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 my predecessor 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 are going further and faster now that control of important areas of 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 the Environment 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 our countryside. This includes new incentives to manage hedgerows for wildlife, plant nectar- rich wildflowers and manage pests without the use of insecticides. As Chancellor I was proud 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 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 historic promise 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 in This new Environmental Improvement Plan sets out how we will drive this work forward with 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 the

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 red squirrels 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 and green growth across the country, building on our leadership in areas like offshore wind and our 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

Our Environmental Improvement Plan sets out how we will improve our environment here in the UK and around the world 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 and Fisheries Act, we have laid the foundation stones for our drive to halt the decline of nature by 2030 – our most critical target 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, for clean 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 the consequences. We have to reverse that and respect nature. Nature can help us tackle some of our great challenges and we need to help protect nature. This is a national endeavour . National government, local government, communities and families all have a key role to play through policies, through delivery of services and through 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 our structural 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 increasing pressure. 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 the heart of action on climate change in Glasgow at Climate COP26 and was reinforced by the Prime 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.
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 and truly 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 to I know there is much more to do to restore nature - and to level with you, some of these challenges are not always so easy to fix as we might all hope. I can assure you though that with 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 the 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 want to enjoy nature’s help for generations to come. Together , we can achieve this. Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Five years ago, the 25 Year Environment Plan (25YEP) set out our vision for a quarter-of-a- century 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 achieve its vision, the 25YEP set ten goals. We have continued to use these ten goals as the basis for this setting out the progress made against all ten, the specific targets 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 we have created or restored wildlife habitats the size of Dorset, we are investing more than £750 million in tree-planting and peatland 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 just a national endeavour but also at UN Nature Summit COP15, we agreed a new Global Biodiversity Framework, with 23 global targets, including 30% of global land and 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 make • 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 • Protect 30% of our land and sea for nature through the Nature Recovery Network and enhanced protections for our marine protected areas. We intend to designate the first Highly 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 to enhance the built environment. • Support a transformation in the management of 70% of our countryside by incentivising farmers to adopt nature friendly farming practices. • Publish an updated Green Finance Strategy, setting out the steps we are putting in place to leverage in private finance to deliver against these goals. We have a goal to raise at least £500m per year of private finance into nature’s recovery by 2027 and This goal is at the apex of our all the other goals will help us to achieve it. Connections between our environmental goals 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 to be the biggest environmental risk to human health and a source of harm to the natural

environment. To address this, we • 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 and A healthy environment also relies on clean and plentiful water. The public expects better from our water environment, from clean drinking water to its use for crops and bathing • Tackle nutrient pollution, including by upgrading 160 wastewater treatment works by 2027 and providing increased advice and incentives to support a shift to sustainable • 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 can place 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 • Develop a new Chemicals Strategy this year to establish our regulatory approach and 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 to achieve. 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 us back in achieving this 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

• Work with business to implement packaging extended producer responsibility from 2024 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 for technological innovation in the production of coffee cups, and behavioural science in 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 • 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% of England’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 state than we found it cannot be achieved without mitigating and adapting to climate change. The relationship is we also cannot mitigate and adapt to climate change without Nature-based Solutions. We • 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 and land 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

environmental hazards. We • 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, and wildfires through our new future farming schemes. 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 winter when the UK has experienced its largest outbreak of bird flu. To protect our biosecurity against this and future such threats, we • 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 new targeted and risk-based Target Operating Model. Improving the beauty of nature Our final goal is to enhance beauty, heritage, and engagement with the natural environment. 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 landscapes and coastlines, but also recognise that to restore nature, we need to enjoy its beauty • 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 • 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 to be cycled or walked by 2030. £35 million funding has already been committed this

Five years ago, our 25 Year Environment Plan set out ten complementary environmental goals. As set out in the executive 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 more than £750 million in the environment through our Nature for Climate Fund (NCF), and we have established a network of marine protected areas across 35,000 square miles of Under the UK’s Presidency of the UN Climate Summit COP26, 145 countries – representing over 90% of the world’s forests – signed a pledge to halt deforestation and land degradation by 2030.
We have also agreed a new global deal for nature at the UN Nature Summit COP15 in Montreal, Canada, which sets a framework for turning the tide 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 to tackle climate change through our presidency of UN Climate We are world leaders in our ambition to work with other nations to address the environmental challenges the world faces, including the interlinked threats of climate change and biodiversity loss. We are the first country to have co-designed an agricultural programme which helps sustainable food production in parallel with a focus on improving, not just protecting, the environment. Our long- term environmental targets and international leadership on climate and nature have sent a strong signal across the world, showing that we take the environment as seriously as we take net zero. We have shown that where we model this and work closely with international partners, we can raise international ambition and build momentum and support. Our commitment to the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals also supports this, and they are embedded in our domestic targets and ambitions. The strategies and targets set out in this plan contribute to our ambition to achieve these goals domestically, and so drive progress In recognition of the need for a clear legal structure to empower 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 and revise the plan, if needed, every five years to ensure continued progress against the ten 25YEP goals. This Environmental Improvement Plan 2023 (EIP23) is that revised plan. It sets out for the first time how the 25YEP goals, Environment Act targets, and other commitments we have made domestically and internationally will combine to drive specific improvements in the natural environment. We have used the 25YEP goals as the structure for this document, setting out an integrated and outcome focused delivery 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 this chapter first in this document and re-ordered other chapters so they are grouped by how they help to deliver the apex. The majority of EIP23 covers England-only policy as the environment is primarily a devolved matter , with some reserved 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 natural

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. This is a detailed delivery plan with policy actions allocated to different government departments, local government, and the 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 the plan. This plan has been developed with support from experts in Natural England, the Environment Agency, the Forestry Commission, and others across the country. Within government, our governance, monitoring and evaluation has been strengthened to recognise both the urgency of action and reflect the legal duties set of the We will continue working with the private and third sector to ensure we are tapping into their expertise, leveraging their knowledge and finance towards these targets. We are clear that our targets should set a floor to their ambition. Businesses and investors are a key part of a nature-positive future. There is a market opportunity as they pivot towards delivering against these goals, recognising the growth opportunity of nature- positive investment, both here and abroad. This plan sets the policy landscape to enable that work. Since the publication of the 25YEP we have set out in more detail specific policy programmes driving progress towards our goals. Amongst other strategies, EIP23 should be • Resources and Waste Strategy

• GB Plant Biosecurity Strategy • The Agricultural Transition Plan • Sustainability and climate a strategy for the education and children’s services systems • Transport Decarbonisation Plan Delivery of these different policy areas is tied together by a series of cross-cutting themes, set out below. Our tools to deliver our environmental targets habitats in a better state for Enable all parts of society to play their part in line with our six principles for green choices managers to deliver public goods, improve productivity, and animals’ Aim to raise at least £500 million per year of private finance into nature’s recovery by 2027, and more than £1 billion by 2030

Incentives through our new farming schemes As part of the agricultural transition we are repurposing the funding 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 covered by our new farming schemes by 2028. We are improving and expanding these schemes to make them more accessible and attractive, offer a wider range of options at higher levels of 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 of actions we will pay for through these schemes earlier this month in the Agricultural Transition Plan Update.
We are also co-investing with farmers in productivity, innovation, research and development, and in improving animal health and welfare – many of these investments will also contribute to improving the climate and environment impacts of farming We also expect private investment in public goods to continue to expand over the coming years, and we are developing 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 and land managers to ensure we achieve these targets in the most 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 maintain

There are a significant number of demands on our land, from development, energy, food production, nature, climate and beyond. 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 the Levelling 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 the review of the National Planning Policy Framework in 2023. The new system of Environmental Outcomes Reports under the Bill will be aligned to EIP23 and ensure that decision makers know how far a plan or project contributes to Environmental Targets. Growing numbers of businesses and investors are recognising the need to take full account of nature in financial and business 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; and seize the opportunity of a growing international market for

green finance, in which the UK is now the world’s leading hub. As part of the strategy we will set out our policy framework on nature markets – covering carbon and other ecosystem services, such as biodiversity and water quality. We want to accelerate the development of these markets, tapping into our deep expertise across science, finance, and land and ocean management. We will set out our work to create a suite of high integrity ecosystem investment standards, building on the innovation we have already seen under our Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund. Case Green jobs – Green Recovery 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 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 created jobs for young people, trained people at risk of long- term unemployment, and unlocked voluntary action on nature recovery and climate change. The project has delivered urgent work to protect and enhance parks 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 hectares of land, planted 38,172 trees and shrubs as well as

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 research and development, this plan will lead to investment and create hundreds of thousands of green jobs across the UK. We will continue to work across government, with industry and other key 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 they enhanced their local environment. By 2024, we expect our collection and packaging reforms to support 21,000 jobs, our flood defence programme to support 10,000 jobs, and our Nature for Climate Fund tree planting and peatland restoration projects to support up to 3,400 jobs. We are working with the Office for National Statistics to define and measure green jobs across the UK.
This will enable us to better understand where environmental action is creating 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 since the 25YEP, the government has introduced new training and education routes to enter the green economy, as set out

