On 19 August the UK Government announced that it is setting out legally binding targets in the Environmental Bill 2020 to help the country ‘build back greener’. This Bill had been shelved due to COVID-19 and will be reintroduced once Parliament resumes after summer recess. The targets are being set in four priority areas: air quality; water; resource efficiency and waste reduction; and biodiversity. These targets will be time-bound and numerical; there will be at least one long-term target per priority area. The Office for Environmental Protection will report on this progress annually throughout the five-year trajectory of the plan.

Environment Secretary George Eustice said he hoped that “these targets will provide some much-needed certainty to businesses and society, as we work together to build back better and greener.” It builds on the UK’s 2019 commitment to become a ‘net zero’ emitter by 2050.

A public consultation on the targets, expected in early 2022, will allow businesses, communities and civil society to express their views.