Being bold on the environment is this government’s chance to make history   – Inside track

After six weeks of lurid headlines, unedifying debates and more talk about tax than even an economist can handle, the general election is over. Keir Starmer is unpacking at 10 Downing Street and Rishi Sunak might be looking for flights to California. As the new Environment Secretary Steve Reed settles in behind his desk at Defra, where should he be directing his attention? Here are our three suggestions for where he should start: 

1. Deliver the Environment Act targets 

In 2021, the Environment Act set six legally binding targets for the UK government to meet, covering wildlife, water quality, tree cover, waste, air quality and marine protection. Most pressingly, it committed future governments to halting the decline in wildlife by 2030. Through the short term political lens, the end of the decade might seem a long way off, but when you’re legally bound to halt centuries of nature loss by this date, there’s no time to be complacent. 

Unfortunately, the new government won’t be handed an easy starting point by the outgoing administration. Currently, progress against the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP), intended as a pathway towards meeting the Environment Act targets, is “largely off track”, according to the Office for Environmental Protection. The most recent State of Nature report confirms that biodiversity continues to fall, cementing the UK’s position as one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries.  

During the election, Labour committed to reviewing and updating the existing EIP “to ensure it is fit for purpose to meet our Environment Act targets”. This is welcome but must be acted on swiftly. Engagement with key stakeholders will help build trust for a plan refresh, but a long drawn out process would create unwelcome uncertainty and delay. The refresh should focus on how to urgently improve its delivery for people and wildlife. 

2. Get to grips with farm payments  

With 70 per cent of UK land farmed, how we produce food will be pivotal to whether we meet those legally binding targets. Climate change is no longer a future problem for Britain’s farmers, with weather extremes now routinely affecting profits and resulting in shortages on supermarket shelves. Farmers know they need to work hand in hand with nature to produce food and steward the natural world, but they need the right support from government to do it. 

England’s freedom to create its own farm payments system – rather than follow the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy – is a genuine Brexit benefit. Farmers now receive support through the Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELM), a programme based on the principle of paying for public goods, like protecting wildlife or reducing climate impacts by managing land to store more carbon. The scheme has promise, in principle, but needs improvement if it is to improve environment outcomes and make farm businesses sustainable.  

Labour promised in its manifesto to “make environment land management schemes work for farmers and nature,” a laudable pledge lacking vital details. They will also introduce a land use framework, likely to provide guidance on how to manage the competing demands on land for food, nature, climate and energy infrastructure.  

To fill in the gaps, Steve Reed’s team must create a roadmap for ELM to 2030, allowing farms to plan, and demonstrate how climate and nature targets will be met. This plan needs to expand the two more ambitious parts of ELM: Landscape Recovery and High Tier Countryside Stewardship, both of which have the most environmental benefit under the programme and will make the lowest income farms profitable. The land use framework must identify the areas of England where it makes most sense to expand these schemes. We expect Labour to focus on National Parks, given that trade-offs with food production in these areas are relatively low and opportunities for people to benefit from nature’s restoration are plenty.  

Giving the right advice for farmers on how to navigate these mammoth new schemes is also crucial if they are to get on board. Labour has been less confident on rural policies in the past than their opponents, but if they can pull off a farming offer that delivers for rural communities, as well as the environment, it would be a significant win.  

3. Move beyond recycling 

Defra doesn’t just handle farming and nature, it also holds vital levers that could help bring about a resource efficient circular economy. Unsustainable resource use and waste are baked into every level of our economy: perverse economic incentives and throwaway culture mean the UK currently uses more than double the primary resources per person the United Nations suggests the earth can sustainably supply. This is a UK environmental impact that goes largely ignored, as much of the impact is beyond our shores and out of sight. 

Although the outgoing Conservative government correctly identified in its 2018 resources and waste strategy that “we can no longer ignore” our unsustainable level of resource use, that is exactly what has happened in practice.  

Resources policy has faced protracted delays since the strategy was set, with very little progress. Initial limited commitments on packaging failed to move forward, whilst more ambitious policy was nowhere to be seen. When resources did make it onto the agenda, the focus has been on recycling, still ignoring the fundamental work needed on more transformative reuse and reduction in resource use. 

If Labour is determined to signal change, this is a great place to start. Though it only got one mention, the manifesto did commit to the circular economy, and, as shadow Defra secretary, Steve Reed said in March that a Labour government would aim for a zero waste economy by 2050. He correctly identified that this would have “benefit after benefit after benefit” . These include driving growth, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in this sector, increasing supply chain resilience and, of course, helping to cut carbon emissions and protect nature.  

Putting the circular economy pledge on a legislative footing, through a target to reduce resource use, and ensuring it becomes a cross government priority, not just Defra’s, could create an enduring source of prosperity for the country.  

There’s immediate work to do too. There has been a long wait for a government response to consultations on extended producer responsibility schemes for waste electricals and on mandatory food waste reporting. Quick responses from the new government would signal the change in direction. 

This is the opportunity to leave an historic legacy 

What happens in this parliament is going to be vital in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss. Actions taken by the new generation of ministers and MPs will decide whether the UK is aiming to build a liveable future, or whether an unstable climate and the insecurity that brings will be the legacy left for future generations to deal with. If Keir Starmer’s government is bold now, it has the chance to set the foundations for a greener, fairer future for all, which would be a truly historic legacy.