UK risks major embarrassment on global stage at nature COP15 as wildlife declines at home
Tees Valley Wildlife Trust urges Tees Valley MP’s to back ambitious nature recovery targets
The most important global summit for nature in decades – the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, also known as COP15 – starts in Canada on 7th December. What happens there will directly affect wildlife in Tees Valley.
The conference comes at a time when the latest study suggests the Earth’s wildlife has plummeted by almost 70% in the last 50 years. The state of nature in the Tees Valley is not much better and recent Government actions threaten to make a bad situation even worse. This will mean red faces on the world stage at COP15 and diminish the UK’s power to negotiate.
The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world – and in the Tees Valley, wildlife has suffered over recent decades from habitat destruction and pollution. With Middlesbrough in the bottom 5 urban centres in recent research, now published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. * Unfortunately, the Government’s Retained EU Law Bill threatens to remove vital wildlife protections and the targets they propose to set for nature’s recovery are not ambitious enough.
Steve Ashton, Tees Valley Wildlife Trust’s People and Wildlife Manager said
“Bold action is needed to tackle the twin nature and climate crises at COP15. The next eight years need be ones of dramatic improvement for nature in order to fulfil the proposal to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030 – something that the UK has already promised to do.
“In the Tees Valley we are working hard to restore nature – to help wildlife recover and to help us mitigate and adapt to a changing climate. But recent Government decisions – as well as lack of action in other areas – undermine nature’s ability to recover. We need to see the Government set out far more ambitious targets for nature if it’s to keep its commitment to pass the environment on in a better state to the next generation.
“Shockingly, the Government’s current plans will mean even less wildlife in 20 years’ time than we have now. We’re asking our MP’s to ensure a truly ‘world leading’ target that aims to leave the next generation with more nature – not less.”
Tees Valley Wildlife Trust wants to see the UK Government take the following action:
- Set ambitious targets to restore the abundance of nature at home. The Government is due to publish their Environment Act targets – but current proposals will mean even less wildlife in 20 years’ time than there is now. We want to see a target to increase species abundance by at least 20% by 2042, compared to 2022 levels.
- Help set ambitious global targets to halt and reverse catastrophic declines in habitat and wildlife by 2030 at COP15.
- Scrap the Retained EU Law Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament, because it threatens the laws which protect wild places and species across the UK from the Scottish highlands to the Isles of Scilly.
Please see our COP15 briefing note here. COP15 runs from 7th to 19th December – please get in touch if you’d like to speak to one of our experts or find out more about the state of nature in the Tees Valley area.
Tees Valley Wildlife Trust declared an ambition to help the UK reach the 30 by 30 goal two years ago and have since begun a number of new projects to help nature recover. See our list of 30 by 30 projects here