Final response to the 25 Year Environment Plan progress report

Abstract

Executive summary The Natural Capital Committee’s (NCC) final response to the second 25 Year Environment Plan (25 YEP) Progress Report – follows its interim response published in July 2020. In its interim response, the NCC raised concerns that the evidence presented in the Progress Report at best provides only a partial picture, given the narrow range of datasets considered, and mostly shows declines in England’s environment. The Committee also set out a natural capital approach to assessing progress. This report covers three areas, as follows: i) Sets out a natural capital asset based framework for assessing progress against the 25 YEP; ii) Demonstrates how this natural capital framework can be applied to independently scrutinise progress, with the NCC’s assessment of seven natural assets summarised, and further detail provided across the associated technical annexes – thereby laying the foundation for the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) to undertake this function from 2021; and iii) Highlights the priority areas where the government should focus in order to turnaround the evidenced declines in natural assets and get on track to meet the 25 YEP objective to improve the natural environment within a generation.