UK progress on environmental obligations ‘largely off track’, watchdog warns

This new report, Progress in improving the natural environment in England 2024/2025, further warns the next six years are critical for meeting biodiversity and land‑and‑sea protection targets.

Reviewing progress against the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) and Environment Act 2021 (EA21) interim targets, the report has found the prospects for meeting most commitments are poor. Out of 43 individual targets and commitments examined, the OEP has stated that the government is on track for only five, partially on track for 16 and “largely off track” for 21. One further target could not be assessed because of insufficient evidence.

“The window of opportunity to meet 2030 targets is closing fast,” the report states.

“Given the time lag between implementation and measurable ecological change, time is short for actions to substantively influence the prospects of meeting targets.

“However, government can still maximise the prospects of doing so by setting out sufficiently defined, ambitious plans and implementing them effectively. To be a global leader, the UK must move mountains by 2030.”

The year 2030 is significant as it is the milestone on the way to reversing biodiversity loss by 2042.

“In summarising trends at the level of the 10 goal areas of the EIP23, we conclude that improving trends dominate in two goal areas (clean air and climate mitigation), deteriorating trends dominate in three goal areas (reduced risk of harm from environmental hazards, enhancing biosecurity, and enhancing beauty, heritage and engagement with the natural environment) and for the other five goal areas and for climate change adaptation, trends are mixed,” the report continues.

Delays in implementation of key environmental policy, limited transparency around delivery plans and persistent evidence gaps have hindered the government’s targets. The report notes that progress has been too slow compared to the scale of the environmental challenge that is climate change.

It says: “People are directly affected by increased rainfall and flooding, as well as by increasingly frequent heat events.

“Nature contributes to the regulation of urban heat and the annual economic value of this cooling service in 2022 was £824M.

“Nature removes air pollution, which is responsible for an estimated 26,000 to 38,000 early deaths in England. In 2022, the annual economic value of this service in England was £2.5bn.”

Within the report, the OEP reinstated five priority recommendations it has already set out in earlier reports.

These include:

• Reforming farming to be more nature‑friendly
• Maximising the contribution of protected sites
• Accelerating action at sea
• Clarifying mechanisms to reconcile competing land and sea uses
• Developing a circular economy framework.

Beyond these overarching recommendations, the OEP made eight key recommendations and 36 specific suggestions for the past year. Towards those, the government has made “good progress” on only five, while 14 have seen mixed progress and 18 have seen limited progress.

Where responses were deferred, ministers pointed to EIP25, the forthcoming update of the Environmental Improvement Plan, to clarify delivery plans.

The OEP stated: “Our overall message is consistent. Government needs to speed up and scale up its efforts, and actions must be shown to stack up to make achieving targets and commitments a reality.

“Risks are materialising and are mounting year on year, yet there is little sense of urgency.

“Government’s progress continues to be too slow to overcome, even to keep up with, the environmental challenges the country now faces.”

The organisation’s report further criticises the UK’s planning system for operating largely in isolation from land management and environmental policy.

It states that responsibility for land use remains fragmented across housing, infrastructure, agriculture and nature protection where there is no coherence surrounding decisions being made.

The OEP has acknowledged that planning should restrict developments from productive farmland, floodplains and priority conservation sites but poor siting of housing and infrastructure continues to threaten habitats and high‑quality agricultural land.

Existing planning tools, the report finds, tend to manage harm rather than proactively restore nature.

It further points out how Biodiversity Net Gain, which legally requires at least a 10% increase in biodiversity value for all construction projects, is often achieved through off‑site offsets rather than on‑site restoration.

The report calls for the government to not only put forward policies in the EIP25 but also set out plans with clear delivery routes and measurable interim targets. Without that, the OEP has stated the UK will struggle to meet its 2030 commitments and to reclaim any global leadership on nature recovery.

OEP officials believe restoring the natural environment will need embedded societal systems that drive land use and resource consumption, food, energy, transport and construction to be tackled.

It stated: “The UK has the distinction of being one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world and having one of the lowest rates of nature-connectedness.

“Even then, in 2022, an estimated 20M people in England gained health benefits from recreation in nature and the annual economic value of this service alone was estimated at £6bn.

