoors is good for their physicaland mental health. Currently, 38% of people do not havegreen or blue space within 15 minutes’ walk of their home.
That is why we are setting a new and ambitious
commitment to work across government and beyond
to ensure that anyone can reach green or blue spacewithin 15 minutes from their front door. We will track ourprogress against this commitment by using our new GreenInfrastructure Framework. In parallel, we will work to
reduce other barriers which prevent people from accessing
green and blue spaces, such as physical challenges, lack ofconfidence and lack of information.
Defra has run the £80 million Green Recovery Challenge
Fund (GRCF), to enable a range of outdoor activities innature across England. This includes the Generation
Green project which was awarded £2.5 million to provide
more opportunities to connect young people from diverse
backgrounds to nature – many for the first time.

The Access for All
programme will
increase accessto green and blue
spaces across thecountry

We are committed to making improvements to theaccessibility of green and blue spaces, so that everyone canenjoy the benefits they bring. We will:• Drive accessibility improvements through our delivery
programmes, for example by continuing to make theEngland Coast Path as accessible as possible and doing
the same for the new Coast to Coast National Trail.
• Continue to promote sport and physical activity in green
and blue spaces in order to support health and wellbeing.
We will deliver the £14.5 million ‘Access for All’ programme,
including:• Targeted improvements to increase access to green and
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blue spaces in our most deprived urban areas throughour Forests for Everyone and Active Forests Programmes.
• A review of maps of open access land so that as many
people as possible can take advantage of this national
asset.
• Improving accessibility in national landscapes such as
new gates, walking routes, inclusive cycles, E-trikes,
bikes or wheelchairs.
• Improvements to our network of National Trails to
make sure that these can be enjoyed by as many
people as possible.

Invest in active travel
The Department for Transport are investing in active
travel. This includes delivering thousands of miles of safe,
continuous routes for cycling and creating Active Travel
England to support local authorities to deliver ambitious andtransformational schemes. Around 250 more miles of walking
and cycling routes have been opened since 2020.
To take this further, the Department for Transport andActive Travel England will:• Invest in active travel, with a vision for half of all
journeys in towns and cities to be cycled or walked by
2030. £35 million funding has already been committed
this financial year.

Connecting with nature helps
improve physical and mental
health• Continue to fund Sustrans for the National Cycle
Network, aiming to deliver improved surfacing, widened
paths and greater accessibility, such as the removal of
barriers that impact disabled people and cyclists.

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ENHANCING BEAUTY, HERITAGE AND ENGAGEMENT2. Protect our landscapesand their heritage
Enhance nature outcomes for National parks andAreas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs)
Our Protected Landscapes comprise nearly 25% of England’s
entire land area. They are incredibly diverse landscapes which
are integral to the health of the climate, wildlife, and people.
Since 2018 we have:• Helped to establish and scale up National Trails UK,
to enable our National Trails to represent themselves
jointly for the first time.
• Begun work on a national landscapes partnership totackle common objectives such as nature recovery andimproved public access.
• Launched a landmark programme for Protected
Landscapes. This includes proposals for new Protected
Landscapes to safeguard more of England’s beautiful andiconic landscapes and actions to drive nature recovery.
We have also launched a new all England mapping tool.
We will:• Invest in a new National Landscapes Partnership toenable National Parks, AONBs and National Trails tocollaborate more closely on national priorities such as
improving nature and access for all parts of society.
This will include building capacity in National Parks
Partnerships and the National Association of AONBs
to generate more private finance to deliver more fornature, climate, people, and place.
• Provide new guidance to strengthen Protected
Landscapes’ management plans, promoting theimportance of supporting thriving local communities
and access for all, alongside climate change mitigation
and adaptation and nature recovery.
• Support the National Association of Areas of
Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) to rebrand AONBs

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as National Landscapes. This will reflect renewedvalues and boost understanding of their nationalsignificance with more diverse communities, including
residents, partners and visitors.
• Continue assessments to designate 2 new AONBs and2 AONB extensions.
• Use the All-England mapping tool to identify
landscapes to improve nature and access.
• Develop an accreditation model for towns and cities
to improve access to green and blue space in areas
with high environmental and social need. This will set a
recognised standard for locally-led action to aspire to,with up to 6 pilots to be launched in 2023.

Support farmers and landowners to improve ourProtected Landscapes
In July 2021, we launched the Farming in Protected
Landscapes (FiPL) programme with over £50 million offunding until March 2024. Farming in Protected Landscapes
enables Protected Landscapes (National Parks and AONBs
in England) and farmers to work together to deliver projects
across 4 themes: Climate, Nature, People and Place.

