Legislation that will protect and enhance our environment for future generations has now passed into UK law.

Through the Act, we will clean up the country’s air, restore natural habitats, increase biodiversity, reduce waste and make better use of our resources.

It will halt the decline in species by 2030, require new developments to improve or create habitats for nature, and tackle deforestation overseas.

It will help us transition to a more circular economy, incentivising people to recycle more, encouraging businesses to create sustainable packaging, making household recycling easier and stopping the export of polluting plastic waste to developing countries.

These changes will be driven by new legally binding environmental targets, and enforced by a new, independent Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) which will hold government and public bodies to account on their environmental obligations.

Environment Secretary George Eustice said:

The Environment Act will deliver the most ambitious environmental programme of any country on earth.

It will halt the decline of species by 2030, clean up our air and protect the health of our rivers, reform the way in which we deal with waste and tackle deforestation overseas.

We are setting an example for the rest of the world to follow.

The Environment Act includes a new legally binding target on species abundance for 2030, which will help to reverse declines of iconic British species like the hedgehog, red squirrel and water vole.

The UK will now be able to go further than ever before to clamp down on illegal deforestation and protect rainforests, through a package of measures will ensure that greater resilience, traceability and sustainability are built into the UK’s supply chains.

The Act will crack down on water companies that discharge sewage into rivers, waterways and coastlines. It will see a duty enshrined in law to ensure water companies secure a progressive reduction in the adverse impacts of discharges from storm overflows. New duties will also require the government to publish a plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows by September 2022 and report to Parliament on the progress towards implementing the plan

Natural England Chair Tony Juniper said:

It is imperative that we step up action to boost nature recovery if we are to tackle the twin challenges of biodiversity loss and climate change.

This landmark Act will give us more of the tools and the momentum we need to really put nature on the road to recovery during this decade, enabling us to have more, better, bigger and connected areas of natural habitats, bringing a range of practical benefits and permitting more people to enjoy the wonders of the natural world, while improving wider environmental quality at the same time.

We will work across Government, industry and society to help make it happen. The creation of Local Nature Recovery Strategies will be key in helping us to build a Nature Recovery Network across the country, backed by other measures in the new Act, including mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain for built development and a healthier freshwater environment.

The Environment Act will deliver:

• Long-term targets to improve air quality, biodiversity, water, and waste reduction and resource efficiency
• A target on ambient PM2.5 concentrations, the most harmful pollutant to human health
• A target to halt the decline of nature by 2030
• Environmental Improvement Plans, including interim targets
• A cycle of environmental monitoring and reporting
• Environmental Principles embedded in domestic policy making
• Office for Environmental Protection to uphold environmental law

WASTE & RECYCLING

• Extend producer responsibility to make producers pay for 100% of cost of disposal of products, starting with plastic packaging
• A deposit Return Scheme for single use drinks containers
• Charges for single use plastics
• Greater consistency in recycling collections in England
• Electronic waste tracking to monitor waste movements and tackle fly-tipping
• Tackle waste crime
• Power to introduce new resource efficiency information (labelling on the recyclability and durability of products)
• Regulate shipment of hazardous waste
• Ban or restrict export of waste to non-OECD countries

CLEAN AIR

• Require Local Authorities to tackle air quality
• Simplify enforcement within smoke control areas

NATURE

• Strengthened biodiversity duty
• Biodiversity net gain to ensure developments deliver at least 10% increase in biodiversity
• Local Nature Recovery Strategies to support a Nature Recovery Network
• Duty upon Local Authorities to consult on street tree felling
• Strengthen woodland protection enforcement measures
• Conservation Covenants
• Protected Site Strategies and Species Conservation Strategies to support the design and delivery of strategic approaches to deliver better outcomes for nature
• Prohibit larger UK businesses from using commodities associated with wide-scale deforestation
• Requires regulated businesses to establish a system of due diligence for each regulated commodity used in their supply chain, requires regulated businesses to report on their due diligence, introduces a due diligence enforcement system

WATER

• Effective collaboration between water companies through statutory water management plans
• Drainage and sewerage management planning a statutory duty
• Minimise damage water abstraction may cause on environment
• Modernise the process for modifying water and sewerage company licence conditions