November 2024
Last week was a concerning one for many people who care about the environment and global efforts to restore it. Here in the UK however, there has been a smidgen of good news, which is worth delving into, especially for all those feeling gloomy.
The Crown Estate Bill has been making its way through the Lords this autumn as part of the Government’s efforts to double onshore wind, triple solar power, and quadruple offshore wind by 2030. The Crown Estate is major landowner and manages 50% of the foreshore and significant amounts of the seabed in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Government is keen to bring these considerable holdings to bear behind its renewable energy efforts and in July announced a partnership between the new GB Energy and the Estate to deliver 20-30GW of new offshore wind developments by 2030. The Treasury introduced the Crown Estate Bill at the same time, to give the Estate new borrowing and investment powers to equip it for its bolstered renewable energy delivery role.
This excellent initiative for the environment has however been slightly limited by a key omission from the Bill – any mention of nature. Just as the causes of the climate and ecological crisis are intertwined, so too are the solutions to it. Natural habitats, when restored to full health, can both lock up carbon and improve resilience against more extreme weather, providing crucial climate mitigation and adaptation services. Incorporating habitat restoration fully into climate plans will significantly shorten the path to net zero. In its new environmental policy delivery role, and with its huge land and sea holdings, the Crown Estate can and should be taking every opportunity to boost habitat restoration. The Bill provides a timely vehicle to give the Crown Estate this steer, to build nature into its environmental operations just as they scale up significantly.
Link, supported by a range of nature organisations, made this suggestion to Government but mention of nature failed to make it into the initial text of the Bill, when it was introduced into the House of Lords in July. The cross-party group in the House of Lords which works to improve legislation for climate and nature, Peers for the Planet, agreed with Link’s analysis and began work to try and amend the Bill.
An amendment to give the Commissioners who control the Crown Estate a duty to contribute to the achievement of nature recovery targets set under Environment Act (as well as to key Climate Change Act targets) was tabled at committee stage by Baroness Hayman and again at report stage by Baroness Young of Old Scone. Supported by Peers for the Planet and briefings from Link, peers from a range of parties and from the crossbench group made the case for the Government to give the Crown Estate a legal environmental duty. Such a duty is currently entirely missing from the Estate’s existing governance purposes, last set in 1961 and wholly focused on maximising revenues.
A central Government argument was that the Crown Estate already did good things for nature on its own accord and that this meant that legal duty was unnecessary. In response, peers highlighted that the Estate’s nature commitments, welcome as they are, are all voluntary and could change or be easily overlooked in operational decision making. Peers also pointed to cases where Crown Estate decision making, despite their voluntary commitments, had actually harmed nature.
To their credit, Ministers leading the Bill listened. At Lords report stage on Tuesday 5th November the Treasury accepted a compromise amendment, tabled by Baroness Hayman, which amends the 1961 governance purposes to require Crown Estate Commissioners to ‘keep under review the impact of their activities on the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom’. Speaking from the despatch box, Bill Minister Lord Livermore added that the public framework document for the Crown Estate would state that Commissioner’s new review duty explicitly includes consideration of the Crown Estate’s contributions to the achievement of Environment Act and Climate Change Act targets. Reports on implementation of the new review duty are to be published annually.
Like all compromises, the winning amendment is not perfect, and as with all environmental duties, a lot will depend on how thoroughly it is implemented. It is however progress.
As a result of the amendment to the Crown Estate Bill, the body tasked with driving forward renewable energy deployment at sea will, for the first time, have a legal duty to consider how this work can also contribute towards wider environmental goals, include the achievement of nature recovery targets set under the Environment Act. An imperative to realise the co-benefits of renewable energy deployment and habitat restoration, from the careful siting of projects away from sensitive areas to the provision of additional space for nature associated with projects, will be baked into a part of the Government’s clean power drive.
Work continues to apply this joint climate and nature approach to other parts of the push for clean power; efforts to amend the Great British Energy Bill to place a nature recovery duty on the new GB Energy are ongoing. Lord Krebs is also taking the Environment Targets (Public Authorities) Bill through the Lords, a Private Members’ Bill which would apply nature recovery and climate duties to a wide range of public bodies, aligning more organisations behind environmental recovery efforts. Work is also ongoing to persuade the Government to accept amendments to the Water (Special Measures) Bill to place a nature recovery and climate duty on Ofwat, the water regulator.
By accepting these proposals, just as the Treasury accepted the Crown Estate change, Ministers can better realise the potential of nature recovery to contribute towards the Government’s environmental objectives.
The twin-track road to reducing carbon emissions and recovering nature remains daunting. However small, the inclusion of nature in renewable energy deployment through the amendment to the Crown Estate Bill is a step in the right direction.
Link offers huge thanks to everyone who supported Crown Estate Bill efforts, including Link members, Peers for the Planet staff and all the peers who tabled and spoke for nature measures at Lords stages, including:
Baroness Hayman
Baroness Young of Old Scone
Lord Teverson
Lord Young of Cookham
Earl Russell
Baroness Kramer
Lord Holmes of Richmond
Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick
Lord Livermore (Bill Minister)
Matt Browne is Director of Policy & Advocacy at Wildlife and Countryside Link
The opinions expressed in this blog are the authors' and not necessarily those of the wider Link membership.
Latest Blog Posts