Here is the transcript of a speech made by Foreign Secretary, William Hague, at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York last week. It's very good - and is one of the best indications yet that the 'greenest Government ever' ambition may not just be empty rhetoric. Although, of course, a speech is rhetoric - but this speech has weight behind it as it is given by such a senior Government figure.
It reiterates the commitment to get the EU to a 30% reduction level by 2020 and says largely the right things about renewables.
Maybe he was a bit soft on his hosts in the USA - but we'll put that down to innate politeness shall we?
'Thank you Governor Whitman. I am most grateful for your generous introduction.
I am delighted to be here at the Council on Foreign Relations. In the modern networked world, diplomacy is no longer the sole preserve of diplomats. Instead, we all have a stake in global affairs. That is why the work of renowned bodies such as this is more valuable than ever.
Today I want to talk about why I believe we, as foreign policy practitioners, need to up our game in building a credible and effective response to climate change. Climate change is perhaps the twenty-first century’s biggest foreign policy challenge along with such challenges as preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. A world which is failing to respond to climate change is one in which the values embodied in the UN will not be met. It is a world in which competition and conflict will win over collaboration.
We are at a crucial point in the global debate on climate change. Many are questioning, in the wake of Copenhagen, whether we should continue to seek a response to climate change through the UN and whether we can ever hope to deal with this enormous challenge.
I will first argue that an effective response to climate change underpins our security and prosperity. Second, our response should be to strive for a binding global deal, whatever the setbacks. And third, I will set out why effective deployment of foreign policy assets is crucial to mobilising the political will needed if we are to shape an effective response.
Interconnected challenges in a networked world
Ban Ki-moon is right to have made climate change his top priority. Two weeks ago I talked of Britain’s values in a networked world. I said then that a successful response to climate change must be a central objective of British foreign policy. I said this not only because I believe action against climate change is in line with a values-based foreign policy, but because it underpins our prosperity and security.
You cannot have food, water, or energy security without climate security. They are interconnected and inseparable. They form four resource pillars on which global security, prosperity and equity stand. Each depends on the others. Plentiful, affordable food requires reliable and affordable access to water and energy. Increasing dependence on coal, oil, and gas threatens climate security, increasing the severity of floods and droughts, damaging food production, exacerbating the loss of biodiversity and, in countries that rely on hydropower, undermining energy security through the impact on water availability. As the world becomes more networked, the impacts of climate change in one country or region will affect the prosperity and security of others around the world.
No-one can have failed to be appalled by the devastating floods in Pakistan. They overwhelmed the capacity of government to respond, and opened political space for extremists. While Pakistan has borne the brunt of the human impact, China too has been hit on a vast scale by a seemingly endless sequence of droughts, floods and deadly mudslides. The Russian drought last month damaged the wheat harvest, leading to an export ban. World prices surged, hitting the poorest hardest and sparking riots over bread prices in Mozambique.
While no one weather event can ever be linked with certainty to climate change, the broad patterns of abnormality seen this year are consistent with climate change models. They provide a vivid illustration of the events we will be encountering increasingly in the future.
The clock is ticking. The time to act is now.
We must all take responsibility for this threat. We must take robust action. But we must also be clear-headed about the difficulties of reaching agreement and not lose heart when the going gets tough.
The post-war leaders set up the United Nations in the aftermath of conflagration. They saw the pressing need for global solutions to global problems; cooperation not conflict, through frameworks and institutions embedded in the rule of law; and an international system that is fair and offers everyone a realistic prospect of security and prosperity.
Failure to respond to climate change is inimical to all these values, undermining trust between nations, intensifying competition for resources, and shrinking the political space available for cooperation. It is an affront to fairness, since it puts the greatest burden on those who have done least to cause the problem and are least able to deal with its consequences. It is incompatible with the values and aspirations that the UN embodies. It is incompatible with the values and aspirations of British foreign policy.
