This article was amended on 30 Nov. to remove a line saying UK parliament did not need to approve the BNG legislation.
The UK government will lay biodiversity net gain (BNG) before parliament on 30 Nov. in a step towards making the law mandatory, it announced among a raft of nature-related pledges.
Details on the first group of legislation on BNG going before parliament will be published the same day, the government said.
The government announced a package of other nature commitments including £15 million to support protected areas, £2.5 mln to help children experience the green outdoors, and £750,000 to recover England’s temperate rainforests (see below).
The UK’s BNG mechanism was slated to become mandatory this year, but its three-month delay until January 2024 triggered concern from market actors. Under the rules, development projects need to achieve a net improvement of 10% biodiversity.
Market actors are watching the progression of the law as it could set a global standard for government nature requirements, while creating a market for biodiversity credits that developers have to buy off-site as a ‘last resort’.
“MAJOR FLAW”
David Hill, founder of UK-headquartered conservation company Environment Bank who lobbied for BNG to become a legal requirement, said the scheme “will not work” as it has a “major flaw”.
“The problem is, despite all the evidence, the government has shown a preference for BNG to be delivered within the development site’s boundary,” Hill told Carbon Pulse.
“It will only provide highly disturbed small fragments of ‘habitat’ of almost zero value to biodiversity that will be ‘tidied up’ once the developer leaves the site, and it will prevent investment into large habitat banks that would provide bigger, better and joined areas for biodiversity,” he argued.
BNG will only deliver on nature if it is rigorously enforced, and funded by the developer for 30 years, he said.
Environment Bank has seen a “massive demand for our services” in off-site habitat banks that help developers fulfil their BNG requirements, Hill said. The company announced it was marketing voluntary biodiversity credits in October.
“Many developments cannot accommodate any BNG on-site, such as commercial warehousing, retail, and infrastructure,” Hill said.
“Residential developments may be able to accommodate some of the BNG requirement on-site, but there is a reluctance from developers to look after it for 30 years … so much of the BNG delivery for housing is likely to be delivered off-site in due course.”
Despite his misgivings, he was “delighted” the legislation was becoming mandatory, in what he believed is the most significant nature policy for the country since 1981 when the Wildlife and Countryside Act was introduced.
The UK government said BNG will be “fundamental” in helping the country meet its target to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030. It declined to comment further.
“LACK OF GOVERNANCE”
Natalie Duffus, a BNG-focused PhD student at University of Oxford, said a risk identified with the BNG on-site gains has been the potential lack of capacity and governance.
“Clarity on how the processes and powers within the planning system will apply to BNG is eagerly anticipated in this announcement,” Duffus told Carbon Pulse.
“It is also anticipated that the announcement will have important detail on monitoring and enforcement including how BNG will work in the planning system, and how the off-site register will be implemented.”
The forthcoming legislation should shed some light on the statutory biodiversity metric that will be used to calculate BNG, she said. The UK released its biodiversity 4.0 metric in March.
“NATUREWASHING”
Zoe Balmforth, co-founder at biodiversity data company Pivotal, welcomed the raft of measures from the UK government, while urging vigilance with BNG detail.
“We won’t know if BNG is benefiting nature if there’s no requirement to monitor and prove the real-world outcomes,” Balmforth said in a statement.
“We need minimum standards of proof for all nature claims. That means high-integrity, auditable data that provides evidence of how biodiversity has improved, and how national targets have been met.”
There is a risk of “naturewashing” unless we better understand how to measure outcomes of nature commitments, she said.
Robin McArthur, chair of the advisory board of BNG consultancy Joe’s Blooms, said: “It is great to see the government delivering on its promise to preserve England’s natural habitats.”
“BNG will lead to the creation of more green spaces and the protection of wildlife in communities across the country.”
NATURE PACKAGE
Ahead of the COP28 climate conference kicking off on Nov. 30, the government laid out a nature package to improve access to green space.
These measures included:
- 34 Landscape Recovery projects, paying at least 700 landowners to manage over 20,000 hectares of woodland, create over 7,000 hectares of woodland, and restore more than 35,000 hectares of peatland
- A competition to create a new protected forest, inviting bids to either create or enhance woodland
- Planting 175 hectares of woodland by 2025, in Derbyshire and the Tees Valley
- Strengthening requirements for local authorities to consult with communities before felling trees
- £15 mln to support protected parks and landscapes
- £2.5 mln to help children experience the outdoors by “opening up more green spaces”
- £750,000 to support England’s temperate rainforests in Cornwall, Devon, and Cumbria
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “As I head to COP28, we are reasserting the UK’s leading role in promoting our iconic landscapes, and keeping nature at the centre of our action to tackle climate change.”
By Thomas Cox – t.cox@carbon-pulse.com
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