Case 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 be able to study for an Agriculture, Land Management and 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 other occupations which are key to supporting the green economy. Apprenticeships are open to all ages and enable people to earn while they learn. Skills bootcamps have been delivered in woodland management and sustainability and continue to be rolled out across the country. Skills bootcamps are free, flexible courses up to 16 weeks long, giving people the opportunity to build sector-specific skills and fast track to an interview with a local employer . Generation Green was granted £2.6m funding by the Green Recovery Challenge Fund. It provided more than 100,000 opportunities to connect young people to nature – many for the first time – and to cultivate a sense 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 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 The programme retained 20 jobs and created 10 new jobs; 1 paid internship; 30 kickstart placements; 7 apprenticeships; 659 skilled volunteer roles in the Achieving the goals and targets in this document is a shared endeavour . We must all take action - central government, local authorities, businesses, communities, families and 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 the default option. We will do this in a way that maintains choice and supports fairness, including by ensuring businesses are supported to take green action. This will bring many co- benefits. 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

• We will make our society greener by design, reducing the ask of individual citizens by sending clear regulatory signals and targeting measures at government, local authorities, and business. • We will make green action easier by addressing major • We will make green action affordable, supporting this across all sectors of society. • We will empower people and businesses to make informed choices, by providing clear information about the environmental impact of different products, • 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 our 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 is hardwired 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 the environmental principles policy statement in making policy. The five internationally recognised principles integration, prevention, rectification at source, polluter pays, and the precautionary principle. Our policy statement is designed to set out how the principles should be interpreted and proportionately applied. Delivery of environmental improvement at the scale and ambition set out in the EIP23 requires robust environmental

governance and leadership to drive delivery, build and embed practice and monitor action. There is already established governance, oversight and assurance across all outcomes and targets set out in the EIP23 within Defra and across government. 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 to monitor action towards Environment Act targets and EIP23. The board is also developing cross-departmental practice and guidance and embedding the required skills, capacity, and capability for delivery across government. The Greening Government Commitments The Greening Government Commitments set out the actions that the UK government is taking to improve the environmental performance of its own estate and operations, 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 in energy, 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 on nature recovery and climate adaptation, supporting delivery of EIP23 and the Net Zero Strategy.
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 will consider whether the natural environment has, or aspects of it, have, improved over the reporting period. The report will describe what has been done to implement the EIP, taking account of progress made towards achieving any relevant long-term and interim targets. The Outcome Indicator Framework comprises a suite of custom indicators designed to collectively describe environmental change as it relates to the ten goals of the EIP23. It was developed after extensive consultation and will be reviewed alongside the EIP23. The framework contains 66 indicators. These indicators are extensive; they cover natural capital assets (for example land, freshwater , air and seas) and together they show the condition of these assets, the pressures acting upon them and the provision of services 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 Progress will also be supported by our Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA), a science innovation and transformation programme spanning across land and water 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 through the NCEA will ensure we invest in environmental reforms that achieve maximum benefits for nature and society. An ecosystem is the sum of its parts, and the environment is intricately interconnected. Almost all actions in this plan connect with each other to contribute to our ambition to leave 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 coordination of policy and actions can be made possible by using a systems approach. This means ensuring we design policy to maximise 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. 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 Key policies that will deliver our apex biodiversity target

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 nature in 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 that is richer in plants and wildlife. • 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 take • Almost doubled the number of agreements we have with farmers and other land managers to enhance the natural environment through our Countryside • Established 22 Landscape Recovery projects to support 263 species and restore • Improved the conservation status of 96 priority species through the Species Recovery and Back from the Brink programmes. • 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 • 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 to • New interim targets for all sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) to have an up-to- date condition assessment; and for 50% of SSSIs to have actions on track to achieve favourable condition by 31 January 2028.
• Increase tree canopy and woodland cover from 14.5% to 16.5% of total land area in England 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 the • 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 target of 48% of designated features to be in favourable condition by 31 January 2028, in line with the trajectory required to achieve the long-term target. • Pay farmers and land managers to take care of the natural countryside environment, alongside food and other production, so that • They will contribute at least 50% of the target of bringing protected sites into • Including peatland restoration and biodiverse woodland, they will contribute at least 80% of the target to restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat outside of protected areas by 2042. • 65 to 80% of landowners and farmers will adopt nature friendly farming on at least 10-15% of their land by 2030. • Evolve our Countryside Stewardship scheme to pay for a wider range of actions and reward those who join up across local areas to increase biodiversity. • Expand the Sustainable Farming Incentive to pay farmers to adopt more sustainable • Continue to support the 22 Landscape Recovery projects selected in round one and launch a second round of Landscape Recovery projects in 2023 before scaling up • Implement mandatory biodiversity net gain from November 2023 for most developments in England so new developments create 10% more biodiversity. • Roll out Local Nature Recovery Strategies from April 2023 to identify areas to create, 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 protect

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 and ecosystems which best function and provide benefits when they’re connected. A curlew, for example, might spend spring and summer in moorlands or wetlands but winter in coastal 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 also seeing this trend around the world, with the impact of the decline of the natural world falling disproportionately on the world’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 public authories 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 to conserve and enhance biodiversity, and then take that action. There has been success to 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. This chapter sets out the actions we will take to deliver a growing and resilient network of land, water and sea that is richer in plants and wildlife. Alongside other chapters in this plan, it addresses the major pressures on terrestrial and freshwater nature in the UK across land management, climate change, 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 progress in creating and restoring habitat, establishing and reducing pressures and targeting the species that need bespoke action. Through the Environment Act 2021 we have established the foundational framework which, when fully implemented, will enable nature to recover . 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 • 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 it is 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.
• 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 • 50% of SSSIs to have actions on track to achieve favourable Our three interim targets cover habitat restoration and creation, 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

• Increase tree canopy and woodland cover to 16.5% of total land • 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 cover in England to 12% by 2060. We have now gone further and set a target to increase tree canopy and woodland cover in 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 require a 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 play a 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 and Our interim target to achieve an increase of 0.26% (34,000 hectares) is in line with the trajectory required to meet our

The ocean is our most interconnected ecosystem. In English waters, we have established a network of marine protected areas (MPAs) across 35,000 square miles. These protect the range of species and habitats in our seas, including cold- water coral reefs with starfish, anemones and sponges; blue mussel beds supporting sea snails and crabs; and deep- water mud habitats with ocean quahog and sea urchins. • Ensure that 70% of designated features in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are in favourable condition by 2042, with the remainder in recovering condition. • For 48% of designated features in MPAs to be in favourable condition, with the remainder in recovering condition, by 31 Now our MPAs have been designated, our interim target sets the direction for increasing the protections for these valuable marine environments to remove pressures and help 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 Good environmental status of our seas The United Kingdom Marine Strategy (UKMS) is the framework 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. 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 this commitment 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. Achieving our targets and goals will require the private sector to shift towards an economic model that works for nature, triggering a wave of new investment in the natural environment. The government has set a target to raise at least £500 million a year in private finance to support nature’s recovery by 2027 in England, rising to over £1 billion 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 our deep 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 a • 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 • The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. • Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air • Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the • Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. At UN Nature Summit COP15, through the Kunming- Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) we agreed alongside the other parties to 23 global targets, • A global commitment to halt and reverse biodiversity • 30% of global land and 30% of global ocean to be • 30% of degraded ecosystems to be under restoration • A commitment to end human induced-species extinctions of known threatened species by 2030, and • A global commitment to mobilise $200 billion a year of nature finance by 2030, including through a new fund, 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 by • Identify and phase out subsidies harmful to biodiversity, reducing them by at least $500 billion • Obligations to monitor , report and review every 4 years to ensure we track progress against meeting the goals 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 take in 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, how our national targets align with the post-2020 global

Over our decade of action, we are focusing 1 Creating more joined up space for nature on land – protecting land and increasing interconnections to 2 Restoring our protected sites on land – tackling increasing pressures on our most valuable sites and building their long-term resilience. 3 Managing our woodlands for biodiversity, climate and sustainable forestry – delivering co-benefits for 4 Enhancing nature in our marine and coastal environments – taking a holistic approach to coastal 5 Taking targeted actions to restore and manage species – such as tailored conservation strategies and 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 role- 8 Unlocking private and public financial finance flows – ensuring that we grow new sources of finance for Delivery also relies on reducing the key drivers of habitat and species decline through taking the action prescribed across EIP23’s other chapters, such as improving water and air quality and reducing threats from invasive non-native

