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Nation’s largest environmental charities call on the Prime Minister to make New Year’s resolutions to tackle the climate and nature crises

• Charities have written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson to call for a series of New Year nature resolutions
• Government must not allow COP26 momentum to be lost and should build on its climate leadership
• Call for action on restoring and protecting upland peatlands
• Protect key habitats, including marine environments, to tackle climate change and provide homes for nature
• Ensure payments for farmers encourage them to tackle the nature and climate crises

Some of the nation’s largest conservation charities have written to Boris Johnson urging him to make a series of New Year’s resolutions to help tackle the nature and climate crises.

The National Trust, RSPB, Woodland Trust and The Wildlife Trusts [1] have joined forces to call for urgent action and build on the promises made at COP26 in Glasgow.

The charities are asking the UK Government to make seven commitments for 2022, focused on protecting and restoring peatlands, paying farmers to restore nature and additional measures to protect our marine environments.

They are also calling for an immediate ban on the use of peat for horticultural purposes in the professional and amateur sectors as well as a ban on burning upland peat. 

It is hoped the pledges will also bring a greater focus on adaptation, as well as local and national government thinking more about how to tackle the changes and risks that climate change is bringing.

These commitments will ensure that Government can reach net zero and halt the catastrophic decline in nature by protecting and providing new homes for wildlife.

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Pool system on peat bog by Mark Hamblin/2020VISION

National Trust Director General Hilary McGrady said: “COP26 felt a real watershed moment in the fight against the nature and climate crises and it was fantastic to see so many individuals, organisations and nations pulling together to limit the damage done by climate change.

“We have recently seen the impact extreme weather events like storms Arwen and Barra have on our landscapes and we must do everything we can to protect them.

“This is why we are today calling on the Prime Minister to build on the pledges made at

COP26 and commit to a series of New Year resolutions to nature that ensure our natural defences against climate change are protected and nurtured in 2022 and beyond.”

Dr Darren Moorcroft, Chief Executive Officer, the Woodland Trust said: "For nature and climate, 2022 will be just as critical as 2021 was. We need the UK to show real leadership in the major international conferences on climate and biological diversity. To back this up, all parts of the UK need to deliver decisive action, setting clear targets to restore nature, and working with land managers to create tree-rich resilient landscapes for people, nature and carbon."

Beccy Speight, Chief Executive of the RSPB said: "The UK is home to some stunning landscapes, valuable for wildlife and rich in carbon. Yet, two-thirds of these high-carbon, wildlife-rich places are unprotected and are slowly being destroyed. The UK Government needs to turn its rhetoric on the global stage into reality for our countryside. We now need new guarantees from the Government that deliver on the important commitments for nature secured at COP26 – to protect the nation’s wildlife and to restore our farmed landscape so that it helps tackle both the ecological and climate crises.”

Craig Bennett Chief Executive, The Wildlife Trusts said: “2022 needs to be the year when the UK Government steps up with renewed commitments and investment for a healthier future for people and nature.

“There’s still a huge gulf between rhetoric and reality to tackle climate change. We urgently need to cut carbon emissions deeper and faster and ensure nature recovers across across 30% of land and sea by the end of the decade.

“The UK needs to ban new coal mines, set an end date for oil and gas exploration and production, put greater investment in nature restoration, and ensure agricultural and fishing industries are supported so that they can help solve, rather than worsen the nature and climate crises.

“Local communities and citizens, and especially young people, are holding their governments to account and pressing for tough action to cut emissions at speed. We cannot afford to fail future generations and the planet through lack of action.”

The letter states that “November 2021 was a key moment in the global effort to keep 1.5 degrees alive and an opportunity to set the bar higher in terms of recognising the vital importance of nature for addressing and adapting to climate change.”

It goes on to state that the Glasgow pact must be developed and built upon ahead of next year’s COP27 in Egypt as well as April’s convention on biological diversity, COP15, in China.

As well as commitments to protect our natural resources, the organisations also call on Government to lead by example by reducing emissions for the benefit of nature and people, as well as limiting global warming.

Editor's Notes

[1] The New Year resolutions in full – as issued by the National Trust:

1. Restore peatlands faster: seize the opportunity to increase ambition and investment on protection and restoration of peatland in line with the recommendations of the Climate Change Committee. The UK must protect its peatlands, which are by far the country’s largest natural carbon sink – yet currently peatland is in such a degraded state it is emitting carbon into the atmosphere. The Office for National Statistics recently estimated that the cost of restoring all UK peatlands to near natural condition would deliver emissions savings alone of £109 billion, outweighing the costs of doing so by an estimated 5 to 10 times.

2. Bring forward the long-promised ban on the use of peat for horticultural purposes as a matter of urgency, along with an immediate ban on burning upland peat. According to the Horticultural Trades Association, in 2020 the UK imports amounted to 2.29 million m³ of peat for growing media. The UK must now set out a timetable for a rapid ban on horticultural peat and peat burning in view of the benefits for climate and nature.

3. Embed climate and nature objectives in agricultural support schemes, with strong ambition, design and funding. In England, much more detail is needed on the role of land use and the plan for making farming sustainable and achieving nature and climate goals through Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes. It is imperative that ELM schemes do not simply pay land managers to continue with business as usual, but instead enable them to improve biodiversity and ecosystem services on their land, embrace low-carbon and nature-friendly management practices, and support healthy, sustainable diets which are good for people and good for the planet. 

4. Ensure that our protected sites network is big enough and sufficiently well managed to protect climate-critical habitats, species and environments, and the carbon stored within them. Any changes to the Habitat Regulations in England should ensure a strong framework of protections which takes into account the role that ecosystems play in climate as well as supporting efforts for adaptation which support the resilience of habitats and environments facing the impacts of climate change. The Government’s commitment to restoring 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030 is welcome, but it must also recognise that at present only 3% of land could be said to be specifically protected for nature. 

5. Increase protections for the marine environment in order to harness its carbon storing potential. All seagrass habitats should be given highly protected status and we would welcome renewed pledges to protect and expand coastal habitats, including saltmarsh. Fishing practises that disturb the seabed - which sequesters carbon and supports marine life - must be reduced. 

6. Get tree planting right: set ambitious long-term targets for the environment and increase existing ambition for increasing tree canopy cover in line with the recommendations of the CCC, ensuring that a high proportion of these trees are native, to guarantee the maximum benefit is also generated for biodiversity, and that they are put in the place that best delivers for climate, nature and people. 

7. Introduce a general public sector climate adaptation duty that requires future climate risks and hazards to be taken into account in all public decision-making. This will embed consideration of climate adaptation across public decision-making, policy and spending to support the changes and decisions that will need to be made to adapt to challenges climate change is already bringing to communities and nature. Departments should be required to demonstrate progress on adaptation alongside progress on mitigation.

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