To what extent is it our responsibility to preserve the resources of the earth for future generations?
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Answer:
So, what could the Government do to safeguard the environment for the future – for our future – 80% of the British public want the environment to have the same if not stronger protection after Brexit[1] and wetlands alone provide over £7 billion in services a year.
Perhaps we should look to Wales. Back in 2015, the Welsh Government created an Act dedicated to safeguarding the future from short-term thinking, known as the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act. This means that all public bodies in Wales now need to consider how their decisions and policies help towards the goals under the Act. These goals include a resilient Wales and a globally responsible Wales. The former looks to “maintain and enhance a biodiverse natural environment with healthy functioning ecosystems that support social, economic and ecological resilience and the capacity to adapt to change (for example climate change).” We have no similar driver in England, simply a repeated rhetoric “that we will leave the environment in a better state than we found it”, which you’d think couldn’t be hard considering less than one fifth of our water bodies are in good ecological health and 13% of wetland species are nationally threatened .
Our children have less contact with nature than ever before and miss out on the health and well-being benefits that result. Yet housing plans threaten to stifle communities in an attempt to build as many houses as cheaply as possible. Sustainable drainage can help provide wildlife habitats in urban environments whilst also reducing surface water flood risk, improving water quality as well as enhancing local areas. Natural capital and environmental and social cost benefit should be integrated across ALL Government departments and create opportunities and drivers to make our cities bluer and greener.
There are so many opportunities ahead of us, including creating an agricultural system which delivers public goods for public money and offers a secure future for young farmers. However, Government has kicked into the long grass proposals to put in place a sustainable and fairer water abstraction regime. Climate change will bring much more erratic weather events and we need to be certain that our systems are resilient and as effective as they can be to deal with these changes. Government must deliver a sustainable abstraction regime by 2020.
We also need to restore, create and enhance wetlands. Not just because coastal wetlands can help buffer communities against sea level rise or because restoring river habitats can help reduce flooding, but because ponds and lakes and wetlands are important for their own sake, for the wildlife that rely on them and the enjoyment we get from them.
If Westminster had the same duty as those in Wales placed upon them would it make a difference? Let’s not keep hearing that the Government will leave the environment in a better state than they found it – it’s time to show us.