We need to create more joined up space for nature so that wildlife can thrive. Habitats provide many ecosystem services 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. We have committed to protecting 30% of our land by 2030. To achieve our 30-by-30 target, we • ensure effective policy and statutory safeguards and powers are in place to improve management for nature and prevent degradation. • Extend and designate new protected areas and restore or create wildlife rich habitat outside of these (which could be recognised as Other Effective Area • invest in habitat restoration across our We will publish a map of what counts towards 30-by-30 by the end of the year . This will include work • Launch a further 19 nature recovery projects across England by 2025, building on the five already launched. • Continue to work towards a Nature Recovery Network, a national ecological network that expands, buffers and 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 • Scale up our Sustainable Farming Incentive offer and evolve ‘Countryside Stewardship Plus’ to pay farmers

and land managers to take care of nature alongside • Launch a second round of Landscape Recovery projects in 2023 before scaling the scheme up further from 2024. • Drive coordinated action on areas of particular importance through Local Nature Recovery Strategies. • Implement measures including Biodiversity Net Gain Recover nature in National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) Our AONBs and National Parks are iconic landscapes and home to important habitat such as ancient woodland, peatland and grassland. These current and future Protected Landscapes can play an important role in recovering nature and by doing so contribute more towards our 30-by-30 commitment and we expect them to do so. • Funding projects through our Farming in Protected Landscapes programme which deliver improvements for nature in line with local priorities. In recognition of the programme’s success so far , we are increasing its funding by 50% for 2023/24 and extending it by a further year (more detail in ‘Enhancing beauty, heritage and engagement with the natural environment’ chapter). • Implementing proposals driven by the Landscapes Review. This includes agreeing a new outcomes framework for Protected Landscapes, which sets targets for their contributions to national environment and climate commitments, to be embedded in their • Updating Protected Landscape management plan guidance to ensure consistency. • Issuing and promoting new guidance on the strengthened biodiversity duty, which requires public authorities to periodically consider the action they can take to conserve and enhance biodiversity, and then

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 of England. LNRSs are a key measure from the Environment • 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 and provide 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 play a 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 lead the preparation of LNRSs and other public, private and voluntary actors, including landowners and land managers, to ensure the strategies are evidence-based and collaborative.
Through this we will create a coherent network of shared plans that everyone can help to deliver , and to bring together environmental priorities to improve join-up and coordination of action to recover nature and improve the environment. Deliver through our new farming schemes As 70% of our land is managed for agriculture, there is great potential to create habitat in appropriate places, from farm corners to riverbanks and more. The cirl bunting demonstrates where agri-environment schemes have supported species recovery. In 2016, the population exceeded 1,000 pairs, representing a nine-fold increase 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 through tackling pollution pressures, and contributing to the Nature Recovery Network through hedgerows, buffer strips and farm corners, as well as Landscape Recovery projects in Hedgerows are important ecological building blocks across our landscapes. We will ensure that hedgerows continue to be protected when existing cross compliance protections are lost in 2024. Our new farming schemes will continue to invest in incentives for maintenance and planting of 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. Agreements running from 2024 are expected to bring or maintain 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 and restoration by 2042. We will add further options as we roll Our new farming schemes schemes are expected • 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-rich habitat outside of protected areas by 2042, by including the contribution from peat restoration and biodiverse

• Support 65 to 80% of landowners and farmers to adopt nature friendly farming on at least 10-15% of their land • Launch further rounds of Landscape Recovery projects • Support continued favourable management of all existing priority habitat already in favourable condition outside of SSSIs (from a 2022 baseline) and increasing to include all newly restored or created habitat through our new farming schemes by 2042. • Support farmers to create or restore 30,000 miles of hedgerows a year by 2037 and 45,000 miles of hedgerows 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 miles of rivers and protect and enhance 263 species such as water vole, lapwing, and marsh fritillary. We will award funding to another round of Landscape Recovery projects in 2023. Bees play a crucial role in our

We have committed to restore 75% of protected sites to favourable 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 and Convention 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 important sites are under increasing pressures, not least from climate change, pollution, development and invasive species. • 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. • Implementing a whole feature assessment approach, to improve our understanding of how sites are functioning and where interventions will deliver the greatest return on investment. • Developing more strategic actions through new Protected 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 of • Delivering the £5.6 million Conservation and Enhancement Scheme to improve and maintain the condition of those SSSIs not currently eligible for existing agri-environment schemes, for example because they are not agricultural holdings. • Supporting appropriate and sustainable farmland management, including by reducing the impact of invasive non-native species and addressing pressures such as nutrient or sediment run-off contributing to

• Using powers in existing legislation appropriately to support 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 and proportionate manner alongside other public bodies to prevent 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 the biodiversity 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 with greater urgency. Where appropriate we will make full use of 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, such as water purification and climate adaptation or mitigation, and provide people with the opportunity to spend time in nature. Blue carbon habitats such as saltmarsh and seagrass – the majority of which are in protected areas – play an important role in supporting adaptation and resilience to climate change, alongside carbon sequestration benefits. We need to continue to restore these sites so that

they achieve their full potential. Alongside relevant actions set out in other chapters (including the ‘Clean and plentiful water’ chapter), Defra • 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 miles of 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 Standard practice guide. Planting trees or using natural colonisation 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 saltmarsh and 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. Trees and woodlands capture and lock away carbon, both in the tree biomass and in the soil, as well as delivering significant benefits for biodiversity. Approximately a quarter of all species of principal importance for conservation in England are associated with native woodland habitats and trees, including lesser spotted woodpeckers and high brown fritillaries. From ancient woodland and veteran trees to temperate rainforest and urban trees, they provide a variety of benefits to people and form a vital part of our natural heritage. In line with our tree canopy and woodland cover targets, the England Trees Action Plan provides a strategic framework for our woodland creation and woodland management

ambitions and is supported by the £750 million Nature for Climate Fund (NCF). We have • Launched our flagship England Woodland Creation Offer in June 2021, which is paying land managers to plant the right trees in the right places. This is also our first 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 Plymouth and 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 on ancient and native woodland to recognise the value of England’s ancient and native woodlands and ancient • Published a UK Forestry Standard practice guide on adapting forest and woodland management for the • Launched a series of Regional Woodland Restoration Innovation Funds to encourage and broaden innovation in the forestry sector and support active management of our woodlands to improve their ecological condition. • Published evidence-based decision support frameworks to guide both landowners and public bodies regarding tree planting decisions in peat environments or in locations where there may be • Set out plans on how we will increase the resilience of our woodlands. These plans will be incorporated into a revised version of the government’s Tree Health Resilience Strategy, which will cover our approach to tackling pressures on our trees and woodlands,

including climate change, pests and diseases. This work on reducing pressures will be supported by our national deer management strategy (covered later in 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 and improve our ancient and native woodlands and ancient and veteran trees and the valuable habitats they provide for future generations. • Support work on the ground to improve the condition of ancient semi-natural woodland and to restore plantations on ancient woodland sites (PAWS) while making sure they continue to provide owners with income. In support of 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 have been 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 to ensure 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 • Further develop our forestry proposals aimed at increasing the planting of new woodland and preserving 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

woodlands sustainably. Future woodland creation grants will mirror the England Woodland Creation Offer , ensuring continuity of offer . Landscape Recovery will support major landscape-scale afforestation projects where these deliver a wide range of environmental outcomes. Scale up private sector funding for new woodland We will address barriers which may deter tree planting • 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 closed in June 2022, and a Government Response will • Scaling up high integrity voluntary markets for carbon and other ecosystem services by clarifying and strengthening the standards and governance arrangements for this type of investment. • Working with the forestry sector to increase the amount 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 • Reviewing guidance on the tax treatment of trees and woodlands, to provide greater clarity to landowners on how new and existing trees on their land affect tax • Developing a voluntary Woodland Water Code so landowners are incentivised by natural capital markets to plant woodlands in places where they do most to • 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. 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 • 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 through our new farming schemes to assess whether further 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 through the new farming schemes will achieve approximately 90% of the Environment Act target to increase tree cover to 16.5% of England’s land area by 2050. Work to further unlock private investment is expected to complement this. Increase the scope and protections of protected Effective protection through Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) will help deliver the 30-by-30 commitment for the ocean. Having created over 100 MPAs in English waters since 2010, we have now established a comprehensive network of 178 MPAs covering We are focused on increasing protections for our MPAs. 98 inshore MPAs now have byelaws in place to protect sensitive

species and habitats from damaging bottom towed fishing gears. Byelaws for the first four English offshore sites came into force in June 2022 and, where necessary, byelaws for the next tranche of 13 sites will be in place later in 2023. Where needed, all offshore MPAs will have byelaws in place 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 to understand more about the management and recovery of blue carbon habitats. We intend to designate the first Take a holistic approach to coastal and marine 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. • Optimise the use of the marine space through the cross-government programme on Marine Spatial • Continue to monitor and report against marine plans. • Develop Fisheries Management Plans, working with • Work with the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy to develop sustainable ocean plans that capture both Defra and cross-government work. Defra will lead a practical initiative to restore estuarine and coastal habitats (ReMeMaRe (Restoring Meadow, Marsh and Reef)), which will restore 15% of our priority habitats along

Harness the power of marine ecosystems to help Marine ecosystems have the potential to be an important nature based solution to climate change. We will advance the evidence base on blue carbon ecosystems, including through the UK Blue Carbon Evidence Partnership (UKBCEP). The Marine Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (mNCEA) programme aims to fill core data gaps on the services 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 of We will work with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the devolved administrations through the UKBCEP to address key questions including filling the evidence gaps that currently hinder inclusion of saltmarsh and 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 that will act as a signal to the research community. 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 to be delivered alongside protection of the ocean and support 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 implementing a package of measures to enable faster consenting of offshore wind developments while maintaining high levels of environmental protection.
We are doing this • Enabling environmental compensation for the adverse environmental effects of offshore wind farm developments to take place in a more strategic and impactful way, with developers collaborating on larger • Setting up a marine recovery fund to help deliver these strategic measures. The fund will be an optional Our English waters are home to

mechanism that developers can choose to use to deliver their compensatory measures. • Designing Offshore Wind Environmental Standards to reduce the overall environmental impact of a development. We will provide clear guidance to developers on best practice to incorporate into the design, construction, operation and decommissioning of • Making sure that we understand cumulative impacts of development on whole ecosystems by making best use of existing monitoring data to support faster , more robust Case Blue Carbon– LIFE Recreation Natural England is leading the LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES (Reducing and Mitigating Erosion and Disturbance Impacts affEcting the Seabed) project, a £2.5 million, four-year marine conservation project across 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 damaged by activities such as the anchoring and mooring of recreational boats. They are working with harbour authorities and private mooring holders to install Advanced Mooring Systems (AMS), which are more By maintaining and restoring seagrass, we are helping to create healthy seagrass meadows that provide habitat for a number of protected species, are important nursery grounds for fish, help stabilise the seabed and reduce coastal erosion, clean surrounding seawater and store and capture significant amounts of carbon. the seagrass bed in the Solent

