The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) is warning that if the economic recovery from Covid-19 is not used as an opportunity to 'grow back better', climate change and biodiversity collapse may deliver an even greater crisis – and calling on the Government to prioritise climate and nature investment .

The warning, together with a raft of recommendations, comes in the EAC’s newly-published report Growing back better: putting nature and net zero at the heart of the economic recovery.

The Committee is warning that the consequences of another widespread outbreak of a zoonotic disease of similar lethality would be catastrophic and that “Covid-19 must therefore be treated as a wake-up call.”

It also warns that if measures to promote economic recovery are not treated as an opportunity to ‘grow back better’, then the global collapse in biodiversity, together with the impacts of pollution and climate change, “may, if left unchecked, result in an even more catastrophic crisis.”

The report calls for the Government to front-load its investment in areas such energy efficiency, the circular economy, climate adaptation and nature recovery, to counter rising unemployment by creating green jobs

Nature recovery must be integral to the Government’s infrastructure plans and the nature recovery network that the Government has promised must not be “an afterthought established after other infrastructure is built,” the report says.

The EAC is warning that levels of unemployment not seen in decades are now in prospect, on a scale which “inevitably demands Government intervention.”

According to the EAC, investment in nature recovery projects could protect UK wildlife and could create thousands of job opportunities, while improving flood resilience and locking more carbon in trees and soils.

The Committee is calling for the idea of a National Nature Service to be piloted – in partnership with conservation charities – to test its feasibility and open up conservation opportunities.

The EAC says the Government should establish clear and ambitious statutory targets for the state of nature, waste minimisation, water quality and air quality under the Environment Bill once enacted.

Green Finance - Bank of England’s monetary policy remit should include climate and nature objectives

The EAC has welcomed the creation of a National Infrastructure Bank, saying:

“ We trust that the Government has learned from the experience of selling off the previous Green Investment Bank.”

The report calls for the Government to give an unequivocal guarantee, supported in statute if necessary, that the Bank will be maintained as a public institution for the long term. In addition to a mandate to contribute to the delivery of net zero, the EAC also wants the Bank be given a mandate to encourage the financing of projects which promote nature recovery.

On Green Finance, the report says the Bank of England’s monetary policy remit should include climate and nature objectives, including when considering any extension of the Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) or future such mechanisms.

Any future support offered via the CCFF should require recipients to publish climate-related financial disclosures in line with the Government's Green Finance Strategy as a minimum condition.

The EAC wants the Bank of England to write to each CCFF loan recipient to alert them that the Government's Green Finance Strategy expects all listed companies and large asset owners to publish climate-related disclosures not later than 2022. The Strategy should also be updated to add an explicit objective to reduce the carbon intensity of the UK corporate sector and financial markets, such as the London Stock Exchange, the report says.

The Government should also examine how best to use the mechanism of mandatory climate-related financial disclosures to encourage listed companies to draw up transition plans aligned with the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

The cross-party Committee has also suggested that as the UK recovers from the immediate crisis, a shift towards green taxation could help direct investment into job-rich low carbon activity, shift behaviour and increase resource and energy efficiency.

Essential that all decisions on infrastructure investment are considered against net zero target

Pointing out that infrastructure invested in now will be in use for decades to come, the EAC says:

“ It is essential that all decisions on infrastructure investment are considered against the net zero target, likely impacts on biodiversity and future projections of the changes in climate likely to affect the UK, and comply with the UK’s air quality, biodiversity protections and climate change commitments….Nature recovery must be integral to the Government’s infrastructure plans and factored in from the start as a strategic priority.”

Launching the report, Environmental Audit Committee Chairman, Rt Hon Philip Dunne MP, commented:

"The Covid-19 crisis must be treated as a wake-up call. It is a symptom of a growing ecological emergency. The economic recovery will shape our national economy for decades to come, and it is crucial that tackling climate change and restoring nature is at its core….

..a greener future hinges on the health of biodiversity and ecosystems. The economic recovery must not overlook nature recovery. Planning and infrastructure decisions must take into account the impact of nature, and piloting a new National Nature Service can protect wildlife while offering employment opportunities.

There will be no vaccine against runaway climate change, and it is our responsibility now, using the opportunity of the economic recovery, to set the UK on track for net-zero."

The report also flags up the EAC’s intention to hold an inquiry into the sustainability of the built environment, saying:

“The manufacture of construction materials is a sector with the potential to make a significant contribution to the path to net zero. We plan to examine this sector in greater detail in a forthcoming inquiry into the sustainability of the built environment.”

Click here to download full report Growing back better: putting nature and net zero at the heart of the economic recovery