The Farmingin Protected
Landscapes
programme has
supported over
1,800 projects so far

We have:• Supported over 1,800 projects and accelerated delivery inProtected Landscapes to meet the 30 by 30 commitment.
• Funded almost 200 projects supporting public
engagement, 150 projects to make the landscapemore inclusive for visitors and restored nearly 6km of
drystone walls in the first year.
• Engaged nearly 2,000 farmers at the programme
midpoint.
In recognition of the positive feedback and outcomesdelivered by FIPL, we will be extending the programme with
£10m additional funding each year until March 2025. This
will enable us to continue to support the important role that
protected landscapes play in delivering our commitments. We
will continue to learn from FiPL and work to ensure the best
concepts of FiPL are integrated within future environmental
land management schemes within Protected Landscapes.
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Conserve and enhance our natural heritage
We need to make sure we continue to conserve our natural
heritage. Funding will play an important role. In 2019
England’s heritage sector generated an estimated Gross
Value Added (GVA) contribution of £14.7 billion to UK Gross
Domestic Product, with every £1 of GVA generated supportingan additional £1.50 of GVA in the wider community. Heritage
provides people with a sense of belonging and contributes toincreasing their quality of life. It also brings tourism, giving
local people a sense of pride in their community and place.
Targeted grant schemes which support our work on
heritage, include:• Ongoing Countryside Stewardship funding which hasenabled us to remove 195 sites from the Heritage at Risk
register since 2018.
• The National Lottery Heritage Fund which has awarded
over £1.8 billion to more than 4,200 land, nature andbiodiversity projects across the UK since 1994. The Fundawards 20% of its funding to heritage projects and 40%
to community projects, including environmental projects.
• The £8 million Historic Buildings Restoration project
has funded the restoration of 126 historical buildings inselected National Parks.
• The £95 million Cultural Development Fund (CDF), whichinvests in innovative locally-led projects in the cultural,creative industries and heritage sectors.
• The National Academy for Social Prescribing’s Thriving
Communities, which has awarded £1.8 million to
encourage use of cultural and heritage projects alongsidenature to benefit the wellbeing of communities.
To take this further, Defra and the Department for Digital,
Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) will:• Continue to provide support through existing schemes
and through the development of future farming
schemes. This will include securing a legacy for the
woodland access created through the Nature for
Climate Fund Tree Programme.
• Continue to support existing and new UNESCO Global
Geoparks, Biosphere Reserves and World Heritage Sites.
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Conserve our Geoheritage
England has many important geological sites that haveconsiderable scientific, educational and heritage value.
We have already supported the recently designated BlackCountry UNESCO Global Geopark in the West Midlands,
through the declaration of the Saltwells National Nature
Reserve (NNR), a former quarry. This illustrates the links
between geoheritage, the industrial history of Dudley, anda place widely used by the local community for walking andexploring the natural world.
We will continue to provide opportunities for people toexperience geoheritage through our network of National
Nature Reserves.

Include considerations of marine heritage andensure that heritage is considered in futuremarine plans
We need a strong evidence base with ecological, societal,
and economic information brought together in a holistic
way. This will improve our understanding and help us makebetter decisions about the marine environment.
We will:• Run the marine Natural Capital and Ecosystem
Assessment (mNCEA) programme. The programme has
started to review evidence on the cultural value of UK
fisheries and demonstrate the strong ties that fishers
and their communities have with their fishing workand their surrounding urban and natural landscapes.

The ocean is our mostinterconnected ecosystem• Work to ensure the marine historic landscape andhistoric sites are considered in future marine plans,
which guide and direct licensing decisions in thewaters adjacent to England.
The Marine Management Organisation will work with
Historic England.

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3. Nature for wellbeing
Incorporate the use of green and blue spaces
into the healthcare system
The evidence is clear that spending time in nature isbeneficial for our physical and mental health and theGovernment recognises the importance of improving accessfor all to green and blue spaces. Creating new greenspace,preventing loss of existing greenspace, and making themmore inclusive, accessible and better quality could help
to deliver improved population health outcomes, reduced
health disparities and environmental sustainability.
We have already launched the world's first strategy totackle loneliness, which recognises the crucial role whichgreen and blue spaces can play in combating loneliness andfostering community participation and cohesion. Since 2018
we and our partners have:• Invested over £50 million in tackling loneliness.
• Reached millions of people through national
communications.
• Developed a network of over 150 organisations to join
us in this work.
• Launched the £5.77m cross government ‘Preventing
and tackling mental ill-health through green socialprescribing’ programme to examine how to increase
use and connection to the natural environment
through referral to green and/or blue socialprescribing to improve mental health. The programme
has recorded over 6,000 referrals to activities so far,and is gathering evidence on the effectiveness ofgreen social prescribing and how best to implement
it. Emerging findings from the programme areencouraging, showing significant improvements inparticipants’ mental health.
But we are taking this further, and will:• Explore options for how best to embed green socialprescribing, including across multiple healthcare
pathways.