In the last 20 years, the England priority species abundance index 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, and We are taking action to protect and restore • Our multi-million pound Species Survival Fund is specifically targeted towards our 2030 species abundance target. This fund will seek to create and restore habitat, as well as further targeted species • Species Conservation Strategies will find better ways to protect species at risk and improve their conservation status. Initial pilots will focus on hazel dormouse, water vole and widespread reptiles. • Our Species Recovery Programme supports the recovery of threatened and declining species in partnership 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 • Our new farming schemes will support farmers and land managers to improve species abundance, including through restoring and creating habitat, more targeted action for our rarest species, and tackling pressures (including management of species that present a threat to threatened native species or to

Case Red Squirrel partnership working 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 of passionate volunteers to secure the future of this cherished native British mammal. In recognition of their vital work Defra has funded 180 training places for volunteers 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 to thrive without competitive pressure. RSNE’s Annual Squirrel Monitoring Programme was established in 2012. The data collected shows the benefit of the strongholds and the impact of grant funding. Red squirrel occupancy has stabilised since 2015 and reds are currently present in 53.2% of all squares surveyed. Red occupancy is even higher within The data from the monitoring programme is used to target grant aid as well as focus conservation activity in the right areas. A new £50/hectare supplement was made available in 2022 to support grey squirrel management – a cornerstone of red squirrel conservation. Over 11,000 hectares of woodland (across England) benefitted from that support in the 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 and developing a data portal which will allow each group to understand the contribution they are making to the

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 Our National Pollinator Pollinator Action Plan 2021 to 2024 committed us to action. In addition to actions under the plan we • Established the Pollinator Monitoring and Research Partnership with research institutes and volunteer organisations to gather data and improve our understanding of the status of pollinators and pollination services in the UK. The partnership established 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 awareness of the steps we can all take to protect pollinators. • Introduced new options to Countryside Stewardship, to provide incentives for habitat creation and management for pollinators. Between 2014 and 2019, we estimate that the area of farmland covered by agri-environment scheme options delivering food and fuel for pollinators Case Back from the Brink - Back from the Brink (BftB) was a £7 .7million programme, principally funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, working to put over 100 priority species on the road to recovery.
The programme was led by Natural England working in partnership with the 7 NGO partners of Rethink Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, Bat Conservation Trust, Buglife, Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Butterfly Conservation, Plantlife and the RSPB. Butterfly Conservation led the Limestone’s Living Legacies multi-species project, with

Half of the UK’s limestone grasslands are situated in the Cotswolds - the project sought to improve monitoring and management of limestone grasslands benefiting a range of threatened species which rely upon this habitat. The project reintroduced the Large Blue butterfly to three 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 in 2020 after 1,100 larvae were released in autumn 2019 following five years of grassland management to create optimum habitat on a Cotswold hillside where the species has not been seen for 150 years. The globally endangered butterfly now flies in greater number 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 ongoing support 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 of In total 414 volunteers from local communities gave over 3 years’ worth of time to the project of which 27 4 people have been trained in species identification and survey methodology. The project improved our monitoring of rare invertebrates it rediscovered the rock-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

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 • Take forward the plans set out in the UK Bycatch Mitigation Initiative, published by the UK government and devolved administrations in 2021. • Run trials of bycatch reduction technologies, bringing together stakeholders and innovators to explore alternative gear and gear modifications. 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 to assess 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 regeneration of 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 and the prevalence and spread of disease. To tackle this, we will implement a national deer management strategy for We will continue to explore the reintroduction and conservation translocation of native species to improve biodiversity. We have already done this for species like the

large blue butterfly and lady’s slipper orchid, supporting healthy ecosystem function and nature recovery. We • Work with statutory bodies and experts through the new Species Reintroduction Taskforce regarding views on potential reintroductions and conservation • Provide opportunities for conservation translocations and reintroductions of native species where benefits to the environment, people and the economy are clear . 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 the forthcoming update to the Green Finance Strategy. Develop private markets for nature The market for private investment in nature is at an early stage, and so government needs to take steps to build trust, confidence and market integrity. We • Support the confidence of investors in the integrity of • Publish a policy framework, in spring 2023 as part of an updated Green Finance Strategy, to provide clear principles for the development of high-integrity nature markets that enable farmers and land managers to attract investment • Develop a comprehensive suite of investment standards, learning from existing practices and innovations, to support investment across the full range of Nature-based Solutions. • Reduce the risk and uncertainty around the financial returns from natural capital investments for investors

• Scale up investment in nature-based projects that can deliver a financial return with £30 million seed funding 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 • Provide development grants and support through the Landscape Recovery scheme, to enable long term, large scale, bespoke projects aiming to enhance the natural environment to attract • Launch the Local Investment in Natural Capital (LINC) programme to build the capacity of leading local authorities to attract private investment at scale, and direct it towards their • Scope out how best to support the development of a voluntary biodiversity credit market to stimulate greater flows of finance into nature.
We will commence the Biodiversity Net Gain condition for planning 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 and enhancement. This will help to deliver the priorities set out in Local Nature Recovery Strategies and build new markets We provided £4.18 million in 2021 to 2022 to help local planning authorities and strategic authorities such as county councils and combined authorities prepare for biodiversity net gain. We intend to provide further funding

for the remainder of the two-year transition period and expect to confirm the level of support shortly. We are also supporting planning authorities with guidance and tools though the Planning Advisory Service. 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. They will be used by charities, public authorities or altruistic landowners wishing to conserve land for the future and, in some 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 to maintain or restore habitats in return for funding from the organisation, or could be used to protect a heritage feature, such as an archaeological site, in accordance with the landowner’s wishes, even after the land changes hands. Activities in the sea can also be disruptive for biodiversity, but there are net gain opportunities for development in this area 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 the potential of net gain to enhance the protection and restoration of 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 most effective management of environmental impacts, support

nature’s recovery, and provide a consistent service for As well as taking action at home, the UK leads internationally in 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 of nature and working together with frameworks like the Intergovernmental 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 and Amazon, Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, Lower Mekong, Mesoamerica, Western Congo Basin 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 of this we will establish a UK wetland inventory, mapping our wetlands for the first time. The UK, UK Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies are home to the largest number of Ramsar designated wetland sites of international importance in the world, setting the UK’s commitments at the center of global action on wetlands. 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, the new programme harnesses UK and wider expertise to support innovation, build local capability, supply data and evidence 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 • Partnering with business for restoration of ecosystem • Preventing Borneo’s peatland fires to protect health, • Integrating traditional knowledge into Guyana’s conservation policy-making and practice. • Enhancing socio-ecological resilience in Laikipia, Kenya through cattle, water and wildlife. 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 have • 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 • £10 million will continue to be made available each year until 2025, continuing to fund biodiversity and conservation projects in the UKOTs. In partnership with JNCC, we are also working with UKOT

• 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 for smaller 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 to The UK is building on our investment in tackling IWT of over £46 million (2014 to 2022) with a further £30 million The Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund (IWTCF) has committed £43 million to 136 projects around the world, in over 60 countries since 2014 and is now on its ninth round of funding. Funded activities include • 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 • Help communities to protect the wildlife they rely on We will continue to promote strong and effective protection, and sustainable and legal use of endangered species through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and are updating CITES regulations following CITES COP last year . We will also promote coordinated conservation measures throughout a species migratory range through the Convention on Migratory Species. 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 that aims to build momentum towards a sustainable ocean • We chair the Global Ocean Alliance (GOA) which will play an important role in supporting the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework in the Ocean. The GOA will take on a wider ocean advocacy role to continue raising the profile of the ocean, ocean issues and the needs of coastal and large ocean states, to strengthen 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, and the mobilisation of ocean finance. • The UK leads international partnerships and is ocean co-chair of the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, 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 Alliance to Combat Ocean Acidification. Over 60% of the global ocean lies in areas beyond national jurisdiction. The UK is continuing to work to conclude negotiations as soon as possible in 2023 on a new implementing Agreement under United Nations Convention on the Law Of the Sea (UNCLOS) for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity 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

At the UN Nature Summit COP15 the UK announced further Official Development Assistance from the Blue Planet Fund, committing an initial £20 million through competitive 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 and 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 will further 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; biologically diverse seas; productive and sustainably used seas; and seas 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 the Convention on Migratory Species. Through this agreement the UK, in conjunction with other Parties, seeks to improve the conservation status of small cetaceans like dolphins Tackling Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing (IUU) and overfishing are also important priorities. Domestically, we are introducing Vessel Monitoring Systems requirements for our inshore, under 12 metre fleet, will, alongside the Catch App, provide a comprehensive picture of all licensed fishing activity across English waters for the first time. The