Shaping an effective response
For more than twenty years we have been striving to build an effective international response to climate change. But we have lacked the collective ambition required.
We need to shift investment urgently from high carbon business as usual to the low carbon economy – this means building an essentially decarbonised global economy by mid century. At the same time we must ensure development is climate resilient: otherwise the changes in climate that are already unavoidable will block the path for hundreds of millions of people from poverty to prosperity. These changes also threaten to sweep away the investments in development we have made -- and just as the bridges and schools in Pakistan were swept away.
To drive that shift in investment from high to low carbon we need a global climate change deal under the UN.
Some have argued that we should abandon hope of doing so. They say Copenhagen proved it is all too difficult. We should focus instead on less inclusive and less demanding responses, such as coalitions of the willing. This would be a strategic error. It mistakes the nature of the task, which is to expand the realm of the possible, not to lower our ambition by accepting its current limits.
We must recognise this at Cancun. One thing Copenhagen did give us was a set of political commitments, captured in the Copenhagen Accord, on which we can build. More than 120 countries have now associated themselves with that Accord. That represents a broad and growing consensus. We now need to ensure that we live up to the commitments we made to each other in the Accord and reach out even more widely.
Copenhagen was a strategic setback. But it was not by any means the end of the road. We need to be clear on why Copenhagen failed to live up to high expectations and why it did not deliver a legally binding deal.
Many say that Copenhagen failed because of process. The diplomats and the politicians had created a negotiation that was too difficult and too complex. This misses the point. International treaties are an outcome – not an input – of political bargains. If you have made the political commitment to deliver, you can make the process work to deliver.
The real reason Copenhagen did not deliver on high expectations was a lack of political will. Many in developing countries saw a gap between the words and the deeds of the industrialised economies. They questioned whether we really believed our own rhetoric.
To answer those questions we need to start at home.
That is why the coalition to which I belong has committed itself to being the greenest government ever in the UK; and why with others in Europe we are calling on the EU to commit to a 30% cut in emissions by 2020 without waiting for the rest of the world to act. The UK is already the world leader in offshore wind with more projects installed, in planning and in construction than any other country in the world. We are undertaking the most radical transformation of our electricity sector ever. We aim to provide over 30% of our domestic electricity from renewables by 2020. We have committed to build no new coal-fired power stations without carbon capture and storage technology – CCS - and we have announced our intention to continue with four CCS demonstration projects.
And because it is imperative that foreign and domestic policies are mutually reinforcing we must ensure that our approach is coherent. That is why we established the UK’s National Security Council to ensure this happens across the full range of issues, including climate change. And that is why I work hand in glove with Chris Huhne, the British Energy and Climate Change Secretary, and Andrew Mitchell, the International Development Secretary, to ensure that our domestic action reflects our level of international ambition.
But we will not succeed if we act alone. We must aim for a framework that is global and binding. It needs to be global because climate change affects everyone. Only a response that allows everyone a voice will generate a sense of common purpose and legitimacy. Only a response that is binding will convince investors that we intend to keep the promises we make to each other. Businesses need clear political signals. Let us show them an unequivocal green light.
The importance of foreign policy
We are now a few weeks away from the sixteenth Conference of Parties on climate change in Cancun. I commend the consultative and collaborative approach Mexico has taken ahead of this meeting. Thanks to their determination and foresight, we have a chance in Cancun to regain momentum and make progress on key issues such as forests, technology, finance and transparency of commitments. Cancun may not get us all the way to a full agreement. But it can put us back on track to one.
That said, the negotiations cannot succeed inside a bubble. The negotiators in the UN process cannot themselves build political will. They have to operate on the basis of current political realities in the countries they represent. It is those realities that limit the ambition we can set in the negotiations. It is those realities that we need to shift.
There is no global consensus on what climate change puts at risk, geopolitically and for the global economy, and thus on the scale and urgency of the response we need. We must build a global consensus if we are to guarantee our citizens security and prosperity. That is a job for foreign policy. The fundamental purpose of foreign policy is to shift the political debate, to create the political space for leaders and negotiators to reach agreement. We did not get that right before Copenhagen. We must get it right now.
