Introduced in the House of Commons on 15/10/19(Bill3)

There is a clear and urgent scientific case and growing public demand for acting decisively to address biodiversity loss and climate change. The Environment Bill is a central part in the government delivering a step-change in environmental protection and recovery. It will also support recent legislation to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 by minimising our waste, cleaning our air and water, and restoring habitats to allow plants and wildlife to thrive.

The Environment Bill will:

• Establish a new system of green governance and accountability, creating a world-leading environmental watchdog in the Office of Environmental Protection, and enshrining in law Environmental Principles which will embed environmental values at the heart of government policy making.
• Drive a major shift in maximising resource efficiency, minimising waste, and moving towards a more circular economic model.
• Enable greater local action on air pollution, ensuring responsibility is shared across local government structures and public bodies; better enabling them to tackle emissions from burning coal and wood; and bringing forward powers for government to mandate recalls of vehicles and machinery when they do not meet relevant legal emission standards.
• Will secure long-term, resilient water and wastewater services through the water measures in the Bill, making sure that we have a cleaner, greener and more resilient country for the next generation.
• Will support and enable action to create or restore wildlife rich habitats to enable wildlife to recover and thrive.
• Will give the Secretary of State the power to amend two pieces of legislation regulating the use of chemicals in the UK (REACH 2008).

Some ‘highlights’ include:

Biodiversity Net Gain (part 6 clauses 88-90)

• A new general condition to all planning permissions granted in England, subject to exceptions requires that a biodiversity gain plan must be submitted and approved before development may lawfully commence.
• Extends the duty of public authorities beyond the original NERC Act,which referred only to conservation,so that it includes the enhancement of biodiversity in England. The aim is to provide for the enhancement or improvement of biodiversity, not just its maintenance in its current state.
• New subsection (1)sets out that, in order to comply with the revised biodiversity duty, a public authority must periodically consider the opportunities available to improve biodiversity, across the full range of its functions.
• The Bill establish the frequency with which the public authority should consider how it can improve biodiversity and then take action (and) provides that the initial assessment must be completed within one year of the amended duty coming into force.
• Requires that public authorities consider any relevant Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs) as part of their strategic assessment of their functions, establishing the relationship between the two measures.

Local nature recovery strategies for England (part 6, clauses 91-97)

These local plans will include: a description of the plan area and its biodiversity;•a description of the opportunities for recovering or enhancing biodiversity;•the priorities for recovering or enhancing biodiversity; and•proposals of potential measures relating to those priorities. Of course TVNP and our predecessor the Tee Valley Biodiversity Action Plan Partnership have done great work so far that will inform the new strategy for our area. Watch this space for developments…

The UK governments response to proposals to improve the planning system in England to protect the environment (biodiversity net gain) and build places to live and work.

For more details link to: Biodiversity net gain: updating planning requirements

The UK State of Nature Report 2019 is now available.

The report uses information from many data providers to identify overall change in abundance and distribution for a range of species. These sources include the UK Biodiversity Indicators, academic literature and measures specifically devised by the partnership. Many of the UK surveillance schemes that provided data and evidence for the report are highly dependent on the huge contributions of skilled volunteers.

Darlington Borough Council

A consortium of oil and gas giants have chosen Teesside as the prime site to store millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide underground as part of “carbon capture, use and storage” (CCUS) project. 

Up to 4,000 jobs are being touted to build the scheme – now dubbed “Net Zero Teesside” – to store gas in pipelines under the North Sea. Existing chemical and industrial infrastructure on Teesside is expected to play a big role. Leaders are aiming to have the project up and running by the mid 2020s with the aim of capturing the equivalent level of CO2 produced to fuel one million homes in a year. Now a consultation has been launched to gather views.

The Net Zero Teesside carbon capture project is backed by a group called “OGCI Climate Investments” – with direct support from six global oil and gas firms – BP, ENI, Equinor, Occidental Petroleum, Shell and Total.

The aim is to make the region a “de-carbonised industrial cluster” by 2040 and take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere to meet the 2050 “net zero emissions” target set by the government.

Read the full article: Gazettelive.co.uk

IMAGE: South Tees Development Corporation Site (Image Evening Gazette)

New coastal footpath brings walkers closer to nature along the River Tees

  A new coastal footpath has officially been opened running along the Tees estuary. Natural England launched the latest stretch of the England Coast Path, increasing access to the Tees Valley coastline with a new ten-mile route from Newport Bridge, Middlesbrough along the River Tees to North Gare.

Read full article: The Northern Echo and Natural England

TVNP were a new addition to this years Festival of Thrift on the 14th/15th September had. TVNP were the hosts of The World Cafe tent which along with our ‘World Cafe’ discussions had some great talks from ‘What Can Fashion Do for The Planet’ to What Do you Think About Zero Plastic?A big thank-you to the people who participated – a great start to TVNP’s new engagement programme. Watch this space for more details of future events and plans…

Confirmed: UK and Italy to host crucial COP26 UN climate summit

The UK and Italy will jointly host next year’s crucial COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow, it was confirmed yesterday (10th September). The UK government said countries around the world had officially given their backing to the UK and Italy’s bid to host the conference, which is expected to be formally accepted at this year’s COP25 summit in Chile…Set to take place in November 2020, the event will see thousands of the world’s top climate diplomats descend on the Scottish city to thrash out plans to keep the world on track with the Paris Agreement, which commits countries keeping global warming ‘well-below’ 2C.  Read More in Business Green

NORTH EAST NEWS: VONNE (Voluntary Organisations Network North East) are leading on a regional partnership project to take place at the same time as the Summit – we’ll keep you posted of plans…

Added to this The National Lottery Community Fund has a new Climate Action Fund

PHOTO CREDIT: Mario Guti