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 • 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, to help eligible developing countries reduce poverty, protect, and sustainably manage their marine resources and address human-generated threats, including activity to 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 their waters. We have also announced an investment of up to £20 million in grants that will be made available to local organisations 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 to tackle IUU fishing during their international operations. public financial finance flows We want to make sure that public and private finance protects and preserves nature as a default. We created the Political 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

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 , and aligning financial flows with the Kunming-Montreal GBF and the 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 • We will work internationally to promote investment in nature and decrease harmful finance, by working through our chairmanship of the G7 to redirect or eliminate all subsidies harmful to nature by 2030 and continuing 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 decision- making, 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 Finance ring-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. 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 thriving plants and wildlife C2 Seabed subject to high pressure from human activity C3 Diverse status of marine mammals and C4 Diverse condition of seafloor habitats C5 Diverse condition of pelagic habitats C6 Diverse status of threatened and declining C7 Healthy fish and shellfish populations C8 Healthy marine food webs functioning C9 Healthy seafloor habitats functioning D1 Quantity, quality and connectivity of habitats D2 Extent and condition of protected sites – land, D3 Area of woodland in England D4 Relative abundance and/or distribution of D5 Conservation status of our native species D6 Relative abundance and distribution of priority 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 indicator of Management Effectiveness of Protected and Conserved Areas. Our work to protect our marine

Support drivers to make the transition to zero emission vehicles through the impacts of air quality and air quality more quickly while

Air quality in the UK has improved significantly in recent decades. We have seen a decrease in all five major air for instance, emissions of fine particulate matter (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 It also harms the natural environment, affecting our biodiversity, waterways and crop yields. In particular, emissions of ammonia have reduced more slowly than the other key pollutants and continue to damage sensitive natural habitats, adding to our 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 • 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 • Consulted and established UK Best Available Techniques (UK BAT) regime so our largest industry uses the most up-to-date techniques to minimise emissions. • Supported farmers in reducing ammonia emissions by providing grants for emission-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 • A legal target to reduce population exposure to PM2.5 by 35% in 2040 compared to 2018 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 micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic metre (µg/m3) by 2040, with a new interim target of 12 µg/m3 by • Legal emission reduction targets for five damaging pollutants by 2030 relative to • 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%. • Continue to tackle domestic emissions by reducing the maximum emissions for domestic burning appliances in Smoke Control Areas and by promoting best practice 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 • Facilitate the rollout of further Clean Air Zones by local councils in areas which are in breach of air quality statutory limits, with further zones and other non-clean air • Re-align regional air quality zones in line with local government boundaries to drive • Reduce ammonia emissions by using incentives in our new farming schemes, while considering expanding environmental permitting conditions to dairy and intensive • 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. 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%, non- methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC) by 14%, and ammonia (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 nitrogen accumulation in soils. This favours a limited selection of common, fast-growing plants species, such as nettles, which outcompete nitrogen sensitive species such as wildflowers. Ultimately this reduces lower overall biodiversity, both in plant 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 is extremely 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

• By the end of 2040, we will achieve a maximum Annual Mean Concentration Target (AMCT) of 10 micrograms of PM2.5 or below • By the end of 2040, we will reduce population exposure to PM2.5 by 35% compared to 2018 levels. • The highest annual mean concentration in the most recent full calendar year must not exceed 12 µg/m3 of PM2.5. • Compared to 2018, the reduction in population exposure to PM2.5 in the most recent full calendar year must be 22% or greater . PM2.5 is the pollutant which is most harmful to human health. 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 most challenging to meet in the South East (because this experiences the greatest amount of pollution blown in from other countries) and in London and other urban areas (as these are where the greatest amounts of UK pollution is produced). Modelling PM2.5 concentrations across England Total PM 2.5 concentration European, international College London using the UK Integrated Assessment model showing how (a) variations in PM2.5 from natural sources and sources from outside the UK and (b) UK manmade PM2.5 result in significantly different concentrations across the country. Additional concentration limits In addition to these limits on PM2.5, legal limits also apply to the concentrations of several other air pollutants including nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and coarse particulate matter (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 can be 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 some towns and cities. Our 2017 NO2 Plan put in place actions to address this, and they are also outlined below. Specific pollution emission limits As well as concentration limits (a measure of the level of pollutant in the air in specific areas), we have separate legal limits on emissions (the quantity of specific pollutants released into the air across the country). The combination of these 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 all five.
The next targets are set for 2030:

Building on our 2019 Clean Air Strategy, our delivery plan focuses on these four sectors, as well as supporting action 1 Reducing emissions in the home by managing domestic burning, which is the biggest source of emissions of fine particulate matter . Much of these emissions 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 and powers to deliver clean air in their areas and so have the greatest power to support the achievement of the 3 Maintaining and improving our regulatory framework for industrial emissions, which have already reduced significantly. 4 Supporting farmers to reduce the impact of ammonia emissions from agriculture on air quality. They are responsible for 87% of the ammonia 5 Reducing emissions from cars and other forms of transport which are still a major source of NO2 and Improve regulation for burning high emission Burning a dry log can reduce emissions by 50% compared to a log which has not been dried, so we have been taking action • 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 of wood, typically for immediate use, are not unknowingly

• 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 through issuing financial penalties under a civil regime and by pursuing persistent offenders under a criminal regime. To further reduce such emissions, we • Tighten the limits that new stoves in Smoke Control Areas must meet, reducing the limit from 5g of smoke • Extend the solid fuels legislation, including to fuels burned outside. This would provide consistency in the 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 away from 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 some households are reliant on solid fuel burning as a primary source for heating, hot water and cooking, with this in mind government is not seeking to ban burning. A ban on domestic outdoor burning (bonfires, barbecues, firepits etc.) would also be considered disproportionate. Include air quality as a key consideration in the The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has already set out ventilation requirements to maintain 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

• 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 • 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 the planning system and set out how they should be taken into account. We will continue to build the homes and infrastructure the country needs, whilst continuing to make positive progress on improving air quality. Develop widescale and targeted communications There is a role for government to communicate the right information to people so that they can make the most positive choices for themselves regarding air quality and steps to mitigate their own exposure. • Review and improve how the government communicates air quality information. We want to ensure members of the public, and vulnerable groups in particular , have what they need to protect themselves and understand air quality’s impacts on them. We are engaging with representatives from vulnerable groups and other key stakeholders to capture information and ensure that their needs are addressed. • Continue to develop a targeted communications campaign to promote best practice in use of wood stoves and fireplaces in using cleaner and more efficient fuels, 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

Taking action at a local level, focusing on areas of high population density and where there is significant exposure to air pollutants, will be key in meeting our population 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 • Required local authorities to take more proactive and collaborative action in tackling air quality through reforms to the Local Air Quality Management • Funded the Air Quality Hub, enabling local authorities to share best practice, success stories and experience to drive improvement nationwide. • Made available over £883 million to help local authorities develop and implement local NO2 reduction plans and to support those impacted by these plans. • Facilitated the introduction of Clean Air Zones by councils in Bath, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Portsmouth and Tyneside. We have announced a future Clean Air Zone in Sheffield. Reinforce the role of local authorities in We will continue to support local authorities • 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. • 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 have regard, 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 coordinated • 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 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 • Increase transparency by requiring timely and accurate publication of air quality assessments by local • Conduct an audit of all powers relevant to air quality available to local authorities, how they are using them and any barriers to successful delivery. Case study - Defra’s Air Quality Grant Scheme - Clean Air Villages - Cross River Almost £2 million awarded to local authorities for 4 Defra’s Air Quality Grant scheme funds English local authorities for community projects that tackle air pollution. This helps to level up our country by addressing 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. • Nine cargo bike schemes, and a shared electric • A micro hub consolidation scheme to reduce the number 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 to • Seven traffic monitoring devices were installed to improve the evidence based for future air quality 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. Industrial processes are a key part of our economy but they also create pollution. To avoid potentially serious impacts on our health and environment, these processes are carefully managed and this has already made a significant contribution to reductions in air pollution. Reducing these emissions further will have a direct impact on the concentration of air pollutants in those places where people 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. Data suggests 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 • Continue to roll out the UK BAT system, through which industry and regulators are able to collaborate to improve standards in industrial processes. • Further develop UK BAT, particularly around new technologies and methods that industry should put in 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 for industrial processes to better reflect our priorities for the environment and to support businesses in innovating and delivering net zero, including by integrating the regulations of GHG emissions alongside other emissions from industry. Regulate to support progress in smaller industry We have extended environmental permitting so that a much wider range of combustion plants are now required to meet emission limits. This has reduced emissions of NOx, SO2 and Whilst we have achieved significant improvements with large industry, smaller industry has been left with lagging emissions standards. Instead of the same system of regularly updated standards, small industry is covered by a complex multitude of documents which has led to out-of- date requirements on a large number of sectors and sites. These smaller sites also tend to be more numerous and are more likely to be located in urban or residential areas. As such, reducing their pollution will help drive progress against our population exposure reduction target. We will consult on a new system for updating standards for small industry like petrol stations, metals processing, and quarrying. As set out above, the BAT approach has been highly successful in reducing emissions from large industry. Applying a similar approach to small industry will reduce pollution from this source, and help drive progress. 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 important that the agricultural sector reduces these emissions. Incentivise pollutant reduction through our new Defra has already supported farmers to reduce their ammonia emissions. Since 2018 we have made available grants to support investment in low emissions equipment through the Countryside Stewardship scheme and the Farm Equipment and Technology Fund. We have also made advice available to farmers through extending the scope of A new nutrient management standard in the Sustainable • Incentivise appropriate nutrient management on • Fund advice on improving efficient nutrient use. • Fund farmers to take action including by planting and Consider expanding environmental permitting conditions to dairy and intensive beef farms Pig and poultry farms are already required to adhere to environmental permit conditions. Since we have required this, their emissions are estimated to have decreased by around 30%. Dairy and intensive beef farms together contributed over half of the UK’s ammonia emissions from agriculture in 2020. Cattle farming also accounted for 46%