So we urgently need to mobilise Foreign Ministers and the diplomats they lead, as well as institutions such as the Council on Foreign Relations, to put climate change at the heart of foreign policy.
When I became Foreign Secretary in May, I said the core goals of our foreign policy were to guarantee Britain’s security and prosperity. Robust global action on climate change is essential to that agenda. That is why the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, under my leadership, is a vocal advocate for climate diplomacy. All British Ambassadors carry the argument for a global low carbon transition in their breast pocket or their handbag. Climate change is part of their daily vocabulary, alongside the traditional themes of foreign policy. They are supported by our unique network of climate attachés throughout the world.
The core assets of foreign policy are its networks and its convening power. Foreign policy can build political impulses to overcome barriers between sectors and cultures. In a networked world, diplomacy builds partnerships beyond government. Nowhere are those partnerships more vital than on climate.
We must mobilise all our networks – not just across government but between governments, using organisations such as the Commonwealth. And we must also reach out beyond, to NGOs, faith groups and business. Of all these, perhaps business engagement is key to making a difference. It is business that will lead the low-carbon transition. It is business which best understands the incentives needed to help us all prosper.
We must also harness scientific expertise in cutting edge low carbon technologies. The scientific community will develop the goods which will power the low carbon economy and drive global ambition on climate change. That is why the British Government has a science and innovation network, which fosters collaborative research in the UK and other countries.
It’s time for change
What can the UK and the European Union do to make that fundamental shift and shape a global consensus on climate change? The most serious problem at Copenhagen, and the strongest brake on political will was and is a lack of confidence in the low carbon economy. Too few people in too few countries are yet convinced that a rapid move to low carbon is compatible with economic recovery and growth. They see the short term economic and domestic stability risks before the opportunities and the longer term risks of inaction.
There should only be one European response to the confidence gap. The EU must accelerate its own progress and demonstrate that a low carbon growth path makes us more competitive. I am convinced that this is in the long-term interests of Europe's economy. We have learned painful lessons from the oil price shock. We must modernise our infrastructure. The opportunities are out there. The global industry in low carbon and environmental goods and services is already estimated to be worth up to 3.2 trillion pounds a year. Britain's own share of this is valued at up to 112 billion pounds. Nearly a million British people are employed in the sector. That is why we are creating a Green Investment Bank to ensure that we can properly support and develop low carbon industry.
But we need to redouble our efforts both in the EU itself and in our engagement with partners. Each of us as Member States will be better able to accelerate if we are doing so together as the world’s largest single market. And by opening up this effort through partnerships with others, we can make it easier for them to accelerate too. We will be at the forefront in pushing for low carbon modernisation of Europe's infrastructure and energy policy to meet tomorrow's needs. The European Union's budget until 2013 is set out in the current "financial perspective". We will soon need to agree the financial perspective for 2014-2021, the period including our 2020 climate goals. As ever, it is right that the EU budget should reflect the prevailing economic circumstances. It is also right that we direct the budget to today's challenges, not those of yesterday. A budget for prosperity and security is one which supports the transition to a low carbon economy.
Action in Europe alone will not be enough. We need both the developed and developing world to take action. This week Guido Westerwelle and I have tasked our teams to come together to shape a coordinated diplomacy-led effort on climate change, combining the strengths of our respective foreign services. I have just put the case for bringing a new urgency for low carbon transition within the EU. Together we should carry that urgency in external dialogues whether they are with the US, China or India.
The transition to low carbon will happen faster and maximise the benefits for all if the US – historically the world’s largest emitter - is at the leading edge. I recognise the political challenges that the US administration faces and welcome President Obama’s commitment to combat climate change. As he said in his State of the Union speech, “the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy”. Whatever the outcome of the upcoming mid-term elections in the US, there is scope for political unity around an economic agenda that targets new energy opportunities and new jobs. American business understands this new market and wants to lead it. But to make these new clean energy investments at the required pace and at sufficient scale they need the right incentives.
