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The Future of UK Nature: A New Chapter Under Labour?

Following the King’s Speech last week, laying out Labour’s legislative priorities for its first few months in office, we take a look at the current and future picture for nature in the UK.

Canbury works with clients to support them in achieving their nature-related objectives. The below is an example of how we track and interpret policy impacting nature in the UK. Full briefings are available for our clients.

Nature and biodiversity loss

With biodiversity loss now ranked third in the World Economic Forum’s annual ranking of global risks,1 nature has become an issue of increasing importance for investors globally.
With a new Labour government now in power, the UK has an opportunity to steer towards a more sustainable and nature-positive future. The Labour Party’s election manifesto included some key commitments on nature, suggesting the UK’s environmental policies may soon see significant changes.

So, whether you’re an investor or simply someone interested in nature and environmental issues, these developments will be important to follow, and could have far-reaching economic implications. Let’s explore what’s happening and what we can expect from the new Labour government during their first few months in office.

Setting the scene: Where are we now?

The UK continues to face challenges in meeting several of its key climate and nature targets. Despite this, the country has laid some foundations for protecting its natural environment over the past few years. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the key existing policies relating to nature:
  • The Environment Act 2021: Post-Brexit, this Act has become the backbone of the UK’s approach to environmental protection. It contains some ambitious goals, including a target to halt the decline in species populations by 2030, and then increase populations by at least 10% to exceed current levels by 2042. It includes a target to restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat and introduces Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS). It has also created the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) as the environmental watchdog to keep everyone in check.
  • The Agriculture Act 2020: The act focuses on greener farming. The Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes offer farmers financial incentives to adopt sustainable practices, from soil health improvement to large-scale habitat restoration.
  • The Fisheries Act 2020: With this act, the UK aims to manage its fisheries sustainably, setting catch limits and protecting marine habitats through Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).
  • The 25 Year Environment Plan: Set out in 2018, this long-term vision includes ten key targets on everything from reducing air and water pollution to restoring biodiversity and enhancing public access to natural spaces. The most recent progress report from 2023 found either ‘little or no change’ or ‘deterioration’ on 25 out of 44 environmental outcome indicators related to its ten key targets.2

What’s Next? Labour’s election promises

As mentioned, the Labour’s manifesto made some important commitments around nature and the climate. It included a commitment to meeting the targets in the 2021 Environment Act, and to work in partnership with civil society, communities, and businesses, to protect and restore our natural world. Here are some of their key commitments relating to nature: 

  • Countryside Protection Plan: The party wants to set aside 30% of the UK’s land and seas for nature by 2030. This would include the creation of three new national forests, planting millions of trees, and boosting biodiversity.
  • Sustainable farming: We may expect a push for regenerative farming techniques and a ban on harmful pesticides that threaten pollinators like bees.
  • Tackling water pollution: Labour plans to crack down on water companies to prevent sewage spills in rivers and seas, with stricter regulations and better investment in infrastructure.
  • Making nature more accessible: The manifesto included a commitment to improve public access to natural spaces, including the creation of new river pathways and a national coastal path.
  • Town planning and housing development: Planned new towns and the building of 1.5m new homes will include requirements for parks and green spaces, and communities will have the right to buy and restore derelict land.

The first weeks of Labour in power: Developments since election day

The new Secretary of State for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed, has set out his five key priorities for Defra:

  • clean up rivers, lakes and seas; 
  • create a roadmap to move Britain to a zero waste economy; 
  • boost food security;
  • ensure nature’s recovery;
  • and protect communities from the dangers of flooding.

On the 11th July, Reed also announced a series of initial steps towards ending the crisis in the water sector. In a letter to the Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat), he asked that funding for vital infrastructure be ringfenced and only spent on upgrades benefitting customers and the environment.

In the State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday 17 July, the King’s Speech put the environment at the centre of many of Labour’s new legislative agenda, emphasising that it “recognises the urgency of the global climate challenge and the new job opportunities that can come from leading the development of the technologies of the future”, but missed an opportunity to do more for nature.

The global context: UK’s international commitments

The UK is part of several international agreements aimed at protecting nature, and has adopted several binding goals and targets:

Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF): Hailed as the ‘Paris Agreement for nature’ this agreement is the global blueprint for halting biodiversity loss by 2030. The UK has adopted its key goal to protect 30% of its land and sea by 2030, known as the 30×30 target. A recent report by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and Defra suggests that there is still much to be done to align UK progress on biodiversity with these targets, and found that the UK is within the lowest 10% of countries globally on the ‘Global Intactness Index’.

Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD): Signed at the United Nations Rio Earth Summit in 1992, this agreement aims to conserve global biodiversity and ensure it is used sustainably. Global progress in meeting the CBD’s aims so far has been limited. The challenges in addressing biodiversity loss were reflected in the UK’s 2019 report on progress, which found that the UK had only fully met five of the 20 Aichi targets.

Ramsar Convention on Wetlands: Signed in 1979, the Ramsar Convention promotes the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands through local and national actions. The UK has 175 designated ‘Ramsar sites’, the greatest number of any signatory to the Convention.

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES): This regulates international trade in endangered species to ensure their survival. The UK enforces CITES regulations through national legislation and customs controls.

Looking ahead

Labour’s focus on nature and sustainability is a welcome shift, however there’s still a way to go. Their plans could significantly enhance the UK’s natural environment if adequately funded and effectively implemented, and could have wide-ranging economic impacts. For investors, these developments are worth watching as we continue to navigate nature degradation and biodiversity loss as an emerging ‘macro-critical’ threat to our financial stability.34

Why Canbury?

Canbury was created with a vision to make sustainability meaningful.

Drawing on a unique blend of financial and sustainability experience, we partner with investors, companies and NGOs to develop investment industry guidance, undertake portfolio analysis and thematic research, and interpret financial regulation.

Our founders, Will Martindale and Ben Wilmot, each bring over two decades of financial sector, pensions and sustainability experience.

We have deep expertise in biodiversity and nature-related issues. Integrating biodiversity and nature-related risks and opportunities is increasingly expected of investors, and Canbury can prepare company and asset level heat maps of nature risks to help investors navigate these issues.

Our heatmaps and portfolio analysis allow investors to map their portfolio’s impacts on the drivers of ecosystem change, and their dependencies on critical ecosystem services.

This is a shared challenge – and one we can support you to solve.

1  World Economic Forum: Global Risks Report 2024
2  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64ccbf833c4564000d942a0d/25yep-annual-progress-report-2023.pdf
3  Network for Greening the Financial System Occasional Paper: The Green Scorpion: the Macro-Criticality of Nature for Finance 13 December 2023
4  UN Environment Programme: Convention on Biological Diversity December 2022 

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