Nature and Climate

Co-Chair: Andrew Allen, Woodland Trust

Co-Chair: Matt Williams, NRDC

Co-Chair: Mel Coath, RSPB

Vice-Chair: Bethany Chamberlain, RSPB

Vice-Chair: Ruairi Brogan, RSPB

Link: Daisy Agidi, Policy Officer

Update from the Group:

The Nature and Climate Policy Group works to ensure nature, land use and food systems are embedded as core delivery mechanisms for the UK's climate response — rather than treated as residual offsets or add-ons. The group's key policy asks are that nature-based removals and nature-sensitive mitigation are treated as primary components of the UK's carbon budgets and Net Zero pathways, that nature-based solutions become the default approach to climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction, and that UK bioenergy, biomass and BECCS policy is governed within clear, ecologically safe limits.

The group is working with partners across the climate and nature sectors to explore three practical areas:

Shaping the evidence base that informs the Climate Change Committee's (CCC) statutory carbon budget advice, so that nature-based removals and land-use accountability are given equal legal and political weight alongside other sectoral targets


Reforming the National Adaptation Programme (NAP) so that nature-based and community-led adaptation is a funded, accountable delivery pillar — rather than an under-resourced afterthought — including ring-fenced investment for nature-based solutions within flood and resilience budgets


Pressing for ecologically safe governance of biomass and BECCS, so that subsidy, planning and Net Zero policy exclude destructive feedstocks and avoid over-reliance on speculative, large-scale carbon removal pathways


In February 2026, the group responded to the DESNZ-led Common Biomass Sustainability Framework consultation, arguing for strict criteria excluding whole trees, monoculture plantations and feedstocks derived from high-carbon or biodiverse land, and pressing for binding eligibility rules tied to subsidies, Contracts for Difference and planning consent.

In July 2026, the group published its response to the CCC's adaptation report, Nature is the beating heart of adapting to climate change, setting out the case for nature-based adaptation as a core national resilience strategy rather than a supplementary measure.

Also in July 2026, alongside the Government's Climate and Nature Moment, the group issued a parliamentary briefing outlining the impacts of climate change on nature, the critical role nature plays in helping the UK meet its climate targets, the risks that nature loss poses to the UK's climate and national resilience, and the policy actions needed in response. The briefing calls on the Government to fully integrate nature recovery into climate action, including through statutory land-use emissions targets, a reformed National Adaptation Programme, and constrained, high-integrity limits on BECCS deployment.

For further information, contact Daisy Agidi, Policy Officer at Link.

Last updated: July 2026