On climate, as in so many areas, the world looks to the US for leadership because it has the economic clout and diplomatic leverage to shift the global debate. I look forward to working with the US administration and the Council on Foreign Relations to raise global ambitions and put us back on the path to sustainable growth.
A key challenge for Europe is to build an economic partnership with China that reinforces the steps China is taking towards a low carbon economy. These steps include its recent announcement of the five provinces and eight cities that have been designated as China’s Low Carbon Pilots. Together these pilots cover 350 million people - so an ambitious approach to these schemes, tenaciously implemented, could provide a critical boost to global confidence in the concept of low carbon development and help put China on the path to sustainable prosperity. It could also produce huge two-way investment and partnership opportunities. Europe should place itself at the heart of these, working with China to maximise the ambition and the opportunities and to build the shared technology standards that will shape the global low-carbon market. In China's case, low-carbon opportunity is matched by urgent low-carbon need. The pace of growth in China means average Chinese per capita emissions could soon eclipse those of the EU. So while China has taken some very welcome steps, without a commitment from China to further decisive action, the efforts of others will be in vain.
The emerging economies face a dilemma. Often they are the most vulnerable to the direct effects of climate change. But they are concerned that action against climate change will adversely affect their development. The challenge to all countries is to have a high growth low carbon economy. Some, like Brazil, which derives nearly half its energy from clean and renewable sources, are rising to that challenge. India is another, embodying in microcosm the challenge that climate change poses to us all. Threatened by food, water and energy insecurity, India has responded with ambitious plans to generate 20 Gigawatts of solar power by 2022. South Africa, a coal dependent economy the success of which is so important to growth and prosperity within the continent, has made a significant offer to deviate their emissions from the business as usual development pathway.
The opportunity is for the emerging economies is to make a direct leap to low carbon, avoiding the “high carbon lock-in” we see in the developed world: a new sustainable pathway to prosperity and security. A global low-carbon economy is not an idealist’s pipe-dream but a 21st century realist’s imperative. Countries that adapt quickly to a carbon constrained world will be better able to deliver lasting prosperity for their citizens. As a P5 member, I am determined that the UK will play its full part in that, not least by supporting climate finance for the poorest.
Collectively we share a responsibility to those most vulnerable to the impact of climate change. Bangladesh, with its densely populated coastal region, is particularly susceptible to rising sea levels. Glacial melt, sea level rises and El Niño-type events threaten the lives of millions across South America. And the very existence of many small islands states is under threat. We have a shared vision to meet the millennium development goals. But in a world without action on climate change, that vision will remain a dream. The effort of the last ten years will be wasted.
Conclusion
Climate change is one of the gravest threats to our security and prosperity. Unless we take robust and timely action to deal with it, no country will be immune to its effects. However difficult it might seem now, a global deal under the UN is the only response to this threat which will create the necessary confidence to drive a low carbon transition. We must be undaunted by the scale of the challenge. We must continue to strive for agreement. We must not accept that because there is no consensus on a way forward now that there will never be one. And to change the debate, we must imaginatively deploy all of the foreign policy assets in our armoury until we have shaped that global consensus.
