Last week we covered the Climate Change Committee’s 2020 report to Parliament. Recently, the Committee also set out its recommendations for a resilient recovery from Covid-19 (published May) and (last week) on the coverage of Environmental Land Management Scheme in letters to the Prime Minister, and Defra, respectively.

On the green recovery, the CCC’s recommendations are:

• Use climate investments to support the economic recovery and jobs.
• Lead a shift towards positive long-term behaviours.
• Tackle the wider ‘resilience deficit’ on climate change.
• Embed fairness as a core principle.
• Ensure the recovery does not ‘lock-in’ greenhouse gas emissions or increased climate risk.
• Strengthen incentives to reduce emissions when considering fiscal changes

On ELMS, the key recommendations are:

• ELM must sit within an integrated response to climate change, food provision and the environment.
• Adaptation underpins every outcome. ELM design should recognise that adaptation is a necessary pre-requisite to meeting the scheme’s other public good outcomes, because they are at risk from climate change.
• It is critical to encourage private investment alongside ELM funding in order to deliver the scale of transformation in land use and management that is required.
• Actions that reduce vulnerability and exposure to climate change should be rewarded under ELM; how this will happen through the design of the payments under the scheme needs to be clearly set out.

There is a lot more in both letters which can be found here:

• Resilient recovery letter is HERE.
• ELMS letter is HERE.