Legally binding targets to protect the environment, clean up air and rivers and boost nature were published on Friday 16 December, 2022 by the UK Government. The Government will publish its Environmental Improvement Plan in January 2023 setting out in more detail how they will achieve these targets, including interim targets.

Publication of the targets follows three years of detailed consideration of the scientific and economic evidence, which was published in March 2022, to inform draft targets. A comprehensive consultation on these was run earlier this year which saw over 180,000 responses from a range of individuals, businesses and other organisations.

Defra said that the targets require the government to:

• Halt the decline in species populations by 2030, and then increase populations by at least 10% to exceed current levels by 2042
• Restore precious water bodies to their natural state by cracking down on harmful pollution from sewers and abandoned mines and improving water usage in households
• Deliver our net zero ambitions and boost nature recovery by increasing tree and woodland cover to 16.5% of total land area in England by 2050
• Restore 70% of designated features in Marine Protected Areas to a favourable condition by 2042, with the rest in a recovering condition.

Marian Spain, chief executive of Natural England, said: We welcome publication of the statutory targets needed to put Nature recovery at the heart of the government’s priorities. With the first targets only eight years away, we are already working with the government and with businesses, land managers and environmental charities through the Nature Recovery Network Partnership to ensure that we are on track to turn around England’s loss of nature and deliver the ambitions set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan.

NGOs respond to the targets

However, critics say that crucial targets to protect water quality and natural sites are missing. Groups including the RSPB, Greenpeace, and Wildlife and Countryside Link said that although a goal to halt the loss of biodiversity is welcome, the targets fall far short of addressing the serious crisis facing UK nature, the BBC reported.

But environment groups have said the targets are not ambitious enough.  Long-term goals to improve overall water quality are essential, because they allow the public to hold the government to account on river and waterways pollution, Richard Benwell, chief executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link, told BBC News. “As it stands, there is no way for a member of the public to be sure that their river is in better condition, and there is no access to justice,” he explained.

The Guardian reported that the targets not only fail to set overall targets for river health, but the targets are also weaker than those set out in the consultation. For example, water pollution targets have also been delayed from 2037 to 2038, giving an extra year for rivers to be polluted with nutrients and chemicals.

A Written Ministerial Statement has been laid in the House of Lords.