Tackling biodiversity loss: Government response to the Dasgupta review

The Dasgupta Review is an independent, global review on the Economics of Biodiversity led by Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta (Frank Ramsey Professor Emeritus, University of Cambridge). The Review was commissioned in 2019 by HM Treasury and has been supported by an Advisory Panel drawn from public policy, science, economics, finance and business.

On 2 February 2021, the Dasgupta review published its final report, which proposes a new framework to account for nature in economics and decision-making. The Review calls for changes in how we think, act and measure economic success to protect and enhance our prosperity and the natural world and reverse biodiversity loss.

On 14 June 2021, HM Treasury published the government response to the Review. The government agrees with the Dasgupta review’s central conclusion that nature and biodiversity sustain economies, livelihoods and well-being. A wealth of new measures were included in the Government’s response from greener schools to most significantly applying net gain to major infrastructure projects.

On June 18 2021 the Government published an amendment to the Environment Bill 2021-22 so that new nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs) in England, such as future transport and energy projects, will need to provide a net gain in biodiversity and habitats for wildlife (biodiversity net gain).

Existing provisions in the Environment Bill would require developers to deliver 10% net biodiversity gain in most new schemes, applying to all development permitted under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. The government’s amendment extends this obligation to larger infrastructure projects, inserting a new Schedule 2A to the Planning Act 2008. It would require the creation of a biodiversity gain statement setting out a biodiversity gain objective. There is however a definition of ‘excluded development’ within the proposed amendment that can be set out in later regulations, leaving the door open for certain NSIPs not to have to provide biodiversity net gain.

Green groups have cautiously welcomed the amendment to the Environment Bill but have warned that some major infrastructure schemes may not be covered. A consultation on the details of the policy will open later this year, including on when it will be introduced and what exemptions may apply. Pre-empting the policy’s introduction, the government have stated that the Crewe-Manchester branch of the HS2 railway will aim to deliver net gain too, going beyond the earlier commitment to deliver “no net loss” in biodiversity.

In addition to the changes relating to NSIPs, the Government has also tabled an amendment to the Bill to require an additional legally binding species abundance target in England for 2030, aiming to halt the decline of nature. It has also:

• Incorporated biodiversity into the Government’s Green Financing Framework, published on 30 June 2021, and which covers expenditure related to biodiversity, as well as expenditure related to the net zero transition;
• Promised to work with the Office for National Statistics to improve the way nature is incorporated into the UK’s national accounts. The government will also improve its guidance for embedding environmental considerations into policy-making processes; and
• Promised to join the OECD Paris Collaborative on Green Budgeting, an initiative to encourage governments to incorporate climate and environmental considerations into their financial and fiscal decisions.