of all UK agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in 2020, and agricultural diffuse pollution was the primary cause for 40% of water bodies failing to achieve good ecological status. • 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 and intensive beef sector to underpin the permitting system. These measures will be flexible and appropriate for the particular farm setting – for example, farms near a sensitive nature site may need to implement more ambitious measures to protect that site. Put in place measures to reduce emissions from inorganic fertilisers and organic manures Urea fertilisers have higher ammonia emissions than other inorganic fertilisers and we want to support farmers in Defra has agreed a plan to reduce these emissions through an 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. • Invest £13 million in slurry storage infrastructure in 2023, with further rounds of funding to follow. • Consult on new rules to reduce ammonia emissions from the 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 through Countryside Stewardship and continue funding through Farm 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

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 to ammonia emissions. The production of biomethane and biogas is expected to increase further by 2030 and the environmental impacts of ammonia associated with digestate needs to be managed to ensure that we meet both our net 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. • Continue to require anaerobic digestate operators to • Consult on other measures to reduce ammonia from the storage and spreading of organic manures, including • Consider how best to reduce ammonia emissions by processing digestate, in a way that is consistent with the continued growth of the anaerobic digestate market. Alongside its support for biogas and biomethane • Continue to require that where digestate produced by anaerobic digestate plants is spread, it is done so using 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 and

While emissions from transport continue to decrease, data from 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 Take collaborative action to drive down pollution The majority of local exceedances of emissions limits are due to NO2 emissions from roads. • Required National Highways to work with local authorities in reducing these exceedances. National Highways and local authorities often already work together to improve local air quality but the changes will ensure a more consistent approach to future collaboration. • Introduced powers to force vehicle manufacturers to recall 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 of environmental standards in the vehicle industry. Reduce NO2 concentrations in hotspots We have funded a number of measures such as road and junction improvements, as well as a variety of vehicle upgrades, all aiming to improve air quality. However , there are still areas within England which do not comply with the relevant air quality concentration limits for NO2 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

and other non-clean air zone measures to be announced in certain 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 transport system emissions of air pollutants will reduce. The Department for Transport has • Committed to ending the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030 and sales of new non-zero emission heavy goods vehicles by 2040. • Consulted on dates for ending the sale of new non- zero emission buses and L -category vehicles such as • Pledged up to £2.8 billion to support the switch to zero 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 the move away from petrol and diesel cars • 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 purchase price 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) and favorable company car tax rates remain in place.
• Supporting the acceleration of the rollout of a world- class 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

2030. This includes delivering thousands of miles of safe, 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 and engagement with the natural environment’ chapter . • Investing in cutting-edge research to identify options for mitigating or reducing brake and tyre emissions from road 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 • Over the coming months and years, exploring creating a single regulatory framework that applies to all road vehicles from motorcycles to the heaviest trucks, putting the phase out dates for the multiple vehicle Deliver the Rail Environment Policy Statement We have electrified more than 1,200 miles of railway since 2010 in Great Britain compared with 63 miles in the 13 years preceding, and now only 1.5% of GHG emissions come from trains. However , diesel trains still play an important role in connecting 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 our understanding of pollutant concentrations in these locations The Department for Transport • Commission a comprehensive review of the regulations, standards and guidelines governing air quality on the railway. This will be particularly focused on informing the development of industry targets to improve air quality in problem locations such as • Fund a £4.5 million Stations Air Quality Monitoring

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 climate change. Our plan to further increase the pace of change is set out in the Transport Decarbonisation Plan, which builds on the approach announced in the Clean Maritime Plan and Maritime 2050, published in 2019. Since 2018, the Department for Transport • Extended the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, making renewable fuels of non-biological origin for marine use, such as hydrogen and ammonia, eligible • Used our call for evidence on increasing the uptake of shore power in the UK, which has both air quality and decarbonisation 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 to The Department for Transport • 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 the environmental impacts of shipping. 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 A1 Emissions for five key air pollutants A3 Concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) 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 of ammonia (NH3) in the atmosphere We operate the Automatic Urban and Rural Network for pollution monitoring. This is the UK’s largest automatic monitoring network, providing near-real-time measurement of pollution concentrations at strategic locations around the country. The network is being expanded with the number of PM2.5 monitors more than doubling to better assess PM2.5 levels in England and progress against interim and long

and other forms of transport will make active journeys healthier

Key policies to achieve our water targets

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 ever before 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 for generations to come, with plenty left for wildlife as well. Working from source to sea, 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. • Driven environmentally sustainable farming by doubling funding available for the Catchment 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 their slurry 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 water companies 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. • 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 • 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 a 2020 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 an interim 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 from sewage 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

• Ensure water companies are delivering on our targets and commitments through enhanced 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 the • Crack down on sewage pollution by holding water companies to account for delivering the targets set out in the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan. • Require water companies to upgrade 160 of their wastewater treatment works to meet 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 and enhance 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 to final decisions, following consultation, on scope, threshold and process. Water is essential for human health, biodiversity and the economy. We all need access to a safe, reliable, resilient supply of clean and plentiful water for our homes, We have made significant progress over time in improving the quality of the water environment. For example, we have delivered 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 new standards 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 the River Donn for the first time in 200 years. However , improvements in our water environment have plateaued due to an increasing population, ageing infrastructure, increased pollution risks and the pressure on our drainage system. Climate change also means that rainfall patterns are changing. Projections show some rivers could have 50 to 80% less water in summertime by 2050 from drier summers, increasing the concentration of pollutants in water bodies and the impact of water abstraction on the water environment. Wetter winters and more frequent intense rainfall lead to increased flooding and more pollutants being washed off fields and urban areas into nearby water bodies. The top issues preventing our water bodies from achieving • Physical modification (41%). • Pollution from agriculture and rural land (40%). • Pollution from wastewater (36%). • Non-native invasive species (25%). • 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 business is becoming increasingly challenging.
An additional 4,000 megalitres (Ml) of water a day will be needed in England by 2050 to meet future pressures on public water supply. Water companies currently provide around 14,000 Ml/day of water for public water supply. Improving the way we manage our water is essential – and tackling sources of water pollution must remain a top priority. We have a regulatory framework to set high standards for water at a fair price to consumers. The government sets the overall 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 regulation of 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 for the water system, wholesale transformation is required. The policies in this chapter are the first step in a broader water We are developing a suite of new policy interventions designed to transform how we manage the water system in a holistic way, as well as targeted action on each component

Reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution from agriculture into the water environment by 40% by 31 December 2038, compared Reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution from agriculture to the water environment by 10% by 31 January 2028 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 to eutrophication in water bodies which causes the overgrowth of 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 as technology, farm infrastructure and land use change will take time to deliver , particularly in the current context of The interim target for the catchments containing our most 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 list of these sites can be found in the Natural England publication ‘Strategic Nutrient Neutrality’. Reduce phosphorous loadings from treated wastewater by 80% by 31 December 2038, against a 2020 baseline 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 England from reaching good status. Existing nutrient removal work by 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. Halve the length of rivers polluted by harmful metals from abandoned mines by 31 December 2038, against a baseline of around 930 miles Construct 8 mine water treatment schemes and 20 diffuse interventions to control inputs of target substances to rivers by 31 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 this pollution will support these rivers achieving good status. Achieving the long-term target will likely require 40 mine water treatment schemes and around 40 diffuse Reduce the use of public water supply in England per head of population by 20% from the 2019 to 2020 baseline reporting year 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. 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 pressures on public water supply, due to population growth and climate change causing drier conditions. Half will need to be delivered through reducing demand for water and the remainder through increased supply. The long-term target to reduce water demand seeks to close this gap by setting us on a course for more sustainable water consumption. To achieve the statutory water demand target, we plan to reduce 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 household water 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 the long-term target and the supply-demand challenge. The Greening Government Commitments (GGCs) seek to reduce the impact of government on the environment. This