A successful response to climate change will not only stabilise the climate but open the way to a future in which we can meet our needs through cooperation, in accordance with the ideals of the UN. Failure will enhance competitive tendencies and make the world more dangerous. This is not a hard choice. We have to get this right. If we do, we can still shape our world. If we do not, our world will determine our destiny. '
Today I went to Manchester in the rain to talk about rainforests. I notice Man U are playing Valencia away this evening. Valencia, who are currently top of the Spanish First Division (although after only five games), are 7/4 to win. Those look like quite good odds to me. There is a link - while watching the football on TV this evening I will occasionally think of the fact that an area of rainforest the size of a soccer pitch is destroyed on Earth every second. That'll be around 6,660 acres lost during the football tonight (depending on how much injury time is played).Rainforest has been reduced in area by over a half on our planet in the last two centuries. Not only does this mean that many species are driven to extinction but it is also a very important source of global greenhouse gas emissions.I was in Manchester for a fringe event at the Labour Party Conference on rainforests with WWF and Hilary Benn. Mr Benn was on sparkling form and talked, as always, with passion and immense knowledge.I love his analogy, I've mentioned it before, of describing food security, climate change, energy security and biodiversity loss as being separate - but only in the sense that the fingers of a hand are separate. They are all joined up really - and I guess that joining up would ideally be sustainable living on this planet.The questions from the audience took us from Brazil to the British uplands and from school meals to the NFU.
The meeting was chaired by Barry Gardiner MP, a former biodiversity minister, who is an expert on the subject himself.
In December there will be an international meeting in Cancun where the world will try to figure out a solution to climate change - and ceasing ranforest destruction could, and should, be part of this. A process called REDD+ (yes really!) which deals with agreements on reducing emissions caused by deforestation and degradation may deliver something. We hope that it does. It will need to produce a global agreement that rainforest destruction must stop, that retention of existing rainforest should be encouraged and that money will have to be provided to ensure that this happens. That almost certainly means transferring money from the finance-rich but rainforest-poor countries to the finance-poor but rainforest-rich countries.Enjoy the football - but spare a thought for those species being lost, and those carbon emissions, as the chainsaws shriek and trees crash to the ground.
What a strange day. Yesterday, Facebook was abuzz with rumours that Defra had decided to cull eagle owls and a Government Minister told Chrissie Harper to 'Calm down'!
No Defra decision has been taken - that's what the Minister, Richard Benyon, says and I believe him.
There is a risk assessment being prepared and that may be published 'soon' - whatever 'soon' means. This will look at whether or not eagle owls pose a threat to native species, or other native species, depending on your point of view. Let's wait and see what that document says and then discuss it sanely.
The RSPB does not support a cull of eagle owls in the UK. At present we cannot see that there is a strong case for intervening at all. However, if there were stronger evidence of conservation harm then taking some birds into captivity would be the first option. We believe that all the eagle owls in the UK derive from escapes from captivity and none is a 'natural' immigrant from the continental population. We might be wrong about that, but that's what we think - although I really don't think it is the most important issue here.
But what Defra certainly should be doing, is taking greater steps to prevent non-native species escaping into the wild from captive populations. A properly strategic approach to non-native species doesn't start with dealing with those cases where problems are caused (and it's not clear that the eagle owl is one of those) but by preventing problems from arising in the first place. That's what the RSPB would like to see.
The report of Professor Sir John Lawton and his distinguished group of experts was published last week. Set up by the last government it has been accepted and welcomed by the present Government. The report is entitled 'Making space for nature'. This blog describes the report's recommendations and responses to it. I will return at a later date to spell out some more of its implications.
My summary of the report is that it makes the case that where we are is not a good place, and we need to do more if we are to give future generations a land full of nature, which delivers those life-supporting services such as carbon storage and flood relief and those life-enhancing services such as the song of the skylark and autumn colours.
We need more, bigger, better and more connected areas for wildlife. But those areas can do lots of other things for us too - they may grow food, cleanse water and give us places to stretch our legs and fill our lungs.
All this will come at a cost - the report suggests a billion pounds but that includes much current spend so it isn't all new money. But not having nature around us has a cost too.
Sir John Lawton launched the report saying: 'There is compelling evidence that England’s collection of wildlife sites are generally too small and too isolated, leading to declines in many of England’s characteristic species. With climate change, the situation is likely to get worse. This is bad news for wildlife but also bad news for us, because the damage to nature also means our natural environment is less able to provide the many services upon which we depend. We need more space for nature. Our 24 recommendations in this report call for action which will benefit wildlife and people. They provide a repair manual to help re-build nature.'.
