25- Year Environment Plan

The 25- Year Environment Plan: full title A Green future:Our 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment, was published in 2018 and sets out the UK Government's action to help the natural environment regain and retain good health.

Overview

The 25- Year Environment Plan was published in 2018 and sets out government action to help the natural environment regain and retain good health. It aims to deliver cleaner air and water, both in cities and rural landscapes, protect threatened species and provide richer wildlife habitats. The 25- Year Environment Plan is the first Environmental Improvement Plan; a statutory requirement created by the Environment Act 2021.

It calls for an approach to agriculture, forestry, land use and fishing that puts the environment first. It also aims to tackle the growing problems of waste and soil degredation and climate change which is referred to in the document as still perhaps the most serious long term risk to the environment given higher land and sea temperatures, rising sea levels, extreme weather patterns and ocean acidification, which harms marine mammals.

The Plan commits the UK Government to protecting and improving the environment both at home and abroad and taking the lead on conservation, climate change, land use, sustainable global food supplies and marine health.

The Plan sits alongside the Industrial Strategy and the Clean Growth Strategy and other DEFRA waste and resource policy documents as depicted in the figure below:

DEFRA Waste Managment Policy Relationships

Targets

Interim targets will be set out in this Environmental Improvement Plan which will be reviewed at least every five years with the government having to report annually on what it has done to implement the Environmental Improvement Plan and on whether the natural environment (or particular aspects of it) have improved.

• Ending all avoidable plastic waste by 2042.