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 2015 baseline) saving an estimated £10.4 million in 2020 to 2021.
Good ecological status and good chemical Good 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 a series 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 Ecological This is assigned using various water , habitat and biological quality tests. Failure of any one individual test means that the whole water body fails to achieve good or better ecological status or potential. Water bodies are classified from high to bad. Chemical Chemical status is calculated by assessing 52 different chemical elements (individual and groups of chemicals). Water bodies are classified The European Environment Agency’s data shows that that 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 with equivalent Northern European countries on water quality, bathing water and urban waste water treatment directive compliance. • 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 to achieve GES overall. Failure of one individual test means that overall the water body will fail to reach GES. This concept is known as ‘one-out-all-out’. To deliver against our goal and targets, we are taking action 1 Improving wastewater infrastructure and water company 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 from agriculture – agriculture is a significant user of water resources, and we want to get the balance right through our future farming schemes and regulation in order to incentivise 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 England by 2050 will need to be delivered through reducing demand for water and the remainder through increased 4 Tackling pressures from chemicals and other pollutants - many historic chemicals remain in our rivers, despite being banned or restricted, and we continue to monitor new chemicals being added to the market to assess their potential impact. Further detail on this work is also set out in the ‘Managing exposure to chemicals and 5 Restoring natural function and iconic water landscapes – our water bodies have been physically modified for hundreds of years. Sometimes this has been to provide an important service such as navigation, but sometimes these no longer provide a purpose, and can negatively 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 - the current water policy and regulatory framework is complex, 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 in a more coherent way to enable joined up management in

Improve wastewater infrastructure and water company environmental performance Defra has put the water environment as a top priority in the Strategic 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 water companies 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 our vital work around water resilience and environmental enhancement. We will also hold water companies to account to deliver our expectations on improved management for nutrient pollution, supported by the £2.5 billion invested in measures to tackle this challenge from 2020 to 2025. Water company environmental performance Since 2015, regulators have concluded 59 prosecutions against water and sewerage companies securing fines of over £144 million. In 2021, regulators concluded seven prosecutions against water and sewerage companies with • Developing a mechanism for fines and penalties on water 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

that specifically restore and enhance the water • 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 held 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 the • Encourage water companies to reduce their pollution through upgrading wastewater treatment infrastructure and rolling out Nature-based Solutions for example, integrated wetlands. • Work with water companies to expand into more sustainable wastewater treatment techniques, and upgrading of existing treatments which use anaerobic digesters to Advanced Anaerobic Digestion, which involve less greenhouse gas and contribute to the circular economy by enabling the waste to be reused. • Require water companies to produce Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans. These will provide a framework for organisations to work together to improve drainage and environmental water quality, and will 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

Reduce nutrient pollution to enable sustainable We are committed to tackling nutrient pollution at source to restore our protected sites and support sustainable development. Therefore, working closely together , Defra and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) have introduced a package of measures. This includes action set out in the wastewater treatment section • Introducing a new Nutrient Mitigation Scheme, established by Defra, to facilitate building thousands of homes while creating new wetland habitat. DLUHC and 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 • 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 by excess 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 to nutrient 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 planning permissions and enable the building of new homes. It is also committed to working with local planning authorities, Natural England and the development industry to ensure that sustainable development can be unlocked across the

In August 2022, we also published the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan. This Plan will require water companies 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 • By 2035, to have protected all our designated bathing waters and the majority of our most sensitive and protected habitats from storm sewage discharges. • By 2050, to have eliminated all adverse ecological • 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 all storm overflows by the end of 2023. This is up from only 5% Water companies are investing £3.1 billion from 2020 to 2025, 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. 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 storage and management, and therefore the resilience of industry,

as part of helping to meet our target to reduce the use of public water supply. These improvements will be made through changes to abstraction and water licensing, as well as 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, to contribute towards this water demand target. Incentivise best practice through our new • Pay farmers to adopt more sustainable farming practices that can improve water quality through accelerated and enhanced funding, by offering at least six new Sustainable Farming Incentive standards which will pay farmers for in-field flower-rich strips, companion cropping and grassy field corners, and for measures to protect watercourses through • 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 to date, after which we will step up our enforcement in this area to maintain compliance and prevent pollution • Fund research and development of innovative technologies and techniques to enable the increased effective use of manure and slurry as resources rather • Complete Diffuse Water Pollution Plans to identify the specific pressures affecting water dependent Increase investment in proactive measures to increase regulatory compliance • Increased funding for farm inspectors to allow over 4,000 site inspections per year , particularly targeting

inspections in catchments where protected sites are in • Provided £1.3m per year between 2021 and 2025 to the EA to pilot methods to improve farmer compliance and environmental outcomes, through our Testing Approaches to the Regulation of Agriculture project (Project TARA). These methods range from the use of remote monitoring (for example through drones) to better identify and target potential sources of pollution, 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 and guidance on mitigating pollution. • Launched the £10 million Water Management grant scheme 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 water pollution.
This will dovetail with incentives provided through our new farming schemes to support the recovery of the water system alongside food production. Water companies are investing £469 million between 2020 and 2025 to investigate the strategic water resources options required, like water transfers, inter-regional water

transfers, reservoirs, water recycling and desalination. This is supported by a joint team called the Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID) and the National Framework for water resources. We are also providing grants towards technology, equipment and infrastructure to support the sustainable use of water in the agriculture sector through the Farming Investment Fund • Designate the National Policy Statement for Water Resources Infrastructure, to improve planning decisions and better enable new water supply • Improve regulatory frameworks to facilitate new large water resources infrastructure projects. The impact of climate change on our water resources is already apparent and will only increase over further years without significant additional action. In response, Defra, • Apply lessons learned from the dry weather in 2022 and make any necessary improvements to the EA’s water abstraction regime and drought planning, and water company statutory drought planning arrangements. • Use powers to direct water companies to meet water needs 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 500- year 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 • Build on work with regulators, through RAPID, to ensure water companies continue to use the funding to develop new strategic water resources infrastructure. Secure sustainable abstraction Abstracting water sustainably is key to protecting our water environment and supplying water to people and businesses. We estimate that we need to reduce abstraction by approximately 800 megalitres per day (Ml/d) by 2027 and 1,400 Ml/d by 2050. Since 2008 the Restoring Sustainable Abstraction programme has returned 48 billion litres of water a year to the environment, including 37 billion litres of water a year to chalk streams, and also removed the risk that approximately 1.9 trillion litres could be abstracted from unused or underused abstraction licences. • Work at a catchment scale, including with regional water resources groups, to understand environmental risks and develop joint solutions with license holders to deliver sustainable abstractions. • Bring remaining previously unregulated activities, such as trickle irrigation, into abstraction licensing and modernize 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 or cease 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. Demand management will be needed to meet the other half of 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 a mandatory water efficiency label on water using products by 2024 to 2025 and written to local authorities to encourage 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 the leakage target discussed above. To go even further , Defra is also working to develop additional policy options to address the gap, • Delivering our roadmap on water efficiency in new • Increased smart metering for households and businesses through accelerated investment between • Supporting communications campaigns on the value of water 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 fund of up to £100 million to encourage and support the development of a range of new approaches to water Ladybower reservoir, Derbyshire. Water efficiency in new developments and Working with the Future Homes Hub and other stakeholders, we have developed a roadmap on water efficiency in new developments and retrofits. We have proposed 10 actions over the next • Action 1 - Implement Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water 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 by surface water runoff. It will also make the right to connect surface water run-off conditional on 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 wasteful product issues with toilets and enable new water • Action 3 – Develop clear guidance on ‘water positive’ or ’net zero water’ developments and roles for developers and water companies, including water company incentives.
• Action 4 – Review water efficiency options in planning, building regulations and through voluntary schemes for non-household buildings

• Action 5 – Work with Ofwat to ensure the water industry can play a central role in retrofitting water efficient products in households, businesses, charities and the public sector . • Action 6 – Work across government to integrate water efficiency into energy efficiency advice and • Action 7 - Review the Building Regulations 2010, and the water efficiency, water reuse and drainage standards (regulation 36 and Part G2, H1, H2, H3 of Schedule 1), considering the competence 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 in England 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 • Action 9 – Investigate dual pipe systems and water reuse options for new housing development as part of the review of the • Action 10 – Enable innovative water efficiency approaches in buildings, including technologies and approaches to funding and maintenance. chemicals and other pollutants Treat pollution from abandoned metal mines Abandoned metal mines are responsible for about half the metals entering water bodies. Up until the year 2000, mines could be abandoned without the mine operators having to deal 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 programme currently operates 3 successful mine water treatment schemes which have improved 20km of rivers, and has installed around 20 diffuse measures to improve water quality 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 Microplastics in the water environment can derive from water used for washing clothes, microbeads in personal care products, and through tyre and road markings abrasions being washed into drains by rain. Although wastewater treatment works remove up to 99% of microfibres, they still enter water bodies when sludge from treatment works is spread on agricultural land. In 2018 the government banned the production and sale of microbeads 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. The presence of antimicrobials in sewage can potentially release into surface waters and groundwater , increasing the risk of Antimicrobial resistance (AMR). So in 2019 the UK

set out a cross-government 20-year vision for AMR and a National Action Plan to tackle this human and animal health risk. The action plan commits to, for • Maintain legislation to control the release of harmful substances into the aquatic environment. • Gather evidence to understand the possible risks and hazards of AMR in the environment. We have also set up a £19.2 million cross-departmental project, Pathogen Surveillance in Agriculture, Food and the Environment (PATH-SAFE), to improve our understanding of sources of AMR, allowing even more targeted action. Water bodies functioning naturally Our water bodies have been physically modified for centuries. Many of these modifications provide a vital service to society, 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. 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

