Select committee: Environmental Audit Committee
Conclusion 2
Third Report - Growing back better: putting nature and net zero at the heart of the economic recovery
Published 17 Feb 2021
Paragraph 20
Environmental Audit Committee Greening the post-Covid recovery All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The potential consequences of biodiversity loss for human populations have for too long been overlooked. It is vital that nature recovery is also prioritised in our economic recovery efforts alongside action on climate change. If measures to promote economic recovery are not treated as an opportunity to ‘grow back better’, then the global collapse in biodiversity, together with the impacts of pollution and climate change, may, if left unchecked, result in an even more catastrophic crisis.
From: Environmental Audit Committee, Third Report - Growing back better: putting nature and net zero at the heart of the economic recovery (HC 347), paragraph 20, 17 February 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 22 June 2021 (deadline 17 April 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the Committee's report and says many recommendations are "in line with existing policies", while setting out where it is already acting and where it takes a different or conditional position.
- On legally binding environmental targets, the government says the Environment Bill places a duty to set at least one target in each of four priority areas, and is "working towards a public consultation" with proposed targets for publication in early 2022.
- On climate disclosures, BEIS "intends to lay the SI by the end of this year", with regulations coming into force on 6 April 2022.
- On reducing VAT for repairs and green home upgrades, the government sets out cost and fiscal considerations, says "Going further would come at a cost to the Exchequer", and points to existing reduced rates and schemes.
- On carbon border adjustments, it says such mechanisms are one possible approach but "it is not yet clear" how one could comply with trade obligations and how effective it would be.