Hilary Benn, who set up the group, welcomed the report as follows: 'This is a landmark report. It shows that despite the progress that has been made, we now need to take a great leap forward to protect and enhance our natural environment. This will require leadership from Government but we know that big cuts are to be made in Defra's budget. The test for ministers is simple; warm words are easy - it's what you do that counts.'.
So what has Defra said that it will do? Mr Benn's successor, Caroline Spelman said: 'Sir John Lawton is right to challenge us over what it takes to address the loss of biodiversity but he is also clear this cannot be done by Government alone. Everyone from farmers, wildlife groups, landowners and individuals can play a role in helping to create, manage and improve these areas, so if ever there was a time for the Big Society to protect our natural environment, this is it.
'We must work together to find innovative ways to protect and enhance our wildlife habitats – particularly as we respond to the growing threat of climate change. I will be calling for international action in Nagoya next month as we look to set new targets to tackle the decline in our natural environment, and we will follow this through with the first Natural Environment White Paper for 20 years in the UK.'.
So we wait to see what action will follow - that's fair enough! But actions do have to follow these words and we still await the details of Defra's plans after the announcement of the Comprehensive Spending review in about three weeks time. And you will notice, as I hope the Secretary of State has, that the report has many mentions of the importance of wildlife-friendly farming grants in stemming the losses of nature around us - the Higher Level Stewardship scheme gets a lot of mentions - see, particularly, Recommendation 15 below.
Here are the 24 recommendations of the group - though I recommend reading the report in full - I will be carrying it around with me for quite a while and dipping into it frequently:
Recommendation 1. Local authorities should ensure that ecological networks, including areas for restoration, are identified and protected through local planning. Government should support local authorities in this role by clarifying that their biodiversity duty includes planning coherent and resilient ecological networks.
Recommendation 2. Planning policy and practice should: continue to provide the strongest protection to internationally important sites and strong protection from inappropriate development to SSSIs. provide greater protection to other priority habitats and features that form part of ecological networks, particularly Local Wildlife Sites, ancient woodland and other priority BAP habitats.
Recommendation 3. Ecological Restoration Zones (ERZs) need to be established that operate over large, discrete areas within which significant enhancements of ecological networks are achieved, by enhancing existing wildlife sites, improving ecological connections and restoring ecological processes. We further recommend: ERZs should be proposed and implemented by consortia of local authorities, local communities and landowners, the private sector and voluntary conservation organisations, supported by national agencies. To start and support this process, and recognising current financial constraints, we also recommend resources be provided, which can be accessed through a competition, to implement 12 ERZs in the next three years.
Recommendation 4. Public bodies and statutory undertakers planning the management of water resources should: make space for water and wildlife along rivers and around wetlands; restore natural processes in river catchments, including in ways that support climate change adaptation and mitigation; and accelerate the programme to reduce nutrient overload, particularly from diffuse pollution.
Recommendation 5. Authorities responsible for measures to reduce the risks from coastal erosion and flooding should do so in ways that enhance ecological networks where possible. This can be achieved by taking full account of the natural dynamism and functioning of the coast, thereby allowing wildlife and habitats to move and evolve.
Recommendation 6: Government should produce a strategy to ensure that we protect and secure multiple benefits from our carbon-rich soils and peatlands, and maximise their contribution to ecological networks. Recommendation 10. When determining the boundaries of designated sites, responsible authorities should take better account of the need to support underpinning ecological processes and of anticipated environmental change.
Recommendation 7. Responsible authorities should take greater steps to reconnect people to nature by enhancing ecological networks within urban environments, including wildlife-friendly management of green spaces, and by embedding biodiversity considerations in the need to adapt to climate change.
Recommendation 8. Public bodies owning land which includes components of England’s current or future ecological network should do more to realise its potential, in line with their biodiversity duty. Further, before disposal of any public land, the impact on the ecological network should be fully evaluated. Where such land is identified as having high wildlife value (existing or potential) it should not be disposed of unless its wildlife value is secured for the future.