in order for the different species of fish, plants and insects, many unique to them – such as the southern damselfly – to In recognition of this, Defra will continue to work with the Catchment Based Approach to support the implementation of the Chalk Stream Strategy. We will develop plans to outline actions to improve each chalk catchment, including £1 million investment in partnership projects each year . We monitor the 101 shellfish water protected areas in England for the presence of E. coli. In 2021, only 25% of shellfish waters met the microbial standard. This low level of compliance reduced market opportunities for England’s 75 shellfish farms, which produce around 3,000 tonnes of shellfish We have identified 63 priority areas where there is significant economic production and have the potential to meet the E.coli standard by 2030, or where action is needed to prevent deterioration. Water companies are now in the process of reviewing what action is needed in these areas ahead of 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. Support catchment partnerships Managing water at a catchment level is essential for joined up and efficient action on the ground. Catchment partnerships such as the Catchment Based Approach drive Defra will support catchment partnerships for greater integrated water management, as a framework for coordinating action between the public, private and third sectors.
To do this we will trial, evaluate and develop the capability and capacity for an integrated approach to Improve the water policy and regulatory • Reform the current framework and rationalise the number of regulatory plans to create a more efficient system, which is easier for stakeholders to navigate and enables joined-up working to achieve catchment- • Better integrate water and flood policy, for example by reforming 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. Case study - REAction, catchment 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 Partners worked with local farmers and landowners to deliver 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, 2 barriers to fish have been removed, 150 woody barriers have been installed and over 8,000 trees have been planted. 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 was also 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, CPRE the countryside charity, Shropshire Hills, National Trust, Curlew Country and the Environment Agency now working on 14 projects achieving multiple benefits for

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 clean and plentiful water 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 B6 Natural functions of water and wetland B7 Health of freshwaters assessed through fish Long-term trend data on water quality will also be used. The F3 indicator on disruption or unwanted impacts caused by drought 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.

infrastructure and water company

sustainable use of pesticides, Tackling sources of pollution in our everyday environments

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 of chemicals and pesticides is safe for communities and the environment is an We have made good progress – by improving our understanding of monitoring needs and response, harnessing scientific expertise to tackle emerging threats, and supporting the hard work of farmers. Now, having left the EU, we have the freedom to consider our approach – so we can phase 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 that the levels of harmful chemicals entering the environment (including through agriculture) are significantly reduced. • 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. We have the following targets and • 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 with our 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 risk • 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 a move to more sustainable use of chemicals. • Continue to use UK REACH to evaluate and manage the risks posed by chemicals to human health and the environment. • Improve our understanding of chemicals in the environment, building on our prioritisation and early warning system, to ensure regulation is targeted at the • Publish a revised UK national action plan for the sustainable use of pesticides to reduce 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 • 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 in crematoria 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. The sound use of chemicals and pesticides can help us achieve many of our most fundamental goals – from securing cleaner water and more plentiful food, to making Yet when the risks posed by chemicals are poorly managed, we risk undermining our efforts to meet many challenges – from keeping people safe, to improving food and water security, to tackling 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 for A new Chemicals Strategy, published this year , will set out the action we will take to manage the risks posed by chemicals, and to continue to phase out the most harmful and persistent pollutants in favour of safer and more sustainable 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 and impacts of pesticides to human health and the environment, while ensuring pests and pesticide resistance can be In the 25 Year Environment Plan, we committed • Fulfill our commitments under the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) as outlined in the UK’s most recent National • Substantially increase the amount of POPs material being destroyed or irreversibly transformed by 2030 and seek to eliminate the use of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) by 2025, to make sure there are negligible emissions to the environment, in line with our commitments under the Stockholm Convention. • Reduce land-based emissions of mercury to air and

• Publish a Chemicals Strategy to tackle chemicals of At UN Nature Summit COP15, through the Kunming- Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework we agreed alongside the other parties to a global target • Reduce by half both excess nutrients and the overall risk posed by pesticides and highly hazardous Our focus for driving progress towards this goal is spread 1 Ensuring chemicals are safely used and managed – recognising that chemicals are an important part of our everyday life, manage any risks posed by, and to continue to phase out the most harmful and persistent pollutants in favour of safer and more sustainable alternatives. 2 Minimising the risks and impacts of pesticides - reducing their impacts on human health and the environment, while ensuring pests and pesticide resistance can be managed effectively. 3 Harnessing UK expertise internationally to improve global 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 and expertise to influence global environment policy. Manage and reduce persistent organic pollutants Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are chemicals that remain intact in the environment for long periods. This means 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, an international 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 is an ongoing legacy of contamination. As well as being problematic for health, this also impacts water quality. • Used our expertise as a scientific leader within the Stockholm Convention on POPs and its supporting groups 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 part of our £330 million pledge. For the first time, the UK has nominated a substance to be listed under the Convention, demonstrating our commitment to protecting human health and the environment. • Improved the multi-media emissions inventory (MMEI) (an inventory of estimates of UK emissions of several unintentionally produced POPs to air , water , land and residue) enabling us to track emissions and encourage action to reduce them further . • Taken action to manage POPs in waste electrical

and electronic equipment. For instance, around 44.3 tonnes of POPs in waste electrical and electronic equipment are now separated each year and successfully destroyed, compared to a baseline where these materials were landfilled or contaminated • Implementing our obligations under the Stockholm Convention on POPs as set out in the latest UK • Acting to ensure that approximately 1,200 tonnes of POPs used as flame retardants in domestic seating (for example, sofas) are destroyed by incineration when they become waste, rather than sent to landfill. This is likely to be the most significant source of release of the POP decabromodiphenyl ether (DecaBDE) to the European environment, around ten times greater in scale than any other waste stream. • Supporting partners to manage POPs contamination of carpet and automotives wastes. • Initiating a programme of work to examine the levels of POPs occurring in construction and demolition waste. Case Persistent Organic Pollutants in 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 Having worked with others to investigate the extent of the problem, including supporting a study by the Industry Council for Electronic Equipment Recycling;

Supporting businesses to comply by publishing guidance to help business understand how to manage this waste, informing them of their obligations in managing electrical waste, and using existing sector networks and an additional support forum to help Taking an intelligence-led and risk-based approach to enforcement 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 destroyed each 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, the regulator and industry, we have reduced the amount of new POPs entering the environment. This has reduced the risks of them becoming widely distributed geographically, accumulating in the fatty tissue of humans and wildlife. This work has also provided a template for subsequent cooperative work on other Eliminate the use of polychlorinated biphenyls 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 Concentrations also remain high in the marine environment, with evidence that cetaceans such as whales, dolphins and porpoises 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. Reduce land-based emissions of mercury to air 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 the atmosphere when coal is burned. Coal now accounts for only 1.8% of the UK’s electricity mix, compared with 40% As a result of these reductions in mercury emissions from UK 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 We are working with industry to increase the uptake of abatement technology in crematoria through the review of the statutory guidance for the sector . Publish a Chemicals Strategy in 2023 The UK has responsibility for chemicals policy and Given the importance of chemicals and their benefits to society, 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 • Set out our approach to managing priority and emerging chemicals of concern, such as Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances (PFAS), a large group of persistent chemicals which are used in a wide range of products, including stain repellents and fire-fighting foams; Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs), substances that affect how hormones function; and the combination effects that different chemicals can • Set out an approach to regulation that is risk-based, while also adhering to the environmental principles policy statement enshrined in the Environment Act. • Set out how we will continue to use UK REACH to evaluate 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 • Set out how we will complete the transition to UK REACH through development of a new UK REACH Alternative Transitional Registration model; an innovative approach focusing on improving our understanding of the uses and exposures of chemicals • Improve our understanding of chemicals in the environment, continuing to develop monitoring methods to allow water bodies and other environments to be scanned for a broader range of chemicals beyond • 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 and reduce the risks to human health and the environment caused by hazardous chemicals in waste. • Develop new testing methods based on scientific advances, which work towards increased efficiency of chemical hazard assessment and can also reduce the A pesticide may only be placed on the market following a thorough scientific risk assessment that concludes all safety standards are met. Pesticides that pose unacceptable risks are not authorised. Decisions on the use of pesticides will continue to be based on careful scientific assessment of the risks, with the aim of achieving a high level of protection for people and the environment, while improving agricultural

The number of approved active substances used in pesticides has declined and is expected to continue to decline. There are increasing resistance issues where some pesticides are no longer effective methods of control and it is likely there will be additional pest control challenges resulting from climate change in future years. The link between pesticide use and biodiversity loss is complex, but there is growing evidence that pesticides have the potential to impact non-target species such as pollinators and soil-dwelling invertebrates, which provide essential services to farmers and growers and are crucial for a thriving We want to encourage sustainable pest management practices through Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to reduce our reliance on pesticides, and where they are needed, to deploy them in a more targeted way. IPM aims to reduce reliance on chemical pesticides by making use of a wider variety of crop protection methods, including lower risk alternatives and promoting natural processes. For example, creating habitats for natural predators of plant pests, or using crop rotations to break pest, weed and disease cycles.