“Viewed against the aim of significantly improving the natural environment, our summary assessment is that while more progress has been made this year compared to last, very substantial challenges remain and government remains largely off track to meet EA21 targets and EIP ambitions, targets and commitments.”

At the end of last year, the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) and Natural England separately spoke out against the government’s perceived stance that nature recovery is a blocker of growth for the UK.

Then last week, a coalition of environmental professionals urged the UK Government to recognise the country’s natural assets as critical national infrastructure (CNI).

The Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals (ISEP) argued that such a shift would bolster economic resilience, support growth and help meet environmental targets.

Reaction

ISEP director of policy and public affairs Signe Norberg reacted to the OEP’s most recent report, saying: “It is clear that the environment is fundamental to economic growth, both today and in the future, and we must start treating nature as part of the economic growth potential, rather than in opposition to it.

“The OEP underscores that efforts to reverse the decline of nature and meet the UK’s near-term target of protecting 30% of land and sea by 2030 requires greater ambition, and for government to implement its policy delivery plans at pace. That should start with government itself – by embedding an environmental focus across Whitehall departments.

“A crucial step forward is to recognise the environment as critical infrastructure.

“This will increase the UK’s ability to invest in nature and prepare for the environmental impacts that undermine the smooth operation of other areas of the economy, such as food, water, health, transport, and communications.

“Finally, there is an urgent need to expand the understanding of environmental sustainability across the economy, both in terms of skills and competencies. Skills development is required in all sectors of the economy – ranging from manufacturing and ecology to finance and accountancy.

“The recently refreshed EIP recognises the need for skills development in the agriculture, land management and water sectors, but to maximise on the growth potential, it is essential that this is expanded across the whole economy.”

Greenpeace UK senior oceans campaigner Chris Thorne said: “The government is wildly off track when it comes to progress on nature protection. Even on its own legally binding targets to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030, the government is failing – and time is running out.

“Progress on ocean protection is particularly slow. On paper, the UK has a large network of marine protected areas and powers under the Fisheries Act to enforce proper protection.

“In reality, many sites remain open to destructive industrial fishing, leaving important habitats and the incredible array of wildlife they support vulnerable. Protection in name only is no protection at all.

“A healthy natural environment is essential for economic growth, underpinning food security, flood protection, climate resilience and long-term prosperity.

“When the government has acted with ambition, such as protecting sand eels, it has proven that rapid, science-led action is possible.

“That same urgency is now needed across all UK land and sea, or the government risks breaking the law and leaving a damaging legacy for all future generations.”

Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) carbon and land senior analyst Tom Cantillon said: “As the impacts of climate change are being increasingly felt – in our wallets, on our health and in our homes – the notion that protecting and restoring nature is a blocker to growth is simply false. Nature has a vital role to play in going for growth. Healthy environments help to produce the food we eat, improve our health and wellbeing, and can help guard against the worst of climate impacts like increased flooding, all of which boost productivity.

“But the time to act is now to reap these benefits. Over 70% of the carbon removal from tree planting comes from trees planted in the next five years. In many ways, this is the tree planting parliament. Delay now means missing our climate and nature targets, delaying the resilience benefits that nature can provide.

“Nature restoration should have the same urgency as housing and infrastructure — healthy ecosystems aren’t a blocker to growth, they’re the foundation of it.”

Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) chair Toby Perkins said: “The OEP is right: their excellent and detailed report reveals that nature is no blocker to economic growth, but rather it is essential to economic prosperity and environmental sustainability.

I am encouraged by this report, and by the OEP’s view that the government has taken their advice on board when revising the EIP.

However, the report also lays bare how big the gap is between current achievements and the legally binding targets committed to in the Environment Act.

“The new EIP contains plenty of ambitious plans but does in places remain short of the concrete funding commitments needed.

“Ministers are still to deliver an array of further plans and strategies, from PFAS chemicals to the long-awaited Land Use Framework, to name just two.

“If the new EIP is to set the nation back on the track to achieve the EA targets and deliver genuine change for nature, coherence and strong delivery will be key.

“My committee will be watching closely to see if the Government can match its ambitions with concrete results.”

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