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: