News • Climate Change and Nature
Inquiry looking for evidence on how Government can improve ecosystems
The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has today launched a new inquiry, Biodiversity and Ecosystems, that will consider how best to protect and enhance biodiversity while considering nature-based solutions to climate change.
The inquiry launch comes at a time when biodiversity is declining faster than at any time in human history, and 15% of species in the UK are threatened with extinction. This is due to a number of factors, including climate change, urbanisation, pollution, invasive non-native species and aspects of agricultural and woodland management.
Sustain's Deputy Chief Executive has commented on the inquiry:
“We hope that this inquiry will encourage Government to go further, faster to fulfil its responsibility to address the climate and nature emergency, and to recognise the role that food and farming has in achieving this. We’re very concerned that some of the gains for nature that should stem from the Agriculture Bill will be undermined if they decide to allow lower standards imports, and that the food the Government buys through the public purse, from school and hospital food through to emergency boxes, doesn’t support nature friendly farming and food production in the way that it should.”
The inquiry is accepting evidence until 11 September
Published Tuesday 14 July 2020
Climate Change and Nature: Sustain has taken a keen interest in the rapidly accumulating evidence about the effect of food and farming on climate change and nature, as scientific evidence emerges that our food system is a very significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss.