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ENHANCING BEAUTY, HERITAGE AND ENGAGEMENT• Drive the roll-out of social prescribing more broadly, sothat at least 900,000 people will be referred to socialprescribing by 2023 to 2024.
• Work with the National Lottery Community Fund andGroundwork to develop a Northern Network of 5 Green
Community Hubs in high deprivation areas as centres fornature-based activities for green social prescribing.

Case Study - National Education Nature
Park and Climate Action Award
School land in England covers an area over twice thesize of Birmingham. We will encourage education
providers to think of this land, the Nature Park, as
one whole ‘Park’. This will enable the education estate
to play its part in increasing biodiversity and givechildren and young people the opportunity to takeaction to improve their environment while developing aconnection to nature, learning about their surroundings
and enhancing key numeracy and data science skills.
The Nature Park will also provide access to digital
mapping tools to enable nurseries, schools and colleges
to map their existing biodiversity and report on
progress whilst developing digital skills. Over time, thiswill provide valuable data on biodiversity for use acrossgovernment, with researchers and bioscientists.
The Climate Action Award will recognise theachievements of children and young people in taking
action to increase biodiversity and develop their skills
and knowledge of climate change. This will be piloted
during academic year 2022/23 with a view to nationalroll out in 2023/24.
The Natural History Museum is leading a consortium oforganisations, including the Royal Horticultural Society,
the Royal Society, the Royal Geographical Society,
Manchester Metropolitan University, Learning ThroughLandscapes, the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
and the National Biodiversity Network Trust to develop
the Nature Park and Climate Action Award.

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4. Connecting children andnatureIncrease the number of children connecting withnature through school
School land in England covers an area over twice the size ofBirmingham. Access to green space for children is associatedwith improved mental wellbeing, overall health, improved
behaviour, cognitive development and is even associated withhigher standardised test scores. We will work closely with the
Department for Education to build on the learning from theChildren and Nature Programme by continuing to research
how best to deliver outdoor learning. Since 2018, we havecompleted the Children and Nature Programme to support
children in their attendance and engagement with school,
attainment and mental health and to support an increase incare farming places which involves providing farm-related
therapeutic activity with people with defined needs.
The Department for Education will:• Ensure learning in and about nature happens at every
level of education; for example, by supporting teaching
on climate change via the curriculum and by putting inplace a new occupational standard for further educationteachers to build sustainability into their teaching by 2023.
• Encourage education providers to think of school landas one whole ‘National Education Nature Park’. This
will give children and young people the opportunity
to take action to improve their environment including
through increasing its biodiversity, learning about theirsurroundings, and enhancing key numeracy and data
science skills.
• Develop the Climate Action Award pilot, with a view tonational roll out in 2023 to 2024. This will recognise
the achievements of children and young people intaking action to increase biodiversity and develop theirskills and knowledge of climate change.

We want nature to be part ofeveryone’s childhood

There werearound 2,900
environmental
related educatorsin the UK as of2019• Deliver a new Natural History GCSE by 2025. The
estimated annual value of environmental knowledge
in 2010 was £2.1 billion through its contribution to
greater lifetime earnings that are associated witheducational qualifications in relevant subjects.
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Monitoring and evaluation
We will monitor progress towards delivering the EIP23
through the Annual Progress Report and the Outcome
Indicator Framework. The framework contains 66 indicators,
arranged into 10 broad themes. The relevant indicatorsfor enhancing beauty, heritage and engagement with thenatural environment are:
G1

Changes in landscape and waterscape character.

G2 Condition of heritage features including
designated geological sites and scheduledmonuments.
G3

Enhancement of green/blue infrastructure.

G4 Engagement with the natural environment.
G5 People engaged in social action for theenvironment.
G6

Environmental attitudes and behaviours.

G7

Health and wellbeing benefits.

Since 2018 we have also introduced a monitoring programme
for our most important geological sites. We will also developa Standard Evaluation Framework for examining the healthimpacts of outdoor interventions, so we can consistently
measure the public health impacts from our work to increase
access to the outdoors.

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ENHANCING BEAUTY, HERITAGE AND ENGAGEMENTNature is good for the soul

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ENHANCING BEAUTY, HERITAGE AND ENGAGEMENTPhoto credits
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