Recommendation 9. The government should ensure that the remaining areas of high conservation value that currently are not well protected are effectively safeguarded.
Recommendation 10. When determining the boundaries of designated sites, responsible authorities should take better account of the need to support underpinning ecological processes and of anticipated environmental change.
Recommendation 11. The recent progress in improving the management of SSSIs must be sustained, with the aim of moving the condition of sites from ‘recovering’ to ‘favourable’. Investment in the management of the SSSI series must be maintained.
Recommendation 12. Local authorities should take responsibility for the identification and monitoring of Local Wildlife Sites and the management of LWS must be improved.
Recommendation 13. Responsible bodies should revise conservation objectives for SSSIs and other wildlife sites to respond to the effects of climate change - in particular by aiming to enhance habitat diversity and support underpinning ecological processes, whilst taking account of the requirements of current species and habitats.
Recommendation 14. In view of the opportunity presented by their existing statutory remits, in National Parks and AONBs: (a) favourable condition of SSSIs should be achieved as quickly as possible; (b) non-SSSI semi-natural habitat should be brought under management equivalent to SSSI standards; and (c) other land should be managed so as to enhance connectivity.
Recommendation 15. The Higher Level Scheme of Environmental Stewardship must be retained and properly resourced as the single most important tool for maintaining and expanding the most significant areas of priority habitat and populations of priority species. Consideration should be given to improving the quality of advice and putting longer term agreements in place to ensure sustained ecological benefits, while retaining the buy-in of land managers.
Recommendation 16. A new type of Environmental Stewardship scheme is needed, particularly to help buffer sites and establish stepping stones and ecological corridors. This should be simple to administer, be available in key areas, and provide support for high cost but relatively simple management measures.
Recommendation 17. The government should promote economic approaches that will favour conservation management by stimulating the creation of new markets and payment for ecosystem services, to ensure that the values of a wider range of ecosystem services are taken into account in decisions that affect the management and use of the natural environment.
Recommendation 18. Government needs to establish a consistent, integrated and long-term expectation of land managers to deliver parts of the ecological network. In doing so, consideration should be given to: providing more readily available, high quality advice; and developing the Defra Whole Farm Approach to provide an opportunity for those managing land to enter into a ‘Whole Farm Plan’ which integrates all aspects of a farm’s environmental and productive potential, simplifies regulation, increases transparency and gives long term commitments to both farmer and the public.
Recommendation 19. Habitat creation by government and its agencies, grant-giving trusts, businesses and the voluntary sector requires greater focus on the needs of ecological networks, in particular the need to contribute to Ecological Restoration Zones.
Recommendation 20. Government should consider extending tax incentives to encourage landowners to make long-term commitments to the creation of new wildlife habitats that benefit ecological networks.
Recommendation 21. Public bodies and other authorities responsible for canals, railways, roads, cycle ways and other linear features in the landscape, should ensure that they better achieve their potential to be wildlife corridors, thereby enhancing the connectivity of ecological networks, and improving opportunities for people to enjoy wildlife.
Recommendation 22. If a formal system of biodiversity offsets is to be introduced, pilot schemes should be established to test and refine its operation, to ensure it meets the conditions we have set out for a safe and effective system.
Recommendation 23. The design and delivery of the Entry Level Scheme of Environmental Stewardship needs to be improved, in particular to ensure key options are taken up in appropriate combinations over a sufficient area. Delivering a more effective ecological network may require refinements to the schemes, such as rewarding farmers who act cooperatively.
Recommendation 24. The Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs should be advised on progress against recommendations in this report after two years, with a full evaluation of the outcomes for England’s ecological network after five years.
The brothers John and James Davison have won the Nature of Farming Award public vote this year - keeping the award in Northern Ireland for a second year in a row.
Congratulations to them!
But also congratulations and ''Thank you!' to all farmers who are doing their bit for wildlife.