Failure
to protect wildlife, cut pollution and increase funding have left nature in
‘deep crisis’
Fri 22
Mar 2019 11.14 GMTLast modified on Fri 22 Mar
2019 16.51 GMT
The UK
will miss almost all the 2020 nature targets it signed up to a decade ago,
according to a report by
the government’s official advisers.
The
nation is failing to protect threatened species; end the degradation of land;
reduce agricultural pollution; and increase funding for green schemes, the
assessment concludes. It also says the UK is not ending unsustainable fishing;
stopping the arrival of invasive alien species; nor raising public awareness of
the importance of biodiversity.
The
targets were set in 2010 by the global Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
and the report from the joint nature conservation committee (JNCC) found
insufficient progress was being made on 14 of the 19 targets.
The news
came on the day Britain formally launched its bid to host the UN climate change
conference in 2020, seeking to prove its green credentials are not tarnished
and to show the disarray that has been caused by Brexit does not mean the UK
has forfeited its right to be a major international player.
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