Why is the UK taking part in a global ‘orgy of destruction’?

It is time for Britain to end our gross hypocrisy on climate and nature, writes Donnachadh McCarthy

(AFP via Getty Images)

As the Cop15 UN summit on biodiversity meets in Montreal, a former senior analyst at the UK’s Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spoke to this column. In a blistering indictment of the UK government’s hypocrisy on protecting nature, she revealed that she quit Defra, as she was unable to do anything impactful in her role, due to active blockading by ministers.

Laura Thomas Walters told us: “There are plenty of knowledgeable experts at Defra, who know what needs to be done to restore UK wildlife, but there is simply a blockade by people at the top.”

She claimed ministers would step in and actively block projects that would actually make a difference. She quoted the example of red meat. She explained that the single most effective step we can take to stop destroying nature is to significantly cut meat consumption. This is due to the huge amount of land taken from nature to feed and graze livestock.

A staggering 96 per cent of mammals on the planet are now either humans or the livestock raised to feed us. And two-thirds of that 96 per cent is livestock. Only 2 per cent are now the remaining wild mammals. But she said that “ministers made absolutely clear that we could not touch this issue”.

The scale of our destruction of nature both in the UK and globally is staggering. Half the world’s rainforests have been bulldozed, whether for cattle ranches, soya livestock feed or rubber for the global car fleet. Up to 80 per cent of insect population mass has been lost to pesticide poisoning and habitat destruction. Since 1970, nearly 70 per cent of existing total global populations of most wildlife species have been destroyed by humans.

The UN secretary general, in his opening remarks at Cop15, stated that as we speed towards 10 billion humans: “We are at war with nature. Yet nature is what sustains everything on earth.” He railed against our “orgy of destruction” against the other eight million species we are supposed to share the earth with.

The UK is among the world’s most nature depleted nations, having wiped out almost all our native mesofauna, predators and mammals. UK seas have lost up to 95 per cent of our original teeming fish populations.

The RSPB reported in 2020 that the UK was failing to fulfil as many as 17 of the 20 Aichi commitments that we signed up to, at the last target-setting Biodiversity Convention in 2010, with six of them going backwards. The Joint Nature Conservation Committee is the public body that advises the UK government on nature conservation. In 2019, they reported that:

• There is an overall picture of ongoing species decline.
• Condition of a significant proportion of the best wildlife habitats, inside and outside protected sites, remains unfavourable.
• Invasive species continue to increase.

Government funding for biodiversity protection has been cut by 40 per cent since we signed up to those 2010 Aichi promises.

Defra told this column that  the government’s annual budget for biodiversity was £0.5bn. This equates to a miniscule 0.023 per cent of UK GDP. In comparison, the budget for new roads alone is £27bn and we just spent an estimated £6bn bailing out the energy company Bulb.

Defra added that the annual budget for all our national parks is a miniscule £0.045bn. No wonder many are barren biodiversity deserts, laid waste by industrial sheep and conifers, when they should be the jewels in our biodiversity crown.

We told Defra that an expert claimed there was a total disconnect between public policy commitments, and implementation and funding.

Defra replied, stating: “The 2030 species abundance target will benefit species and drive wider environmental improvements. This will support species recovery and improve habitats, within protected sites and the wider countryside. Our 25 Year Environment Plan aims to restore 75 per cent of terrestrial and freshwater protected sites to a favourable condition by 2042.”

And so the UK poses yet again on the global stage as an “international leader”. This time, advocating urgent action on biodiversity, while our government is failing to take the necessary steps at home.

This painfully echoes with the UK advocating that poorer countries should “power past coal” at the Glasgow climate summit and then as soon as the Egyptian summit was over, gave the go ahead for the first UK coal mine in 30 years.

Having resigned in disgust at ministerial vetoes on action, Laura joined in peaceful direct actions organised by Extinction Rebellion scientists at Defra’s HQ in the run up to Cop15. She say: “We all need to be outside demanding change. We don’t have time left to try working within the system. Biodiversity loss is as big a threat as climate breakdown. We are racing into an environmental catastrophe, and the ministers are the ones cutting the brakes. I left government so I could speak up, to demand the change we need.“

The governmental changes required include:

1. Investing in the finances, staffing and regulations required to reverse biodiversity loss.

2. Stop subsidising livestock production.

3. Radically reduce pesticide usage.

4. Ministers to support rather than veto the actions required by staff.

It is good that UK ministers are pushing for greater action at Cop15, but when they return, they must implement our commitments, rather than blocking them. It is time for Britain to end our gross hypocrisy on climate and nature. It is time for us to listen to Laura and the scientists protesting outside Defra HQ. It is time practice at home, what we preach on the world stage.